Sandoval's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Benicia

I can't say for certain whether the other 1 star review was legit or not, but I can share our 1 dining experience at Sandoval's was absolutely horrible and we've never been back. I was unimpressed with the food and the service (lack of) was one of the worst I have ever experienced. It was the first time I ever left a 0 tip and a note explaining why. It took our waitress over 10 minutes to come take our order and then it took 45 minutes to get our order prepared. We have two young kids and as every parent can appreciate it isn't easy keeping a kid still for 5 minutes let alone 45. What was so exasperating was no one acknowledged a delay, no one checked up on us, no one even asked us if we wanted additional drinks to pass the time. It was like we did not even exist. We were able to flag down someone who appeared to be a supervisor and her explanation was they were swamped with Take Out orders and we had no idea what they were dealing with. This seemed odd to me, why would you prioritize Take Out orders when you have people in your restaurant who will be tipping? Maybe she didn't care that her staff might suffer, but she certainly had no empathy for us. It would have been great if they at least acknowledged the situation, maybe offered a free beverage. We won't...

I love this place, but... use cash when going there. I had a card that I only used at Sandovals (over 6 months) that got cloned and the thief attempted to use it. Because my bank knew I very rarely used the card they contacted me about the wierd attempted purchases. Also I ordered last night and the waitress was so rude. Got my order wrong not once but twice and refused to tell me my total over the phone. Tried to call to speak to the manager and was told their was none. She didnt even apologize for the mess up. It was just so off. So beware. If you call when they open or any time, you're lucky if they answer the phone. Sad because they have great food when it's made correctly.

Update…. So I went there and saw the manager Amara refusing to let a woman pay before receiving her food. So she asked another waitress if she could pay. Amara got enraged and called the customer a trouble maker. I overheard the customer state she only wanted to pay ahead of time because she had groceries in her car. Doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. The owner was there and didn’t correct the behavior. Shame. I feel embarrassed for them. This place is so...

The food was very very good but the service wasn't. That dropped it from 4 stars to a 2. Servicers didn't have name tags so I cant be specific. It's a small place witch was cool. Walked in sat down. Red head bartender greeted us (3 in the party) and got our drinks. Right off the bat you could tell the employees didn't look like they want to be there that night (Saturday night). No smiles to be had. There where 3 servers plus the bartender, witch was helping the floor. The restaurant was full but again it's a small dining area. Later we got our food, no check back with our server on food or drinks. At the end the bartender did a drive by with the check with out saying a world. Had to flag down a different server to pay the bill. Sorry for being long winded on this. Can't stress that the food was good, the team just needs to smile a lot more! Side note. I've never been in a restaurant where an employee walks out the front door with empty ice buckets. Disapiers around the side of the building and a few minutes later comes back with ice buckets...