First the good: this is a really excellent location. It is a beautiful and cozy but not cave-like underground location, lots of wood with cast iron accents. Really nice, and I wish more Pittsburgh venues were visually impressive like this.
Our service was friendly and reasonably attentive, though there were only 3 tables seated at the time we ate, around 6pm on a Sunday.
Now the rest:
I love Mexican food, from the authentic (as in, I ate it in Mexico) to the street food scene (LA taco carts, Reyna's taco cart, the place on Atwood in Oakland), to the homestyle mexican restaurants (like El Campesino)
I also especially liked Reyna's drinks - lime agua fresca and horchata.
So I was very hopeful that Reyna's really good taco cart beginnings would translate into an even better restaurant experience.
Boy were we disappointed.
First off, they never offered any complimentary chips and salsa, even after we ordered entrees... so if they do then I missed out.
My daughter, who loves the lengua served at the local taco carts (Reyna's included) ordered the two lengua tacos. They would not mix it up (meaning one fish, one lengua), you had to pick only one.
I ordered the dish with four moles, because I really like any mole i've ever had.
Her tacos were quite good, though she liked the Oakland taco cart ones better. I think the reason why is that they were under-seasoned.
My moles were especially disappointing. One (with chicken) - i think mole ranchero - was too sweet, and not richly flavored, didn't like it at all (and that's my favorite!). Two others were good but not great.. the best was the green with pork, though the pork was chewy. And the one with I think ancho and poblano was deeply earthy but not enjoyable, though the meat in it was tender and good.
Not a bit of cilantro or lime with my food. Both my rice (white) and hers (red) were bland.
Our appetizer of the roasted corn and cheese (Esquites?) was also very bland. The chips needed salt as did the corn stuff... very very wet, as if there was a lot of cream in it... it was not at all what I hoped for, but I don't have other experiences with that to compare.
Finally, the horchata was unusually creamy and more gritty than usual (for Reynas). My lime agua fresca tasted like sugar water with barely a hint of lime. When I told the waiter, he came back with a pitcher of intensely strong lime stuff with barely any sweetness at all, very sour. I just added a bunch of water and sugar to make it better.
So all that for $40... meh, we won't be back, unless we hear excellent news sometime in the future.