Marieta's Mexican Food — Restaurant in California

My 1st experience at this restaurant was great. I work for a company doing presentations for prospects to learn about what we offer and how we can help them. We advertise the restaurants we’re going to go to and people will RSVP that they are going to attend. Sometimes some of them do not show. Sometimes people will show that did not RSVP, so we are never 100% sure of the amount of people that will attend. I do understand that it makes it difficult for the restaurant to reserve a certain amount of space and then maybe we have less than we expected. But I don’t think that’s a reason to handle things negatively. This was the first time I’ve ever been rushed to leave a Restaurant and being told basically that we can/should/will have to leave right in front of our prospects. The people that did show felt that it was quite rude how this situation was handled. I had a couple show up early that did not RSVP but then when a couple that had RSVP’d showed up, there was not enough comfortable space and they left. This costed me potential business. But it also made us look unprofessional. Restaurants need to remember that we’re not there just to do business. I looked forward to coming back to this restaurant because I enjoyed the food the first time. I am always a potential customer when I’m not doing business. My guests are always potential customers . But, one of the couples said that they will not come back to this establishment for the way things were handled. Our company will not come back. They even charged me a “service fee”? I don’t understand why. We sat at the booth, I paid for everybody’s meal, and made sure that we left within two hours as demanded. I didn’t really want another meal because I had eaten there for hour first presentation but was told that if I didn’t order something, they would be a service charge. I placed an order for myself… All of the orders were made to go because I was told that even if we started eating before the two hours ended, we would be asked to leave. So I’m not understanding why there was a service fee. I only left a tip because the waiters were very kind but this whole experience left a bad taste...

We used to go to the Marietta's in Santee and loved it, until covid hit and the food went way downhill. We moved to Descanso and so thought to give the Alpine location a try. We went there about 4 times (and each visit got progressively worse). The last time we ate there they served us RANCID chips that I had to spit out. Told the waiter and he's like well I don't know if they'll make more (they never did). The guacamole was black and rotten, and the carne asada must have been days old as it was tough and tasteless as old leather. The waiter was super rude and only took our order, we never saw him after that. At the end they gave us a weird bill with no breakdown or anything that just said we owed them $50 bucks. We should not have had to pay for ANYTHING that night. It was AWFUL. We will NEVER eat...

We luckily stumbled on the place. It was a holiday and 2 other restaurants we like were closed. The staff were very friendly and treated us really well. It was between lunch and dinner. They brought out chips and 2 different homemade salsas to start. Delicious red and green, both were spicy but not too hot. We each ordered the Pollo Ranchero dishes, one with a large side salad, that we shared, and the other with corn tortillas. Both dishes were steaming hot with strips of chicken breast and fresh onions and bell peppers in a flavorful red sauce. The refried beans were delicious. Marieta's has a nice sized bar area with booth and bar seating and a separate dining room. Lots of free parking behind the restaurant. The place was spotless. And the...