Palapa Restaurant — Restaurant in California

I will preface this review by saying we have eaten here a lot. We come for the live mariachi on Friday nights. The mariachi that plays there played at our wedding in 2012 and played at my mom's birthday this summer. They keep us coming back. The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating. Today when we arrived we were told by one employee that the tables inside were all reserved. We were asked to wait and another couple walked up after us. A different employee saw them first and sat them. Then we were seated and given menus. They took our drink order rather quickly. I ordered a michelada and it was super spicy. I needed water but no one was around for me to ask for one. It took them about 20 minutes for someone to come take our order. I asked for flour tortillas and they didn't bring them with my order. I waited about 15 minutes for someone to bring them after we asked 2 different people for them. I had to ask for water three times and ended up finally getting 2 glasses. One plus is the food is really tasty. We asked for a to-go box twice before getting it. We had to ask for the check and they finally brought it. We waited about 15 minutes for someone to pick up the payment and no one came. My husband finally got up to take it to the register. I don't blame the staff. There were a few of them and a lot of customers. I felt bad for them. They are very pleasant under pressure. We won't be going back for a while. We were very disappointed. The owners should expect Friday nights to be busy and should plan staffing accordingly. If they want to make more money, they need to have enough staff to serve the customers. Tonight's dinner from beginning to end was 2 hours. Good thing we were not in a hurry.

Edit: I forgot to mention they have a grill stored in the bathroom located outside. There was a lady who was coming out of the bathroom as I waited my turn. Definitely not...

Good food, bad customer service...

Be aware they charge you $1 for each water. The other thing was that we ordered a kids burrito and it didn't come out with the food. We let the server know and she left to go get it but then the original waiter immediately came to us super defensive saying 3 or 4 times that we didn't order it. We weren't mad as it was not a big deal, but I didn't appreciate him coming over and essentially arguing about it. He seemed pretty upset at us for some reason. It's a bean and cheese burrito- takes 30 seconds to make, why so mad?

In the future, just correct the order even if you feel like you didn't make a mistake, which you did. Definitely don't go to the table and start raising your voice defending yourself! We'll go somewhere else next time.

UPDATE-

Thanks for the response. Yes, as in a simple glass of water. I assume it was tap water just like you would get at any restaurant. But the receipt showed $1 for each glass and it said "bottled water." So not sure whats going on there, but hope you guys...

Mucho delisioso and affordable! I recommend the le simple veggie burrito for breakfast.$11! And complimentary chips and salsa! Juan was a wonderful server, so personable, and misses his family in Reno...we are praying that he gets to go there once the flooding here in the central valley stops. They have wonderful dramatic Mexican music and it's an adorable place! Palapas means palm and the other outdoor seating and they're right next to the Hyatt in what's called upper State Street of very sleepy area that also has the Dutch gardens! A German restaurant that was open for many many years and is classic and authentic with their wiener schnitzel. I'll be reviewing them soon as I've eaten there twice and they have freshly harvested chaperel mushrooms from Gaviota in an incredible soup. 1 just gave me complimentary samples of the beans and rice which look delicioso as well! Five stars...