Little Jalapeno — Restaurant in Barrington

tl;dr: The woman who took my order purposefully skirted the talks of an upcharge when I ordered, beat around the bush when I asked for an itemized bill, and then finally broken down and told me the truth when I showed that I was capable of 4th grade math.

Today, I ordered two sets of Chorizo tacos and two sets of Al Pastor tacos. Given that it's "Taco Tuesday," they have a deal that that makes things a bit cheaper.

I asked for no onions and no cilantro and for them to add mole sauce to the tacos. They said that would be no problem, told me 15 minutes, and I responded saying I'd be right over.

Costs: 4 Alpastor tacos- 10 3 Chorizo tacos- 8

Two sets of each, plus tax, 38.70~

When I got there, I was told $43.50. 5 dollars more than I had expected. I asked about an itemized bill. She attempted to dissuade me by saying the credit card machine wouldn't provide one.

When I asked about how we got to 43 and change, she told me the Alpastor were ten dollars. I said yes, and I ordered two sets, so that's 20. She went on to explain that the chorizo taco sets were 8 dollars. I again responded to the affirmative, and said that's 36. 36 + tax is not 43.50.

She then told me the mole sauce was a 5 dollar upcharge. The mole sauce which wasn't even dressed on the tacos, but placed into small takeout ramekins. I told her no upcharge was told to me, though I did expect a small one as when I ordered two weeks prior, I was charged 50 cents per. An increase in price of 500% for the small addition from the previous order.

She blamed the staff that rung that up and said no one should have charged me so little.

The worst part is that the amount of mole they gave us wasn't nearly enough to cover the 14 tacos ordered, despite her saying that they were in ramekins and not on the tacos because "we didn't want the tacos to get soggy."

I told her that this was underhanded, explained how that wasn't cool, and was met with nothing but excuses.

I finished our conversation by showing her that a wet burrito was 10.50 on their menu, with a similar amount of mole to what was given to me, indicating that either that burrito was only worth 5.50, or that the price is incorrect. I gave her multiple chances to fix her error before just decided to pay my bill for my order, and refuse to return.

Since opening this place has repeatedly cut corners, reduced portion sizes, and nickel and dimed their way to an empty dining room. I understand that running a new business during covid can't be easy, but restaurants that don't seek to scam customers and instead focus on making quality products have found success.

I left a smaller than usual tip, because people still deserve to be paid, and because it wasn't ever about the money. It's about the principle of making sure your customers have an honest experience.

I'm not sure whether or not this woman intended for me to haggle with her in hopes of finding an appropriate middle ground price for their under-seasoned and carelessly constructed mole. What was once a fair deal in an area with limited options has become enough of a hassle to where I'll drive a bit further to ensure I don't have to deal with moving goal posts and...

Overall, the food here is good, but more than that, it's one of the more authentic Mexican places I've been to in my area. My "go to" dish so far are the tamales. It also comes with black beans (very small portion) a small "salad" and Spanish rice. The rice always tastes old and reheated and doesn't have much flavor, unfortunaly. I would never get their nachos again. They are over-priced and honestly just taste like Taco Bell nachos. The chimichanga was also unimpressive, unless you like a ton of cheese. I could barely taste any of the other ingredients, which were way too sparse for the price. The best dish they have (that I've tried so far) are their tacos. They are absolutely outstanding! They are large and the tortilla is full! But, best of all, they are delicious! (I get the pastor meat.) These definitely get my highest recommendation with the tamales coming in a close second. (I get them with red sauce, but you can also get green or mole.) I'll be trying more dishes in the future as I'm curious about their chilli relleno and...

Really good food for a small strip mall restaurant. We got the vegetarian burrito, horchata, and the al pastor tacos- which came with chips and red salsa. The price was great, which is why we came in the first place: we're tired of these pretentious Mexican restaurants that are clearly owned by white people looking to appropriate the culture. We used to live in South Philly and go to Los Gallos and Freda Cantina regularly, and you won't find that kind of quality (or price) at Central Taco or Tortilla Press. This place is nothing like Central Taco: the tacos are $3.xx each, so you can mix and match; it's BYOB so they're not looking to make money off drinks other than traditional drinks like horchata. I wish there were more options for salsa (ie green), and I wish the salsa was hotter as the red that came with the chips wasn't spicy at all. The complimentary chips were fresh and crunchy though- I would try the...