Ponch's Place — Restaurant in Bend

(1st half of review due to character limit): Visited Ponch's Place today, (Friday 3/22) and though we were excited for another lot on this side of town, this place was a big miss for us. Before heading over we checked the days and times for the trucks, and they were all listed as open. We got there at 5pm and it was busy there was still plenty of parking which is a plus. My sister wanted God of Pizza but the truck was all closed up, even though the sign on their truck said they should have been open. Bummer, but could have been for any number of reasons. Next, she hit Sweet Herb for dumplings. They said they were all out. Bummer for us again - though I'm glad they were busy enough to sell out. So, we both ended up at Carmelitas. The gal who took our order was lovely! Very attentive, beautiful smile and answered a question I had about their pollo in detail, and without prejudice. I ordered the burrito bowl with pollo adobado, sans pico and my sister ordered the taco plate with carne asada. We received a pager and then asked a nice couple to join their table for seating while we waited. The vibing atmosphere and lack of other food options in this area is going to be what keeps this place afloat. Dogs and puppies everywhere, which we love! (I didn't see any water bowls, but I also wasn't seeking them out so I may have missed them, just FYI) I believe they had around 14 tables, and by 5pm on a Friday every single table was full, with multiple tables sharing parties, like ours. The heat lamps over the covered seating area were fantastic. We could only find one trash can/dish station, so perhaps another would be useful in the future, but I did see a gentleman leave the tap house to empty the bus bin (and pet a puppy) on one occasion so he definitely seemed on top of it. We brought our own drinks so I can't give any feedback on the tap house service/selection. We got our food in a reasonable amount of time for how busy it was, and both plates looked fresh and delicious! Sadly, that's about where things started to go downhill for us. My sister's tacos were so saturated in oil that they could barely hold together while she was eating them, even though they were typical 'street style' with double tortillas and about three bites a piece. She said she couldn't really taste the carne asada through the oil, and that the beans and rice were just ok. When she finished, there was still a pool of oil where the tacos were. I tried a piece of my chicken before mixing my bowl and it was definitely juicy and had good seasoning! I took half of the tortilla strips out of my bowl before mixing - just personal preference - and then started chowing down. The rice and remaining tortilla strips soaked up every bit of juice from the meat and beans, and it just became a dry, flavorless bowl of rice heavy fixings. I did not taste the avocado salsa or crema, there was absolutely no cilantro at all (so sad, it's on the menu) and the pollo marinade seemed to have completely disappeared. There was a healthy serving of meat in the bowl, which I appreciated as I was mixing it all together, but two bites I had to spit out as they were just chunks of chicken fat. We wanted to like it, but we were both disappointed. (character limited exceeded; check next/previous review for the remainder...

(2nd half of review due to character limit): Since my sister and I both skipped lunch and were pretty unsatisfied with our dinner choices, we decided to get a pretzel from Alley Dogz, as we LOVE everything Big Ed's! This is where the real issue was, so @AlleyDogz manager/owner please do the community a solid and address accordingly: my sister walked up, ordered the pretzel with cheese and handed the young man/cashier a $20 bill. The pretzel is $10. The cashier said, "do you not have a card?" My sister replied, "do you not take cash?" The cashier responded, "well we do, but..." - they blank stare at each other as my sister waits for him to respond - my sister then says, "...but you don't want to have to count the till at the end of the night..." The cashier responds, "yeah". This is the point at which she should have just walked away...but she takes out her card, swipes, AND leaves a tip. She waits a few minutes at the truck and then is handed the pretzel. It is, without exaggeration, hard, barely room temperature, and the cheese is COLD. I mean C O L D. As if it just came out of the fridge, cold. Flip it upside down and it's a blizzard from DQ that doesn't move, cold. I stuck my pinky in it and said there is no way I'm eating a cold pretzel with cold cheese for $12. We left. After bringing our own drinks and still spending $47 for two people to be disappointed, it goes without saying that we will not be returning. Come on, people....

We found this place by accident when we were referred to the Vet center by our Vet. We came back that evening to eat dinner. The food was very good and it was absolutely dog friendly. HOWEVER...the dog that was on a tether off the end of Wrap Star needs to either have the dog on the other end of the food truck or on a shorter tether. I saw it bark and lunge at dogs walking by on two separate occasions while I was there. I really wanted to try the wings place but was afraid to take my dog over there. I didn't want that dog to lunge at mine either. I thought about dropping my rating from a 5 to a 4 because of this, but its not the food pavilions fault for the dog's actions. It was the owner's fault as he saw the dog doing this and...