Loru's Cafe — Restaurant in Camarillo

I've been going here since they opened.

But we've had 2 negative experiences in years + the denominator seems to be when management serves rather than staff.

It got us again today and we were dumbfounded, it was so clear we were being served by someone who was not a server and had absolutely 0 customer service or need to get it right in their mind.

We ordered 1 breakfast burrito with sugar free syrup for the pancakes and 1 Chorizo omelet, sub soyrizo.

It felt simple enough.

My father's omelet arrived to the table and it was clear it was made half and half, or "add" something because we could see a pile of soyrizo on top of one end, and the strangest looking fried pork curl like item on top of the other end.

Without thinking my father went to grab the curly looking fried thing and put it in his mouth, before questioning. He quickly spit it out realizing he wasn't sure what he was eating.

We calmly and quietly waited for the gentleman serving us (middle aged, facial hair, black and white silk Hawaiian style dress shirt) to pass back by and inquired what the fried curly object was. "Chicharones" he said matter of factly. My father and I sat in silence. It felt like forever for my Dad to put together a response, " But this is supposed to be a chorizo omelet with soyrizo. I can't even find the fajita veggies that come in the regular chorizo omelet"

The employee serving us didn't seem to understand the issue and asked, "would you like me to get you the veggies on the side?"

My father shot me a glance so painfully trying to find a polite way to unwrap the miscommunication that must be occurring and tried to remind the server. "But I ordered a chorizo omelet with sorizo. People who order soy meat don't usually want to eat chicharones."

The employee still seemed to not understand the gravity of the error, or perhaps even the error- "they're really busy back there, what would you like, i can get you some veggies to go with it."

My father, such a champ, as simply as possible repeated his order and asked for that, "I'd like the chorizo omelet sub soyrizo, how it would normally come."

The employee, again, not apologetic, still seeming confused as to what was actually wrong, "okay, I'll have it remade." And proceeds to take the plate off the table, so my father didn't even have his hash browns to eat on while he stared at me and my food (no sugar free syrup for me) - at this time the restaurant had now become full capacity and it was a near 20 minute wait for his replacement food.

I slowly ate my food so it wouldn't get cold, and when my father's replacement meal arrived it was clear the hashbrowns (he could've eaten fresh) were kept under a warmer and re fried at last moment, extra crispy. We weren't exactly sure what he was eating in the end as it looked incredibly sloppy and as you can imagine we were very confused by what had transpired- particularly because as the server dropped the replacement dish off he said "there's veggies in there, they might be small, because they shrink " indicating to us there might still be massive confusion over what the actual problem was.

We finished our meals, I boxed my pancakes which never got their sugar free syrup because the server never asked to refill our drinks or check in on us beyond the flag down over the pork fried chicharones on a vegetarian omelet fiasco.

When the check arrived nothing had been adjusted off the bill. Well, okay, you serve a customer ordering vegetarian protien substitute pork fried food (which could be a vegetarian issue, a religious issue, a healthy issue or all of the above) then you take their entire plate away and make them wait 20 more minutes to eat. Dont offer to get them something like a small salad to eat while waiting, don't offer to remake their guests food so they can eat it hot, don't even leave their stinking hash browns to nibble on, THEN you still have the cahones to charge full price.

But guess what. The receipt says CHICHARONES omelet sub Soyrizo. So it wasn't even rang in right by the "server."

Shame...

After being seated, we waited for 15 minutes until someone came to our table to take our drink order while 5-8 employees gathered around the back counter talking to each other. Another 20 minutes go by (while the employees continue to hang out at the counter) before we flag someone to take our order. 20 minutes later, and we flag our waitress to ask if our food is almost ready. She seems annoyed, says it'll be another 10-15 minutes, and walks away. She never offers to refill our drinks or check on us the entire time we're there... we always had to flag someone to help us. My 4-year-old and one-year-old at this point are so hungry that my husband takes them to Wetzle's Pretzels for some food.

About 10 minutes later, the manager comes over and tells us that the waitress put our order in, but the printer didn't print it in the kitchen, so it hasn't been made, so it'll be another 10-15 minutes. He says this all while laughing, then says "You, know, it happens!" before laughing more and walking away. I was stunned... at this point, we've been in the restaurant for nearly an hour and had only consumed one round of drinks, while the manager thinks it's hilarious that they've made us wait an hour for food and doesn't apologize or offer to comp anything!

Once our food finally came out, it was mediocre at best. My husband ordered the chilaquiles and he said it was bland. I ordered the tuna melt, which had room-temperature tuna and half-melted cheese and the plate was full of grease - much more so than with a standard tuna melt.

We again had to flag someone down for the check. Our waitress came back with the check and said the manager was kind enough to give us the "family discount". I looked at the check... our total was about $65 and the "family discount" took off $9.

Management - you need to do better. First, don't make light of a bad situation - it makes your customer feel dismissed. Second, APOLOGIZE and offer to make it right once you know there is an issue, especially if the issue is fully on you, not...

Stopped by to check it out. First and foremost our food tasted good, but we all wound up with intestinal issues all night that were horrific.

All the food is frozen. From our table we could just watch the cook dumping frozen things from bags into the fryer.

The place seems to have a real identity crisis. I mean what kind of restaurant is it? Fish tacos with a side of fries, onion rings, or clam chowder? It’s just insane. No rice available.

Breakfast apparently available all day because the owner worked at IHOP. Meanwhile from our table, one of only two occupied places that night, I saw the pancake batter sitting out on a table the entire time, never used once.

The floors are covered with something greasy, the owner prided himself on his “home made salsa,” but there was a cart with all sorts of bottles of said condiments. I could make better salsa at home in two seconds.

Overall cleanliness was poor and our waitress was clueless, having to come back to our table four times to re check what we ordered abs then basically disappearing. We had to find some busboy to find her and get our check. Again, there was only one other table occupied so I’m not sure what she was doing. Maybe pouring some more of the “home made salsa” into bowls. Lol

Sorry to be so down. I really wanted to like it, but after three hours will all of us crawling our brains out all I can say is that I...