iguana mexican grill

the citrus habanero rocked!!!


-----11 may, 2011-----

my husband, our 2 chihuahuas(tank&tini) and myself ate here today. we are texans doing biz in midtown ok city. found this place and picked it because they had patio dining. we always ask first if our "kids" are welcome on the patio, not only did they say ok, they asked if they would like a bowl of water. our server was phenom. suggested some dishes which were fantastico! quick service, very accomodating staff! loved loved loved the whole vibe. decor, location, coolness, food choices, food quality all stupendous! please try the citrus habanero salsa, queso and definitely save room for the dark chocolate chimichunga!!! omg! we have to gobackfri and will be eating lunch there again! ole!

i have tried for years, every few years i gobackbecause it’s a fun atmosphere. never again. the service is the problem, the food is bleh, but the service is the real issue. when i went a few years ago, i ordered an enchilada and when they brought it out i asked for silverware. the waitress looked at me blankly and said, “we’re out”. i was appalled. i asked, “how am i going to eat this?” she just said i could use the chips as a fork. i vowed never to gobackagain.
present day: pregnancy cravings hit one night and i wanted good queso and a nice atmosphere. so i figured we would go and give it another try. the queso was lukewarm and a gelatin consistency, the tamales were just fine and again the service was horrible. the manager kept walking by and i wanted to stop him, but he was obviously intoxicated.
how is this place so busy?!

the waitress happened to be the tall brunette. we waited 10 minutes for our drinks and for her to take our order. when the food came the cook from the kitchen served us and tossed my side of potatoes on the table with half of them falling out of the dish onto the table. the waitress did not check on us once while we were eating even though she passed the table multiple times. when we were done we stacked up our plates and she finally came to check on us and we asked for a to go box and to go drink. i also ordered the apple empanada dessert. while we were waiting for the dessert our waitress took the money for the bill and she shortly camebackto us and asked if we knew how much we put for the ticket and we said yes our ticket was 34 dollars and some change and we put 36 even. the waitress was so disgusted that she did not get a good tip and that is because she didn't deserve one that was the worst service i have ever had and it was totally inappropriate for her to comebackand ask if we put the right amount so she could get a tip. i put enough for the bill that's what matters. i decided to leave without getting my dessert that i paid for and on my way out i asked one of the male waiters to get the manager so i can tell him about the unprofessional waitress. the waiter went to the kitchen and never got the manager so we left after waiting 5 minutes and i will never return to this restaurant. the service was horrible and the food was cold and also not to mention the mess in the women's restroom that was brought out right in front of the table and was taken to the kitchen that was gross. this is without a doubt the most unprofessional restaurant i have dined at.

went here for lunch - big mistake - the lot was full and there were about twenty to thirty folks in line waiting their turn to get in ... so i went elsewhere.

camebackfor dinner at 2100 ... hillbilly's next door was doing live entertainment ... almost ended up there but i wanted mexican and so iguana won.

surprise no line and the place was almost empty - yes!

salsa was chunky with tomatoes - pretty much mostly tomatoes. nice flavor but little spice. they got the salt right so it was satisfyingly tasty.

ordered the guacamole fresco appetizer. it was pretty good and a bit spicy warm - nice.

ordered the dueling rellenos. deep fried anaheim peppers stuffed with different fillings. really nice presentation with a guacamole drizzle and chipolte sauce drizzle. extremely tasty. it came with two sides and i ordered a third.

the fire grilled vegetables turned out to be pretty much grilled peppers of every sort, color, and flavor along with some onions. really, really good. the varying flavors and heat levels of the individual peppers was interesting.

the citrus white beans lacked something - salt in particular. it came out amazingly bland and tasteless. adding a bit of salt brought out the pleasing cilantro that the chef had incorporated. a touch of black pepper increased the depth of flavor. perhaps someone failed to check the seasoning this evening? it happens.

the roasted red pepper rice was just ok, not exactly noteworthy. if anything it was just a touch greasy like spanish rice can sometimes be. it had plenty of salt btw.

the star of the meal - the grilled peppers (...er 'vegetables'). running a pretty close second were the rellenos.

lunch was so good iguana gobackfor more!
this was my first visit to iguana grill and i was in a hurry so i had the lunch special chicken enchilada with cumin beans and roasted veggies. the complimentary chips & salsa were excellent. the salsa is mild, but it's fairly bursting with fresh tomato flavor and they give you a very generous portion. the enchilada was very good as well. they didn't go crazy with sauces and cheese--everything was just right. the atmosphere was contemporary mexican accents, but not tacky. service was friendly and efficient. i hope to gobackfor dinner soon.

let me preface by saying, despite the terrible service, the soul reason i'd return to this super hip spot is for their salsa. great salsa. incredibly fresh, chunky-tomato wonderfulness. that being said, servers, you're not that cool. i promise. tattoos or not. the servers i've had should really try to dialbackthe pretentiousness. i know the mexican restaurant you work as a waiter at is next door to the womb room, but you still work at a mexican restaurant nonetheless. for tips. remember? asshole-ness seems to be a server prerequisite at this place. for that reason i'll dodge this place (and their delicious salsa) for as long as i can. i'll make that sacrifice, just on principle. let me add that these bad experiences with the service was a consistent happening, finally leading me to write this review.

queso changed!. they changed their famous queso to a different recipe! i'm so sad about it. it tastes like slightly cheesy white gravy. bringbackthe old queso!

you call that salsa?. we waited for almost 45 minutes to be seated as we watched other groups of similar size come in and get seated right away. my father in law was in icu at ou medical center so we thought it would be nice to get away from the hospital for a few minutes. when we were finally seated they brought us some salsa(?) and chips. it was the first time i have ever had to make my own salsa in a mexican restaurant. when i asked about it, our server ( who did a pretty dang good job) informed us that they do not put peppers in the salsa because some people find it too spicy.. she was able to locate some fresh ingredients in the kitchen and voila! we had salsa!. the food was slow in arriving to our table and parts of our order were wrong... entire meals were messed up and had to be redone which took more time... we were hoping to enjoy some food and get away for a few minutes and instead we got mediocre food that took so long to get there we were anxious to getbackto the hospital. the manager was super apologetic but based on this experience we will not be going back....

iguana feels like a totally different restaurant lately. it used to be a really great local place to get awesome food that was made with high quality ingredients. everything has changed- prices are higher, quality is way, way lower. like taco bueno low.

the most disappointing thing is that iguana was the spark that ignited midtown okc. this was the restaurant that drew a lot of people to the area and started 9th st.

i won't ever comebackto iguana- the food isn't worth eating, especially at the prices they charge. if you are in the mood for mexican in midtown, go to 1492. hate to say it, but iguana just isn't the same

bad bad bad bad service. been here a few times but will not gobackever again. not sure what is up with this place. had such good reviews but the service is just bad. and i'm not saying that from one experience. there's been several. the last time was the last straw. went during happy hour and it was not that busy. no one ever came to the table and we tried to be reasonable but 20 minutes passed. we went to the front and said we were leaving. 3 people standing at the front and one says, that's awful. i stood there a second thinking they might get a manager or give me a coupon or something but no, nothing.

wow somethings happened. what happened to the old iguana? we ate there for lunch last thursday. i had the spinach and mushroom burrito. it was not good. the spinach leaves were nasty. also, i had the veggies as a side and i almost could not eat them-- they were not done. had a bloody mary and it was gross. i can usually drink anything with alcohol in it, but i had to send it back. i think that was the first drink i have ever sentbackin my life! the bloody mary's are not the same anymore. they need the old chef back. i guess he took all the receipts. too bad, because the food was amazing when he was there. the atmosphere is still good and the service was lacking. i can live with bad service if the food is good, but it was far from it! my wife's chicken was so dry you had to drink water to swallow it. the food has been getting steadily worse for the last few months. i think our lunch last week has done it for us. until i hear of a marked change, we won't be back.

iguanas best server!!. my family have ate at iguana mexican gill several times, the last three times we ate there james h waited on us. he always treats us with so much respect and he is never in a fake or bad mood, he involves our children in the experiance and i can honestly say as a paying customer, i dont care if someone loves the food as much as my family does if your service isnt good you wont comebackbut i must say we will bebackfor sure especially since the last time we came in james waited on us and he introduced us to taco day on tuesday, before he told us about it we didnt know it existed. i will deff say that james h is the best server at iguana so ask for him next time you eat there! i also like the manager becky she is such a sweetheart. all arround great experiance its a must on everyones bucket list lol

big iguana fan. i have a business downtown so i've done many deals over lunch in the bar! katie is a blast and is always accommodating to me and my guests. last monday night i took 2 clients to my favorite bar (they had never been to iguana before) and the experience was not great. the service was sloooow even though business was slow too. bo, the bartender, was not friendly or attentive. one of my clients mentioned that he thought the bartender wished we'd sat somewhere else. this will not keep me from comingbackbecause i love iguana, but those customers probably won't. that's too bad.

waitress from hell. i enjoy iguana, the ambience, the food. i've had good wait staff, some ok, and then there is j.... c (the name on our ticket). she has waited on us twice. the first time i thought she was just having a bad day. food didn't all arrive as ordered and she was rude when we pointed it out. but we still left a tip. today she was rude and had a bad attitude from the beginning. we ordered guac and it never arrived. she noted toward the end of our meal that we hadn't gotten it and asked if we still wanted it. we said no. no apology from j. i ordered a salad and asked for dressing on the side. it arrived without any. she said she'd get it. she proceeded to wait on another table and help clear another and then when i asked about my dressing she said, in a dismissive rude way, that she was going to get it, but just hadn't beenbackto the kitchen yet. really? the rest of my party had eaten half their meal by the time i got my dressing. my husband insisted on tipping her 15%, which is the low end of what we usually tip. i, for maybe the second time in my life, wanted to leave nothing. next time we eat there if she is our waitress i'll either leave or ask for another section. j... c., please get some customer service training and a better attitude or just choose a profession where you deal with machines, not people.

amazing queso, good entrees. the standard salsa is okay, nothing to write home about, and closer to a pico de gallo with a salsa consistency. we ordered the queso (with ground beef in it) and our meal at the same time, and they arrived about the same time. our meals were good, but the queso was to die for. after we finished eating about half of our food, we went straightbackfor the cheese, finishing off our chips and leaving very satisfied.