Papagayo

Typical Mexican restaurant. Nothing special. Your jacket WILL smell like Mexican food for a week after your visit. We went for a friend’s birthday before seeing a movie at the AMC. Even though they were busy, we got a table fairly quickly. We brought our own cake, and the waiter was more than willing to allow us to store it in their refrigerator while we ate. We ordered chips with queso and guacamole before we realized that there were complimentary chips and salsa. What took so long to bring those over? Like another reviewer mentioned, I wish the fajitas were served ‘sizzling’ on a hot skillet for the sake of authenticity. Either way, the steak was delicious, though the meager portion of pico de gallo was not even enough for one tortilla. Our waiter was slow to refill waters, but I drink like a camel so he’s partially forgiven. The margaritas were strong! The men’s room was supposedly out of order and there was a huge line to use the single-​person handicapped bathroom. Some guys used the men’s room anyway: «didn’t notice anything wrong in there» someone said as they strutted on by me while I waited 15 minutes. The manager was nice. He asked us how our meal was and brought over mailing list forms. This location is very deal-​oriented. All about the deals actually. We all joined the mailing list for a free appetizer on our next visit after his suggestion. There’s also a Groupon available. This place is average, nothing special, but no reason not to go. Definitely take advantage of one of their promotions.

We had been to this location a couple of times shortly after they opened and it was quite good. This time for dinner not so much. I have a whole list and here it goes:
1.) The table we were brought to be seated at was still dirty with the previous diner’s dirty dishes.
2.) If your offer complimentary chips and salsa, that should be the first thing to hit the table.
3.) When one orders a $ 15.00 shot of Reposado and you ask for it to be neat in a snifter and it arrives in a shot glass. And again ask for a snifter but not have any and bring over a stemless martini glass on a bowl of ice and that martini glass has a huge chip on the rim. Not cool at all.
4.) The queso dip appetizer comes to the table so thin that it’s like dipping your chips in a bowl of soup. Shouldn’t happen.
5.) The soup that you order as part of your main meal is served barely warm. Flavorful though.
6.) The shrimp & tuna ceviche appetizer that you order as part of your main meal comes out so heavily laden with veggies with just a hint of seafood. It should be labeled as such.
7.) Fajitas should be served like any other Mexican restaurant, on a sizzling cast iron pan. Not on a platter.
The manager did come over to ask how things were and I did mention the queso being so thin. One would think that if a guest didn’t like something that they would taken it off the check.
Anyone want to but a Groupon at a discounted price ?
Oh, forgot to mention. The men’s room was out of order on a Saturday night !

My wife and try this place in sommerville massachusetts noticed the reviews were not so good put all the other places in the area were packed so we gave it a try. We’re very satisfied with the food is had steak fajitas they were very tender. Tell bar tender had the personality of a dead fish but no big deal. I would go back

I was really disappointed with the service here.
While we were immediately seated upon arrival, we had to wait a while before we were even asked what we wanted to drink. The first chance we got, we put in our drink orders, as well as our food orders (as we were nervous that it would take another 10 minutes for another opportunity to arise).
Now at this point, one would expect the starter chips and salsa to arrive; ours never did! If you know me at all (or have read any of my other reviews), you know how important this aspect of the Mexican restaurant experience is to me. I love chips and salsa. Let me make this clear, the restaurant itself does serve complimentary chips and salsa, our waiter just forgot to provide us with some.
Once our food came (in a pretty timely manner), we (thankfully) noticed that they had switched out the dishes. While I am a vegetarian, my girlfriend is not. Our dishes were very similar looking, as we both got enchiladas, but hers contained chicken. You could see how this could create a problematic situation if we had not noticed the switch before diving in.
That was, unfortunately, not the biggest issue we had with the food. My girlfriend’s meal contained a lot of cheese though she requested that they not put cheese on it. We ordered a small side of guacamole ($ 1.50), but it did not arrive until I was halfway done with my meal and my girlfriend was almost completely done with hers.
All of that being said, I actually enjoyed my meal. I got the vegetarian enchiladas ($ 9.95) and my girlfriend got the verde enchiladas ($ 9.95). Because she prefers black beans and I prefer refried beans and Mexican rice, we traded. The veggies in my enchiladas were a bit bigger than I would have liked in an enchilada, but overall the sauce and sides were very tasty.
While the food was well-​seasoned and appetizing and the actual restaurant has a very cool aesthetic, because of the service, I would honestly recommend going to another Mexican restaurant which will likely have equally delicious food but much better service.

Good food and nice atmosphere
The food didn’t take so long. The waiter was some help answering questions to accommodate our food restrictions.

It was bad from the start. Our greet time was ten minutes plus. My husband had to nudge the hostess in order for our table to get addressed. Long story short, we eventually ordered, then waited a very long time to receive our food, which was abysmal. The fajitas were a disgrace. The fish tacos were inedible. The smell from the kitchen at the end of the night makes me hope my fish tacos remain in my stomach. Don’t go here for food. You’ll be fiercely disappointed.

This is a great location with lovely décor. It’s huge (but with curiously small restrooms). We almost didn’t go when we read the other reviews, but decided to give it a shot because we were hungry and didn’t really want to drive elsewhere (there’s the benefit of a great location).
The service was friendly, but a bit slow. The chips were OK, but a bit too thick for my taste. Salsa was nice, as was the Papagayo Margarita. In fact, the margarita was the highlight of the meal.
My boyfriend and I both had enchiladas. He got the chicken. I went with beef. Both were bland. If the sauce had been invisible, I would never have known it was there, as it had no discernible taste. The beans and rice were good, though. Portions were adequate, but by no means overwhelming.
That being said, compared to the awful Mexican restaurants in Quincy, where we live, this was passable. I suppose it’s all about perspective.

Very nice date night restaurant. Brought a young woman here and the environment was nice. Very busy and full of people out on a Wednesday night. The restaurant has televisions that were playing the Celtics vs. Lakers but didn’t have that sports bar feel. We ordered drinks and dinner plates. The drinks came out promptly and were good, a little strong for a sangria and a mango martini but still good. The food arrived extremely fast, in under 10 minutes. Everything was great. The only drawback was that my date wanted empanadas and they were all out. Loss of one star for that. Other than that this restaurant was pretty awesome as awesome goes.

Decided to try out Papagayo for dinner despite the lackluster reviews. Surprisingly, my friend and I had every intention of checking out the new location that opened on Route 1 on Saugus, but decided to go to the Assembly square one instead since it was closer to downtown. This was my first time and I brought along a Groupon of which I paid $ 25 for $ 50 worth of food.
We arrived around 8pm and it was unsurprisingly packed for being a Saturday night. We were promptly seated and placed an order for our first round of drinks, the ronaritas. Basically it’s a coronita submersed into a partially filled margarita. As you finish your marg, the beer should spill out. So then it’s like you’re sipping beer through a straw. For $ 9, I wasn’t going to get a 2^nd round of that. Instead we decided to go with the traditional margaritas as the price seemed to be pretty cheap. When we saw the bill later, we realized that our server had put in for the Papagayo marg rather than the mamacita margs, which was a difference of about $ 1.75 each. Whatever, no biggie.
We were given a small bowl of chips and salsa when we were seated and decided to start off with the guacamole and ceviche. Apparently other locations make the guac tableside which means you can ask them to add little more lime or spice. It was a pretty good portion for the price and had noticeable chunks of avocado. My problem was that it was severely lacking in salt and lime. I asked the server for some salt and pepper, of which she brought out a large grinding mill and salt container. Quite confused, do y’all not supply shakers usually? That confident that your food satisfies all palates? Follow suit with all the other Mexican-​themed restaurants that turn the coronita bottles into the sal y pepe shakers… instant hit. Plus then I wouldn’t have to have the awkwardly large salt container you use in the kitchen at my table.
My next issue was with the ceviche. It came with 3 fried plantain chips and was heavily doused in a tomatoey, salsa base. All the ceviche I’ve experienced in the past have bright citrus flavors and very refreshing. It looked, and tasted, like it was seafood bathed in mango salsa. The tuna and shrimp are honestly lost in the soup. Plus the menu says prepared table side… lies. That led me to believe that this was probably just scooped out of a large container in the kitchen right onto the plate.
For our mains we ordered the fish and shrimp tacos. Shrimp tacos weren’t bad, I asked for some more limes to squeeze on them which gave them that extra oomph. They were fried and well seasoned. The fish tacos on the other hand, flat. We had to add extra salt, pepper, and guac to it to make it somewhat satisfying.
Our server was very friendly, attentive, and took our Groupon no problem. Of course alcohol wasn’t included in that deal and we tipped off the pre-​discounted price; nonetheless for the final amount we paid I honestly didn’t think it was worth it. Probably not gonna come back to this location, or any other Papagayos to be quite frank.

This was my first time eating at this location. I’m a big fan of the Seaport and Downtown locations, so I was excited to see a Papagayo in Assembly Row. I came here on a Saturday night with a friend and we were seated right away. Our server was friendly and attentive, and took our orders pretty quickly.
DRINKS: My friend and I had two rona-​ritas (margaritas with a Corona), one original margarita, and one pomegranate margarita ($ 1 extra for flavored drinks). The drinks were pretty solid, as expected.
FOOD: We ordered one order of fish tacos, shrimp tacos, spicy guacamole, and ceviche. Whenever I am craving fish tacos, I always think about Papagayo because I LOVE the fish tacos here, however… they were a little off yesterday. I couldn’t pinpoint it, but they were just meh. Shrimp tacos were alright too, nothing special. The ceviche comes with fried plantains, and was pretty tasty, but was a bit too salsa-​y. Another signature of Papagayo that I usually love is the guacamole cart they push to your table when you order it, so they make it fresh in front of you. I think that’s a unique Papagayo staple, however this location does not do that. The guacamole wasn’t that spicy and also was under-​seasoned. My friends definitely make better guacamole, so I was pretty underwhelmed with the whole dining experience.
Luckily, I came here on a Groupon ($ 25 for $ 50), but even then, I didn’t feel like it was a worthy ~$ 40 per person meal.

I was pretty pumped with this came to the area, because who isn’t pumped about Mexican food? Especially when you’re going to put empanadas on the menu? So exciting!
But no. I was disappointed, especially in the empanada department. I think they went a little too far and made them too flavorful. Empanadas are beautiful because they’re supposed to be simple. I’m not saying simple is not flavorful, but this was just too much.
The enchiladas and accompanying rice/​beans were kind of boring and not flavorful enough.
There are a ton of better Mexican places near here, especially if you head over to Broadway. I guess what you’re getting here at Papagayo though is a bigger place, so more seats/​less wait than a lot of those small, family owned ones. But being small and family owned is what makes most Mexican places great, so Papagayo just turned out to do nothing for me.

Papagayo is in a good location at assembly row. It is average Mexican food with decent service.
I had the fajitas and tacos. Both decent but not good enough to justify price.

I didn’t really have high expectations for this place, so I suppose that it didn’t disappoint. Came here after work with a couple co-​workers before catching a movie at the Assembly AMC.
We grabbed drinks and waited for some others before ordering our food. Had the red sangria and trailer park tacos – which were the least memorable things I’ve had in awhile so it’s hard to write this review. The crispy chicken on the tacos SOUNDS good but it wasn’t as appealing when I had it. Queso was overpowering for the tacos.
Service was slow as we were trying to get to a movie and they took 15 – 20 min to bring the check. Don’t think I’d be back on my own accord…

Went after work and sat at the bar. A big restaurant with a large bar and an open kitchen. I got the oysters en fuego. Oyster on half shell topped with spinach, cheese and chorizo. The flavors were well balanced. Next I got the shrimp tacos. Very good with poblano slaw and two sauces. A good meal at a fair price for the area.

I ended up coming here for a company lunch. They were every accommodating and especially being lunch I was surprised on how not busy it was. The wait staff was great, she was new and learning the ropes but they had someone else there to help for a group of 15 – 20. The food was delicious for a chain not bad on the Mexican food side. The guac they had was good with the chips to start with. Then my meal alone was really good, I chose the most authentic Mexican dish I can find to make sure it wasn’t anything funky that most places would add. The meat was really good well seasoned and perfectly cut for tacos. I would definitely come back for some more food.

It was crowded around 6:30PM on a Saturday, but we were seated quickly in one of the awesome tables by the window with a view of the water.
The starter salsa is nice and spicy. I ordered the Chicken Tacos ($ 9) and they came in approximately 3 minutes – unreal!
The chicken was tender and the refried beans on the side were tasty. The rice was fairly bland. Altogether it was a good bite and surprisingly filling. I took the second taco to go.
The wait was considerably longer to get the check (~20−30 minutes) as it got even busier, but our server was apologetic.
3.5÷5 for tasty, reasonably priced tacos.

Good food and great service at 12pm on a Saturday for lunch. The place was pretty dead which probably contributed to the service and overall excperience. I’d come back!

The good: our server. Rafael was super nice and was well informed about the food. When we said we were vegan, he immediately had suggestions for us. And he was very timely! It was great having him as a server. I wish I could give him 5 stars.
The bad: the selection of food for vegans. Usually you can eat refried beans in Maryland because most places do them with vegetable based oils. This place…100% pork in the beans. The vegetarian tacos were okay. And the rice was ok. It was just okay.
The ugly: the chips. Holy crap. The chips were not just greasy, but they were cold and greasy. Ewwwwwwwww. They were gross.
Overall: probably an ok experience if you eat meat. Veggies beware.

Wasn’t expecting much when I came here due to the very negative reviews. However, I thought the food and drink were really great! I like that they have their own twist on Mexican-​American classics like street tacos with pickled vegetables with cilantro (?) and chipotle aioli.
Also had a few rounds of the coconut margarita which had 1800 coconut tequila and an equally delicious sugared coconut-​flaked rim. Definitely one of the best «tropical» drinks I’ve ever had. What I like the most about their drinks in general is that they do not skimp on the booze, which allows you to truly appreciate tequila the way it is supposed to be.
The only downside was the fact that it is a really large space that can get fairly noisy at night, but that seems to be true at any restaurant in the Assembly Row area.
Great service, food, drinks, and a fun atmosphere! A great spot for a nice night out on the town.

My friends and I were meeting for a Mexican lunch at Papagayo at the new Assembly Row area in Somerville. I was surprised that the restaurant was not even up to half capacity during prime lunch time on a Saturday afternoon.
We were awkwardly seated in a corner with mismatched round and rectangle tables that didn’t flow properly despite there were lots of other tables they could have arranged for us.
We were asked for our drink order but there was only one drink menu for 8 of us to share and pass around? When we told her we didn’t get a chance to look at it yet, she went and got us a few more. We repeated our drinks orders a few times and she still managed to mess up one of the guy’s mango margarita. I went with the habanero watermelon margarita. It was really good but had a spicy kick to it. The specialty margaritas were pricey at $ 12.00 each, costing more than a taco plate entrée.
I love restaurants with freebies so I was delighted when our server brought over the complimentary chips and salsa. The fried tortillas were not hot or warm at all and the salsa was bland. (My favorite complimentary chip and salsa award goes to Border Café)
We ordered 2 orders of queso dip to share and that was pretty good. After few minutes went by, our server realized that she forgot to give us appetizer plates and went back to get them.
She came back for our lunch order and had difficulty hearing us. We kept having to repeat our order for her to understand what we wanted. The table got a variety of salads, tacos, steak and seafood.
My husband got the Chipotle BBQ chicken salad. I had a bite and the chicken was juicy and tender but I thought there was too much BBQ sauce and it was overwhelming in addition to the cilantro ranch dressing. It was like the BBQ was the actual salad dressing.
I’ve never had eggs in my tacos before but I think I will have to try it. My friend raved about the Omelette street tacos with scrambled eggs and chorizo topped with crunchy potato sticks,
The «Ostiones En Fuego» (literally translates to oysters on fire) looked intriguing. After all the cheese and crumbled chorizo, it was on the salty side but it was still good.
My favorite dish was the chili dusted calamari. It was lightly battered and perfectly seasoned with the chili powder.
At the end, the bill was split and the server had a hard time figuring it out. She couldn’t double up the amounts for couples and everyone had to throw in a credit card. She also added an extra decimal point and charged our friend’s credit card over $ 200.00 and defensive when he told her, «No I didn’t!» she exclaimed. I just don’t even fathom how the system allows her to do that if everyone else paid as well.
Being the « Unilocaler» that I am, I did read that this location does not perform as well as the other flagship locations within Boston. There’s definitely great potential and I think service needs to step up a notch if they want to success in the new prime area at Assembly Row.
I’d probably give it another try or maybe just stick to the Boston locations.