El Chorlito Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Cambria

I wish to share the following complaint about this restaurant, which we visited on October 19, 2015. In March of 2016, we decided to submit a formal complaint to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing after we were unable to make successful contact with the restaurant's owner. Our complaint was then dismissed after the restaurant declined to accept arbitration of the complaint, because, as I later found out from an attorney, we did not specifically ask for inside seating, after we were involuntarily given an outside table.

Although I cannot find fault with the food, the overall treatment that we received at this restaurant was, in my opinion, terrible. The letter below was taken from an email that I composed on October 19, 2015, the evening we returned to Santa Maria from our terrible experience at this venue:

"This afternoon, we drove seventy-five miles up the coast from the hotel were we usually stay in Santa Maria. We decided to stop at a Mexican restaurant, El Chorlito, in San Simeon, about ten minutes away from Hearst Castle. We arrived there about 5:45 PM.

When we walked into the restaurant with both Daisy and Montera [our service dogs], there were people sitting both inside and outside. Jeannie had put on her coat, because she felt cold. I asked her if she wanted to sit inside or outside, and Jeannie replied that she wanted to eat inside. When the server came over to seat us, however, we were not given a choice, and he put us at an outside table. I suggested to Jeannie that we ask to be moved into an inside table, but she did not want to create any problems and therefore we accepted the outside table.

During the time that we were eating our meal, the sun set, and it became colder and colder. Daisy began to fuss, as she usually does when she knows that Jeannie is going to have a migraine headache I decided that we should go inside and have a cup of coffee. When the server took us in, he put us at a segregated table in a separate room, I asked him why he didn't put us in the regular dining room. He told us that it was because he did not want our dogs to bother the other customers. When I explained that both were service dogs, he insisted that did not matter.

We finished our coffee, and while Jeannie took the the dogs to the car, I told the server I wanted to speak with the General Manager. I was told that the GM was not in, and he was the acting manager tonight.

When I told him about my concerns and about the fact that I felt we were being discriminated against because of our service dogs, he became surly, insisting that the restaurant's policy was legal and that they did not discriminate against service dogs. When I asked him why we were not asked whether we wanted inside or outside seating, he insisted that the policy was that all pets and service animals were only offered outside seating, and if we wanted otherwise, we should have let him know when we arrived. When I further asked him if it was standard practice to ask newly arriving customers without service dogs if they wanted inside our outside seating, he admitted that it was.

The bottom line is that Jeannie's migraine got so bad that, when we arrived at Hearst Castle, she decided that we needed to go home. When I explained the situation, the Hearst Castle ticket agent refunded the cost of our tickets; but we still end up by paying for an extra night for the hotel, the meals that we consumed, and the cost of travel from Santa Maria to...

This place was SOOOO disappointing. I am not one to leave a review but this experience was literally awful. The reviews were mixed, but it’s close to our hotel so we decided to take a chance. Arrive… no one at the hostess place, other people waiting to be seated, staff just walks by and ignores you. I should have taken that as a sign and left. Finally someone comes out and I let them know I just want to make a order to go. He walks away and 10 minutes later someone finally comes out to take our order. She has nothing to take it down… so I’m like okay… maybe she’s just really good at remembering large orders?? I tell her what I want, she walks away like she’s got it… nope. She come back out asking our order cause she didn’t remember it. Again, doesn’t write it down. I reiterated my sons order 3 times. She’s going to remember right? We wait around for 45 minutes, I’m fuming at this point. I have three kids and no food. Finally they bring our order out. I just pay and leave. We go back across the street to our hotel, our food is COLD. Not sure why I waited 45 minutes to get COLD food. But the real icing on the cake, my sons food isn’t in there. She forgot it completely! Not even on the receipt. Un-freaking-believable. So my husband goes back, people are waiting to be seated, and the woman is on her phone texting, I had called to ask what happened, called numerous times with no answer. Probably cause she’s texting. He has them make it, and charges us. The food was mediocre at best, maybe its better warm, but I’ll never know. 90 bucks to feed a family of 5. Should have gone to Taco Bell, my food would have at least been warm. This place is a wreck. They also posted new paint, redone… I’m not sure what they redid cause it’s old, rundown, and dirty. My husband is a classically trained chef, went to culinary school, this place shouldn’t be open, period. Embarrassing. I always want to support local, but this place should be shut down or new management cause it is barely...

My One star was ONLY for the waiter who helped us somewhat. But this place was probably the WORST Mexican restaurant I have ever been to. Like many, my husband and I were taking the scenic route home from up north. San Simeon was the town after Big Sur so we decided to stop for a bite to eat. At first chips were impressive because they were hot , but after about 2 noticed that they were very bland, or maybe stale. I ordered the 1 enchilada place with rice and beans... and my husband was so excited to order the beef fajitas. Now when you think of fajitas, you think the plate will come to you sizzling hot freshly cooked, right?? Well not here. They were not sizzling at all. My husband who is a line cook, could tell the beef used were like beef strips reheated. Cooked earlier in the day no doubt, and then reheated with the peppers & onions... reheated not cooked to order with the sizzling skillet that 99% of all Mexican restaurants do with their fajita dish. Not this one. My Enchilada was ok.. can't really go wrong with that, but my issue was with the rice. No flavor. It took me years to perfect my rice, and this one had no flavor, and was dry as if the pot burned, and they salvaged as much as they could to serve, but the burnt taste or dryness was still there. Our bill was about $35.00 and i only ate my Enchilada, and my husband ate the flour tortillas and some of the peppers, and you would think the waiter who picked up our plate would have asked how was it, but nope! This place is near hotels, so i am assuming tourism is their clientele, but this is definately not authentic Mexican food. I honestly would have rather have gone to Taco Bell for an Enchirito, and...