I had a friend visiting from out of state and wanted to treat her to some great Cleveland restaurants so imagine my embarrassment and disappointment when we ended up spending FOUR hours at Momocho's mostly waiting for food and drinks. I realize that it was a Friday evening and this place is popular, but the five of us decided the over an hour wait for a table would still be worth it. We got our drinks right away from the bar, but our guac sampler took an hour to come out then it took another hour plus to get our entrees after we were finally at a table and able to order. The sky started out nice and sunny but by the time we got to eat it was completely dark and since we were seated on the patio we were being attacked by bugs. Everyone was cranky and lost their appetites so we ended up taking most of the food home.
The excuse the waiter had was that they only had two cooks in the kitchen. Um hello! If you know you're a busy establishment on the weekends then you should hire some more stinking help! Or at the very least offer some free salsa or drinks for the unacceptable wait your patrons put up with or don't seat more than you can appropriately accommodate! Were they flying the fish in from Hawaii?! Were they waiting on the avocados to ripen?!
Some restaurants are well worth the wait for a table because you know you will be well taken care of and enjoy an amazing meal during a reasonable time frame, Momocho's is not one of those places. Instead this place is better reserved for visits at 4pm during the week. I would avoid anything after 5:30pm and weekends altogether. I have never walked out of a restaurant before, but I most certainly wish I would have at Momocho's.
Furthermore, why can we not split a check for only five people? Why is 20% gratuity automatically taken out for five people? Usually this practice is reserved for large parties. If you had high quality business practices and excellent service there would be no worry for tips and no need to force gratuity.