El Camino Cantina — Restaurant in Sunshine Coast Regional

I actually don’t have enough words to describe how unbelievable our experience was. On arriving for “ Wing Wednesday “ which we do regularly as it is our sons favourite place, I am confronted by the new manager who in front of my children and husband and a queue of people said now let me be clear the last 3 times you’ve been in you’ve had a problem…I’m just making it clear you won’t have a problem tonight…I replied shocked after being humiliated and dressed down…I’m sorry I do not know what you are referring to but I’m shocked by what is happening right now…can you please clarify what you are referring to…to then be told the last 3 occasions we have “ created issues “ this is completely untrue. We have visited at least once a mth for 2yrs. We had one particular evening that just wasn’t good at all, our food didn’t arrive and had to follow up drinks that took 45mins the at the time very helpful previous manager was understanding apologised and gave us a voucher for our next visit, this was well over 6mths ago. We have visited numerous times since this with good experiences, or we wouldn’t have returned. On our last visit both my husband and I went to the bar to order a mixed meat combination fajita as I have had multiple times, when the food arrived only steak arrived, I called over a waitress and asked why only the steak and was told that’s what we had ordered, that was incorrect and was not what we had ordered at all, the food was bought out by a rude and difficult staff member who made us feel uncomfortable and like we were being a pain when we were just asking for the food we had ordered. If the amount was more we would happily have paid, ( we were never asked to pay any more ) I was not expecting any more or any less than simply what we had ordered. We were unaware the fajita had also changed on the menu from our last visit. The children’s drinks of coke were seethrough as the post mix clearly wasn’t right so we asked very politely to change them. We were previously disappointed to learn that there was a new rule in place that we are no longer able to take home our food we had paid for if we didn’t eat it all, whilst we do understand this rule our son has an eating disorder, he loves the wings but only eats a couple and likes to take them home. These are the only incidents that have ever occurred, we returned to the restaurant to again clarify as our son was in tears outside to be met with an unpleasant hostile and difficult staff member who further elaborated to use terms such as “ every time you come in there’s a problem “ “ we checked the orders at the end of the night and it was correct “ “ You had a conflict with our male manager it has been written up and recorded “ Again in disbelief my husband and I both confirmed we have absolutely never had a “ conflict “ with any male manager in fact have never had any dealings with a male manager at all and certainly never a “ conflict “ in response to the order was correct and you were wrong, the waitress put our order in incorrectly that was not ever what we had ordered so implying we were lying in order to deliberately cause issues! Unbelievable! Who in their right mind would get their family together for a meal out to deliberately cause issues?! I have never in my life experienced this level of appalling service, implying we had a black mark and had to behave or else?! I have read through the recent reviews as we are all very shocked and upset by this experience, the poor reviews speak for themselves! We definitely were not the first nor will we be the last, we will happily never return, will endeavour to share our appalling and shocking experience and use our hard earned money to enjoy great service and great food in anywhere other...

In preliminary summary; El Camino’s food is overpriced and in some cases an insult to Mexican cuisine but the atmosphere and bar experience is perhaps the best in the plaza.

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As this is a new restaurant, we weren’t surprised by the line out front to enter. Luckily we had booked beforehand so this wasn’t an issue. Upon entering we were greeted with booming 80s music, a bombardment of TV screens and warm lighting. The general atmosphere felt straight out of a Mexican wedding reception with the tent-like tarp decoration and the view across the water. The ‘vibe’ and atmosphere is indisputably the best part about this experience and it’s explicit that incredible planning, care and work has gone into making it as inviting and happy as it is.

Upon sitting down we were soon greeted by our waitress who happily took our orders. Unfortunately it seemed she had a difficult time, as the music was unbearably loud and made it impossible to hear each other across the table unless we almost shouted. There are two sections to El Camino, the eating tables and the bar. I wish the eating tables had slightly less intrusive music so that one might enjoy a more pleasant eating experience. At least the music itself was relevant and suitable for the restaurant.

So far, the experience was still verging 5 stars, and it seemed we were in for a fantastic night, with friendly staff and a cosy, welcoming atmosphere. But these high hopes were soon shot with the equivalent of a Remington 870Spencer Jones Shotgun when the food came out. The menu seems to be pretty hit and miss, although everything is overpriced. But my order, the tacos, were embarrassing. My pictures below should elaborate, but I paid 12 dollars for two tiny tacos with a unsporting and insulting amount of meat, no seasoning and a sparse amount of anything else. I find it very, very disconcerting when a Mexican restaurant fails to make a signature taco. My friends ordered other foods but I’ll allow them to elaborate in their reviews; to summarise for them, not very good. Maybe it’s because of the amount of people they are required to serve, but this is no excuse considering the exorbitant prices.

We left disappointed (and hungry) that such a fun and exciting restaurant could have let us down so much with the food. In any other circumstance, this would be a 2 star. But the bar experience really is amazing and worth checking out, thus the 3.

El Camino came so close the greatness but simply failed to address their disconnect between prices and quality with their food. There is a glimmer of hope however, as this issue is very fixable. If El Camino can simply raise the quality and quantity of their food to the prices of their menu, then this could very well be the best restaurant in the Plaza, and perhaps the best Mexican experience on the...

Overall not very impressed. Save your money and go elsewhere! Slow service, rude staff and the food is overpriced and disappointing. Myself and my 17 year old sister had a booking for Taco Tuesday. We waited at the door for what seemed like forever and the lady who greeted us definitely set the tone for our experience which was disappointing as we did have a few staff interact with us throughout and she was by far the most rude. She asked for ID which is fair enough, my sister didn't have hers but she's 17 and was driving so wouldn't be drinking anyway, her (staff) response was to send us away but another staff member interjected and said it was fine, she then said we could eat there but I wasn't able to consume alcohol either and she would be watching us closely to make sure we didn't have any. I'm visiting on holiday and was keen to start things off right with a few cocktails but that plan was soon shot down. She then went to seat us in the corner at a bar seat, when we asked to seat at a table she said they are pretty full in the dining area, we explained thats why we booked ahead and she did eventually seat us at a table (which there were at least 6 free table spots I could see) after a lot of huffing and eye rolling.

The ordering system from the phone was okay I guess but it took 40 minutes after ordering to get our drinks and over 50 minutes for our food. Once we received our food we were confused to see pork tacos rather than the ground beef 'cheeseburger' ones we ordered. After asking a staff member she informed us they ran out of cheeseburger tacos and replaced them with pork instead! Neither of us were going to eat it and asked for a refund, this particular staff member had a much better customer service and helped us out with a smile which was the first good thing to come out of this experience. It would be nice in the future to update the menu as you run out or simply talk to customers before replacing it with a complete different dish.

We were served our nachos which included some ingredients not listed on the menu, including coriander which has always been a no no to my sister, we read the menu carefully to avoid being served it but without mention, it was there.

The interior looks cool but for that being the only pro (other than the total of two staff members out of 6 who actually gave service with a smile) in a big list of cons, its simply not worth it.

We did an online order for Grill'd just down the mall and it was ready in 6 minutes! Was greeted with smiles and more importantly: quality food that we...