Vallarta Express Mexican Eatery — Restaurant in Carlsbad

If only there were a zero star option. We wanted to like this place, a good friend of mine suggested it and it was supposedly good. We walked in and was not greeted by anyone, that was the 1st strike. The inexperienced cashier was not able to communicate the menu well. He told me my total was nearly $65, so I told him to delete that order because from my calculations it should have been closer to $40. Even after he retook my order it was $51 & some change. I was thrown off because of his inability to convey the menu of his work place, I figured maybe he's new. I was trying to be nice and took a $4 refund of at double of something I took off the order. Came to find out he had put an item on my order that was from the original order and left off an item for my child. That was strike two. We get back to our hotel and noticed there was no salsa with our food. We said it's ok we don't need it, if it's any good you won't miss it. The meat was so dry, we couldn't eat it. The rice was so bland yet overly salted, maybe all the salt killed the flavor and there was so many hard clumps in it too. Almost like they either reheated old rice or it has been sitting around all day. The beans were flavorless and not appetizing at all. So I called the restaurant back and they told me to call the customer service line. They gave me the number and I called twice no one answered. I got got here. Go anywhere but here! Chipotle is better! This place is not worth the high prices they charge. Not sure how they're getting away with this! I wouldn't even feed this food to my dog, he'd turn...

Says it’s open 24 hrs. Went to go get food, sign outside says open. Worker was rude and aggressively said we’re closed and shut the door in my face. Even though the door was unlocked and open, then locked it on me. Terrible service at night. Maybe take down the sign outside that says open if you are closed. Just a suggestion. I called soon after and the worker says that only drive through is open at night after I already walked there. I asked him how I’m supposed to know that, and he said I should have asked? This place is alright during the day, just overpriced, and the line times are terrible. There were no cars or anyone else there, so I don’t understand why they couldn’t have just taken my order through the drive through if the dine in is “apparently closed.” The two workers were just sitting there chatting. In my opinion I just think they didn’t feel like serving me. The staff is never kind as well. I’m not sure if I just go at the wrong times but I don’t have good experiences with this place. The only good thing about this place is the potato tacos. I would suggest hiring more friendly staff because the customer service is currently terrible. I also work at a dine in and drive through place, if someone doesn’t have a car and we closed the dine already we serve them through the window. It’s common decency, work on your customer service. This was on 9/29 at about 1-2 in...

As one of the few late night places open to eat in the area I was desperate and decided to give this a chance…unfortunately I am a picky eater but it also makes it very easy…I ordered just chicken and rice. I asked 4 times to make sure it was only chicken and rice. Despite the girl at the front confirming with me that I only ordered chicken and rice, what do I open my box to?

A completely ignored request.

No worries, not the end of the world. I’ll get out and go inside and simply ask them to remake the plate as this is not what I ordered.

What do they do, despite me asking to remake the plate? They simply scoop the other stuff off, add more rice and throw the plate back in the bag in front of me.

Absolutely not. On the flip side they didn’t give any push back when I asked for a refund instead of my food.

It’s incredible how difficult it is for places to make the most simple requests. I get I’m picky, but is it truly that hard to only put chicken and rice on a plate after being asked 4 times to do so?

Apparently here it is.

And for $18 for a chicken plate, the portion was absolutely pathetic. I don’t know why this place is rated so highly. I mean I do know why, but I’ll keep it to myself. Try somewhere else, there are significantly better Mexican food places in the area without the...