Chiquito — Restaurant in Surrey Heath

Worst ever - total waste of money and an uncaring, poorly trained manageress.

After eating in Chiquito's restaurants all over the country for over 25 years, I cannot be more disappointed. We have always loved Chiquito's for value, service and flavour. My wife and I went to the Chiquito in Camberley tonight, which we have used ever since it arrived in the then new Atrium, nearly 10 years ago. We have always enjoyed it as somewhere to go for relatively cheap eats.

NOT THIS TIME! They have just lost a long-standing repeat customer!

We ordered a Rekorderlig and a Daiquiri for drinks, then ordered Tortilla Chips & Dips starter, a Chilli King Prawn starter, along with three of the Street Food items: Crispy Tacos, Quesadilla Bites & Chilli Tortilla Stack. When the food arrived the Chilli King Prawns were nice and (heat) hot - all two of them. Yes, 2 small prawns, along with three halves of cherry tomato and lots of sauce. Very tasty sauce, but not what you expect for £6.99! Then we come to the Street food. All tasty. All lukewarm at best - in fact one was pretty cool in the middle. However, as we had not ordered any mains as yet, we ate it all, intending to simply bring it to the waitresses attention before ordering the next course. The waitress was in fact very good, so we pointed out the problem to her, to which she responded that she couldn't do anything about it - not that we asked her to anyway. However, she said she would bring the manager over. Over came the manageress, asking how she could help. I (politely!) explained the problem - and she immediately retorted that she served the prawns and she counted five prawns onto my plate - in effect calling me a liar! This was just too much, so I stood up, said I was not going to argue about it and asked for the bill (£36!). She then accused us both of being aggressive! Totally untrue and uncalled for. I don't think I have ever seen such an uncaring and uncivil manager of a restaurant in my life. Needless to say, we did not order mains.

I can only put it down to the fact that she cannot tell the difference between a half of cherry tomato and a prawn - they were the same size, after...

Ah Chiquitos, the boy band of TexMex restaurants.

TexMex food packaged up in a clean cut image which is bland and innocuous enough so as to not offend anyone but with no real substance beyond the shiny exterior. Meanwhile behind the scenes a team of bigwig management types at head office are trying their hardest to get as many people to buy into it as possible.

In terms of a TexMex experience it's about as authentic as a Rolex picked up from a market in Shanghai or a compliment from a stripper. It's not that it's bad food, it's just a bad attempt at TexMex food.

Before we ordered we were brought a complimentary dish of, you guessed it, tortilla chips. Right? Wrong. Here you get the well known Mexican staple of popcorn to help you decide what to order.

I went for the choritzo and sweetcorn tostadas followed by the southern fried chicken with BBQ pulled pork. Tostadas were reminiscent of eating very small ham and sweetcorn pizzas with a dollop of sour cream on the top. It was very much a knife and fork affair, street food this isn't. Although to be fair they don't pretend it to be.

My main was uninspiring chain restaurant fodder. Chips, a small piece of corn on the cob, a pot of coleslaw and a fried chicken breast in a bland southern fried coating topped with some pulled pork and some lava like cheese which managed to retain heat much longer than anything else on the plate. Nothing had any kick to it, I used up about half a bottle of hot sauce before conceding it was either watered down or had never been hot in the first place. I suspect the latter. The pulled pork was the best bit, but sadly also the bit there was least of.

Bottom line is Chiquitos is unlikely to make anyone's top 10 best restaurants ever list, and you'll probably never hear a death row inmate ask for one of their dishes as a last meal but it's sanitised enough that you could come here with pretty much any group of people and they will all find something they are...

My son and I had a very disappointing lunch experience after our shopping trip today in Camberley. Staff were welcoming and eager to take our drinks order which came promptly. But when our food still hadn't arrived after 30mins I asked how much longer we'd have to wait having noticed that other customers, who'd arrived after us, already had theirs. When it finally arrived no apology or explanation was given. My sons was ok apart from the corn being mixed in a bowl with cheese and sour cream and not on the cob as per the menu but mine was luke warm. When asked if everything was ok i was already very irritated by the situation so didn't reply and did not enjoy my meal. Another disappointment was that our Taste card was rejected because I'd ordered from the lunch menu?? We weren't using it in conjunction with any offer and couldn't understand the reason why no discount was given. Also, the length of time spent in the restaurant caused extra expense in the car park which was very annoying too. It's safe to say we won't be...