El Matador Restaurant — Restaurant in Bountiful

edited: I am surprise I received no response to my review. I was also surprised that there was a response to the other customer who was reviewing about my same incident where the owner stated they only charged for refills. That was not the experience I had. We did not ask for refills. Sometimes silence speaks volumes.

I am the aforementioned customer that was arguing with the manager about being charged for chips. I am not surprised that the encounter caused others (whom I don't know at all) to leave a negative review. It was an unfortunate experience over something that didn't need to happen.

The previous review got the facts slightly wrong. I had ordered a kids meal for my 3yr old son and nothing for myself. My mother had also ordered a meal and my daughter also ordered a kids meal. I do not have a large appetite so splitting an enchilada with my 3 yr old works out well. I also ordered 2 sides of cheese, which i believe they charge $3-4 for. We frequent the restaurant 2-3 times a month. So much so that one of the waitresses knew about my recent finger injury and noticed when it was getting better. I've discussed Disney vacations with another waiter. We always tip at least 20%. Whenever my son is with me, this is always what we order. This has never been an issue. So imagine my surprise when, after placing my order, the waitress informs me she's charging $5.99 for the chips since I didn't order anything. I stated that the table had ordered 3 meals plus 2 sides of cheese. She said it was just what the manager had told her. I asked to speak with the manager. I started to say "we come here all the time (I was going to point this had never been an issue)". She interrupted me and said "yeah, we have lots of people that come here a lot. Hundreds of them". So right there it became clear my loyalty was of little value. I was then informed that other places charge for chips and they don't want to. Other places charge for refills of chips and they don't want to. I was informed that 3 people will come eat one meal and just eat chips and they don't make money. While I can, perhaps, understand this problem if someone is ordering multiple refills of chips, I suspect this isn't the norm. And the simple answer is to charge for refills. We never order refills. I asked if they don't allow people to split meals to which she responded that if I'd ordered an adult meal to split it would have been fine. Apparently you're just not allowed to split a kids meal. If I had not been there and it was just my mother and two kids, the "cost" to the restaurant would have been the same. The amount of chips they brought for our table of 4 would have been the same for a table of 3. I guess they did have a slight loss of the ONE bowl of salsa they brought for me. But then again, I ordered 2 sides of cheese.

I have been going to this restaurant long before I had children, go often without my children and had planned to continue to go after my children grow up. I wouldn't have been splitting a kids meal with my child for much longer. When I go without my son, or if I'm especially hungry, I order the Street Tacos and pay $14.99 when I could get the same taco at the new taco joint by me for $2.99. I never eat the rice and beans. But I go there and willing pay the higher amount because I enjoy the environment and the food. I love their chips and salsa and I always pay extra for the cheese.

I'm saddened and frustrated by my encounter today. Not sure what it means for my future dining experiences there. Just bummed over the whole thing. You would hope a business would value their customers more than what was...

Well-- needless to say we will NOT BE BACK. I let the server know that the Jumbo Shrimp was not satisfactory, and it was on the rubbery side like it was overcooked. $7 for one Jumbo Shrimp to be served with ketchup and mustard. The owner came over to address my request to have this removed from my check and she usually is really nice but today was unfortunately a different story. She said she trusted her chef who said it was not overcooked and she was taking his word. She spoke to me like I just asked her for her life savings to be wired over to my account. When we asked about the sauce, she informed us that this is HIGH END cocktail sauce, and this is how "you people" mix it with ketchup and mustard. I addressed the "you people" comment as I don't know if she meant black people??...but I, myself and I am sure none of my ancestors have ever in life mixed Heinz together to make cocktail sauce. The soup was..rather salty, but I did not want to complain too much at first as I was already addressing the shrimp... but when she asked, I let her know it as well. The flavor of the soup was actually good, but it was just heavy on the salt. If I was not already on the verge of possibly sending my blood pressure anymore higher with the salted soup, I probably wouldn't have left until it was removed off my check. The salsa seemed jarred as it usually has more of a blended salsa texture this was like out of the jar salsa. If there is one thing, we have always loved about this place it has been the salsa and something was very different. It was really watery, and it spilled across my hands when the server set it down. I have always had a good experience prior to this but honestly my table will never be back. The way the owner addressed me was confrontational and it was just very embarrassing and not...

I am sure I am in the minority here, but this place is just not good mexican food. Not considered an expert by any means, but unfortunately just the flavors and the dishes were a miss for our whole group. I must say that the service is outstanding! The young man that helped us couldn't have been more attentive, polite and professional. The atmosphere is nice, albeit a little over-lit if that makes sense? But then there is the food. Our waiter indicated that "people love our warm salsa with cheese added", which I thought sounded amazing so we said - bring it on! It was the house salsa with shredded colby jack cheese in it. The salsa isn't hot enough to melt it so it just kind of became a salsa cheese mashup that almost made it. I ordered the Tour of Mexico, my wife ordered Maria's Enchilada and my son ordered Veracruz. The Chile Relleno on my plate looked more like a corn dog than a traditional chile relleno, and it was filled wtih the colby cheese that was in the salsa. Super thick breading just wasn't my ideal. I will say the taquitos were very good, and the tomatillo sauce was excellent, but those were the only highights for me. My wife's dish was not to her liking either, the fried corn tortillas had a really different texture for an enchilada. Also, the rice and beans on her plate were absolutely without taste. Super disappointing because those are staples! My son's veracruz dish was ok, lots of breading again on the shrimp, which was a little more than he could take. All in all I feel like this is a great place for comfort food made very American, but for what we were looking for in a night out for Mexican it...