Serves meat, vegan options available. Offers some vegetarian main entrees (uses dairy) and will make a non-veg dish vegetarian upon request if possible. The beans, tortillas, plantain, and yuca are supposed to be lard-free. Open Mon-Thu 11:00am-9:00pm, Fri 11:00am-10:00pm, Sat 4:30pm-10:00pm.
Categories: Lacto, Beer/Wine, Take-out, Mexican, Latin American, Non-veg
3 Reviews
First Review by veglife00
Contributions +58
Terribly overpriced for not that good of food. - Edit
My non-vegan boyfriend and I like to eat. He's a chef, and I'm a total foodie. We agreed upon El Mason for a date the other night. He was totally pleased with his tortilla soup (very cool serving style with the meat and soup separate and you pour it over yourself) and he also got the grilled new york steak and started out with the classics from Spain. (He was very pleased with his meal.) His food seemed like they took time to plan the flavors, were I got the Meson Favorites Sampler and I am very unsatisfied with the 1.amount of food for $19 is not worth it 2. I would have been fine paying $19 for a mini plate if it were good, but everything left me hanging. The stew was compromised of watery veggies like squash. I'm the type of person that likes veggies like that to be left a bit crisp. There are plenty of other veggies to put into a stew that are great sort of mushy, but squash is not one of them. The plantains in the sampler were okay, but just again, nothing to them.
The thing that gets me more is that in the menu they talk about how the El Meson family goes and travels to discover more Latin American dishes and bring diversity to the menu, however like the other commenter said, NOTHING has changed in 20 years. So that tells me they are blatantly fibbing in their menu. This makes no sense to me. If you are gong to claim that, do it. If you want to highlight the same dishes for 20 years, then your claim to fame would be your loyalty to laziness.
Bottom line: This is a great restaurant for non-vegans or someone who only wants a liquid diet (the mojito is good), not good for for vegans. The pricing is absolutely ridiculous for the type of vegan food they presented.
Updated from previous review on Wednesday August 27, 2014
Pros: great for non-vegans, mojito
Cons: only option they have are boring, grossly overpriced, food was just not good
Contributions +1043
Tired - Edit
I have been coming here as a vegan/vegetarian for over 20 years. The veg options are the same today as they were 20 years ago. The veg dishes have always been good, but I have always thought that they should have more of a commitment to serving us vegans and vegetarians. It is very easy to make vegan versions of many of the traditional latin dishes. I have largely given them a pass on this, but I am now of the belief that there needs to be some pressure put on them to step it up a bit. There is absolutely no reason why they shouldn't have a separate vegan menu, with appetizers and entrees and not just some sides that are accidentally vegan and three entrees that are really just side dishes plated as entrees.
Contributions +60
Needs more vegetarian/vegan options - Edit
I really loved this restaurant when I first moved to Dayton but quickly grew tired of the three vegetarian entrees on the menu (a veggie stew over rice, fajitas, and beans and rice). The atmosphere is fantastic, though, and the drink menu excellent.
Pros: Good food., Great atmosphere., Friendly staff.
Cons: Not much variety for vegetarians.
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