underwhelmed at el meson for valentines day...El Meson

the picture above is of El Meson's salmon stack. My sister swears by this meal and i finally decided to take betty to this place for valentines day. We were already going to be in Dayton for my niece's 1st birthday and I suppose i had rather high expectations for this restaurant that specializes in Central American cuisine.

My thoughts:

1) the place was packed and definitely popular.

2) the place seemed charming initially until the subpar service made me take a closer look at the rather cheap attempts to create some exotic, tropical motif. the dimly lit place could have used some candles at the table.

3) i ordered a tequila cocktail that was supposed to have tequila and some type of caperberry juice added to it. they were out of caperberry and the drink had already been poured so I elected to drink it...but essentially my warm up cocktail was straight tequila. - the right move would have been to alert me that they were out of caperberries before the delay in getting and pouring the drinks so i could elect to get something else.

4) we probably made a mistake ordering the shrimp appetizer with guacamole because it ended up having similar plating and ingredients as the salmon stack.

5) on to the salmon stack. it's presentation was impressive and it tasted pretty good. the plantains at the top were wonderful but as you made your way to the bottom the potatoes aka Patatas Alioli aka potato salad with mayo and garlic -- took over the taste . we were instructed to demolish the stack and mix everything together...and it tasted good...but $28 good? perhaps we were tainted by the service...but it taste more like a $15 salmon stack. after some discussion with my sister -- it was suggested that I like my food spicy...but that wasn't my complaint i just like my food tasty...betty suggested that if the stack was smaller than the flavors would have mixed better and we would have had more plantains in each of our bites.

6) the waitress was supposed to bring us an extra plate that she forgot to do.

7) our second round of drinks did not come back until we were finished with our food.

8) What is the point in having a card that is supposed to assist with service if the waiting staff does not pay any attention to it? There was a card at our table that was suppose to assist in your service -- you were instructed to place the card at the end of the table if you needed service. Betty did so twice to no avail.

9) when all is said and done. i'd try it 1 more time and see if having more moderate expectations changes my review.