San Antonio Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Alexandria

This was my first time at this restaurant for a happy hour & to me they seemed to be a bit negligent to us which I hope isn’t because we are black. The bartender catered to the white & Hispanic people but didn’t really pay us any mind or made sure we were ok. Didn’t clean our area til asked, nothing.. I was never offered chips & salsa, I had to personally ask for it which everyone received as soon as they sat. I had to get the bartenders attention for some water which I also had to ask for… in the middle of me asking him, someone else started talking him & he IMMEDIATELY left from me to go to that man. He then came back over & didn’t even know what I asked him for. One of my friends kept trying to get his attention by saying “excuse me, excuse me” about FOUR TIMES before he decided to look at him… all he wanted was a drink lol. They also have 2 different menus.. one at the bottom says “18% gratuity added to bills for a party of 4 or more”, it was only 3 of us & that’s the menu we had. We bought food, 2 rounds of shots, and each separately bought our own drinks. When it came down to pay, the bartender tried to discreetly slide the menu over that states “18% will be added to your bill” so now it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a party of 4 they just wanted to charge us that 18% for “whatever reason”. The crazy thing is none of us ever tip anything less than $10 but by the bartender being judgmental or whatever he thought… he shot himself in the foot. He didn’t get nothing over $5 from each bill. This was my first & will be the last time I ever step into this establishment. Food was good though....

I loved this restaurant, pre-COVID. I went in 2021, I think, and it was still okay... though going down hill. They'd cut the menu down quite a bit. I decided to go back a week or so ago, as I had always loved their vegetarian entree (chili relleno, spinach enchilada and some sort of corn cake). I should've just walked back out when we realized the place was basically empty at 7 PM on a Friday night). The entree was no longer on the menu. The only thing vegetarian they had was veggie fajitas or I could put together a quesadilla. The food was mediocre at best... but not priced that way. And then to add some onions and red pepper they jacked up my quesadilla from 12.99 to over 16 dollars (though the menu didn't say that would be the case).

The worst of it was when I asked for the check she came over with a credit card machine that didn't show the break down of the bill, and requested a Tip. The tip amounts suggested were very low percentages, which I thought was odd, so I put "custom" and gave 18%. But when I asked for a receipt I noticed they had already included and 18% gratuity AND then charged an 18% tip on top of that. Needless to say I demanded the tip back. Overcharging and then automatically rolling in a gratuity without informing the guests (only 2 people by the way, NOT a party) is absurd, and the way it was done was basically theft.

I'll never have another meal at San Antonio Bar & Grill. Which is sad... they once had great food, and good service. Not anymore. I'm sure they'll be out of business in a matter of...

Food is good here. Service is just not. Went there tonight, arrived at 8:40pm, ordered, food came in a timely manner then went to order dessert at 9:14pm. Waiter started to tell me the kitchen was closed and then heard I was ordering dessert and said they could do that. Customers walked in at the same time, they were turned away, this was at 9:14pm. As part of the dining experience they validate parking tickets, I handed in my ticket to be validated, a man put it in the machine and pulled it out and said "You are all set." Being rushed up until this point something told me "I bet he didn't even validate it, just wanted me to leave." Of course I get to the parking meter and it says unpaid/unvalidated and I paid. Lied to my face by their staff isn't really the best way to run a business.

Google has them closing at 10pm, they close at 9:30 according to the staff, no times on the door. I submitted a request to change the hours in google at the time of this review. Really poor way to treat your paying customers, even refusing service when you are still "open". Close at 9:30 means everything is running until 9:30. If you are turning away customers you are "closed". Don't need your customers, then you don't need my...