San Marcos Mexican Grill Callaway — Restaurant in Callaway

The first thing I must say is, do not stop at the first thing I say... I went in to the restaurant for the first time tonight. Judith (I think was her name) was at the front counter. She asked us how many and I told her two. She then resumed erasing a dry erase board that appeared to have the employees' schedule or something. I stood there with my wife for a couple minutes or awkward silence and finally asked her if we should, perhaps, sit down and wait?!? She looked up and smiled, but I did not hear any intelligible speech. I took my wife's hand and we went over the waiting area and were seated, but then she immediately said, "okay" and motioned for us to come with her. As we passed, I noticed that she had finished whatever she was doing before leading us to a table, or even speaking to us past the initial question of, "how many?".

Now, that was the only thing that I could say that was negative. The salsa was terrific. It was not bland, or boring. It was also not so spicy that I could not taste it. The chips are very light and crisp. I ordered guacamole and cheese dip. These were amazing. My wife ordered the ground beef taco salad and I ordered the Camarones ala Diabla. The two dishes were excellent. We are fans of Los Rancheros and we also enjoy El Jalisco and Peppers almost as much as Los Rancheros. These restaurants have set a standard that places like Old Mexico can never hope to reach, so the standard is already high.

Service- After the greeting and seating, everything was great. The server(s) were attentive and showed extra attention to my wife. My wife actually felt that it was strange that the servers almost ignored me in favor of speaking to her. I think I understand completely. I am currently bearded and I am not wearing a tie very much these days. I think my wife looks a little more friendly and certainly more normal.

Food- Our food was hot, fresh and delicious. I found the fresh corn tortillas very impressive. The seasoning on the ground beef was not what we were accustomed to tasting. It was different, but not less good. The main difference was that this restaurant added a bay leaf into the dish. My meal was also super classy. there was more food...

I'm team Los Antijitos all the way. Remember that when taking my opinion into consideration. To me that was the best around, and I have been going there since they were in that tiny little building 25 years ago. I was excited to see something finally go in this location that might stand a chance of survival. And they have an opportunity to take over this area. The other place down the road was so bad the only time I went there I wouldn't feel right leaving a review. So my hopes were high.. Maybe a little too high. The chips and salsa WERE AMAZING! My waiter was very friendly. But.... Thru sat us and forgot about us. Almost 10 minutes for the drink order. Maybe they were under staffed or overwhelmed. It was a Saturday afternoon and they seemed pretty busy. Then they got my order wrong. And that was almost very bad. Since it was our first visit I let them suggest my order.. It was the nachos with everything on them.. I forgot the actual name. But I told them NO SHRIMP. And just as I offered my son a chip to try them he saw the shrimp. He's highly allergic to shrimp and we were just in the ER last week. My son got the street tacos which he highly recommended. My youngest guy grilled chicken and rice. And it didn't seem to have much flavor. But he ate it.. The bill was around $65 including a 20% tip.

It seemed to take forever to get the food out as well as refills and service. I had to ask someone else for our bill. This experience actually has me thinking another failed business in this location. However, I'm pulling for these guys! I'm going to try them again and this time I'll get a different menu item. I will definitely amend my review as well. I REALLY hope they get it together because I'd love to be a regular here. As of now they're better than the other place...

I always go by reviews when choosing a place when away from home. I start by going to the bad ones and they only negative thing they had in common was wait time. For context we arrived at or around 5:30 and by 6:20 we were on our way back to the hotel. The restaurant parking lot was full and once we came in there was alot of customers but the people who had came in while I was parking already had drinks and chips. That gave me Hope :) we were greeted by two ladies all smiles and very sweet whom sat us right away and told us that Elifaz would be our server. He acknowledged us, went to check on three tables in-front of ours on his sections. Very quickly came introduced himself and took our drink order. He came to all the tables multiple times to make sure we didn’t need drinks,chips. Very pleasant and repeated our order to make sure it was correct and when the food came out it was all correct. They should have the manager come out to hear 👂 about how his staff is doing like other places do. I think this helps restaurants improve when needed but also acknowledge how great the staff is! I believe this place opened late October so it’s been about four months people are trained at this point. Perhaps when the people who has bad reviews on here didn’t take into account the place just opened and humans take time to learn menus and the way the restaurant runs. This place has so much potential hope to come back next time I’m in town 💕 food was amazing we had steak fajitas, birrias and for the kids quesadillas, and the chicken tenders :)...