Hotel Nacional - Bar in Melbourne Victoria

Great atmosphere and delicious Mexican food, all completely gluten-free, which is fantastic. The service was good, but it felt quite rushed - we finished our appetizers and main courses in just 35 minutes. Perfect if you're short on time!

Fully gluten free menu, which is a great start. Couple that with frozen margaritas, spicy margs and fresh share - style plates, you've got a good thing going.
However, the kingfish ceviche for $27 was a very small portion and $13 for one prawn tostada also didn't feel like very good value.
Layout, seating, rooftop and staff were all gorgeous but pricing didn't feel like good value.

Enjoyed a delicious dinner here tonight. The good was tasty, reasonably priced and beautifully presented. The short and sweet cocktail was divine! The two of us ordered 3 small vege plates to share and one dessert to share. Didn't get a photo of dessert because we gobbled it down. Everything was perfect!
The staff were wonderful and attentive. Will definitely be back!

ORDERED:
???' Guacamole, coriander, pico de gallo, corn chips ($16.00)
🐟 Kingfish, ceviche, jalapeno, tomatillo, shallot, platain crisp ($27.00)

🌮 Baja rockling, fennel slaw, chipotle aioli (1 per serve) ($9.00)
🌮 Birria braised beef, grilled cheese, pickled onion, consomme (2 per serve) ($18.00)

🥩 Slow cooked barbacoa lamb, sweet potato, Mexican bbq sauce, green olive, onion ($40.00)
🥬 Mixed lettuce, queso, vegan fetta, corn chips (v) ($12.00)
🍟 Mexican fries, tajin, salt(v) ($12.00)

~$51.67pp

REVIEW:
🌾 I appreciated that all the food in Hotel Nacional was gluten free. This was perfect for our 3 year old gluten-free toddler who got his hands into and wanted to try everything.

❤ The baja rockling was the table favourite! ❤
Big crunchy fish, bright crispy salad, eye catching sauce and tanginess from the lemon - it was delicious. We could've done 2 each of these!
Overall, the food was decent. It's hard to go wrong with guacamole, ceviche and good fish tacos.

❌ In saying that, my least favourite was the lamb. One portion of this serves ~4 people and was incredibly gamey. I didn't enjoy this as much, because it felt like just a really big thick slab of lamb.

🤼 In terms of the service, it was great at the start.
Friendly brunette waitress and really accommodating to the toddler at our table (e.g. fries without tajin because it could be too spicy).
Until we finished our tacos we almost had our plates packed away... luckily they checked with us first to see if we had any dishes remaining?
Yes. The lamb, lettuce and fries. It took forever to come out and I almost cancelled our order so we could move elsewhere.
I didn't have any issues with the noise level (downstairs, table of 6 adults).

➡ All in all, interior is gorgeous, service was friendly and the location is accessible from Melbourne Central.
However, there's definitely some areas of improvement in the timeliness of food.

We were very excited to have dinner here but it was so disappointing.
The venue was really nice.

The food certainly looked the part, but many of them were served luke warm at best, and all the vegetable dishes were overcooked (mushy veg, blergh) and under seasoned so it was like eating cold bland mushy veggies. Not pleasant.
The dessert was OK, but portion size was small for the cost, and wasn't by any means memorable.

The drinks were OK.

The service was polite enough but we also felt like they wanted us out of there very quickly despite the restaurant not being full at all. They just kept interrupting - much more than was necessary. Not in any way rude or aggressive, just quite a lot and for no apparent reason... As in, we were not done eating, and they didn't come to clear plates or fill drinks... Just came by to ask how we were enjoying the food, many many times.

Good thing was, empty plates and glasses were cleared very quickly.

Would I return? Probably not. It wasn't terrible, it was perfectly OK. But it also wasn't memorable and there are plenty of other places serving amazing food and great service for a better price.