Monterrey Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Cayce

I'm going to be honest.. I rarely leave reviews for restaurants,positive or negative, and that's a shame and something I need to work on, so, this is a warranted starting point.

During a recent conference in Downtown Columbia I took the family to this restaurant around noon on a Saturday. I really should have walked back out after going in but, as they say, don't judge a book. Really, I've been into cleaner gas station restrooms. No, that's not an embellishment but is quite literal. Ceiling tiles looked to fall down at a moments notice, clothing was sticking to the seats and getting caught in the torn benches, there was an odd 'carnival' type of smell in the air, and the place appeared to have been last cleaned in 1976. Speaking of restrooms. I really don't have the words adequate enough to describe their condition. I actually challenged my boys to visit the room to make a light hearted game of it. The toilet was flushable if you pushed inward on the handle, quite forcibly. Although, it really didn't matter as most people didn't know it could be done and therefore left their 'beans and rice' on display for all. I'm estimating a number of users prior but, I didn't stand around to linger.

The food... I had read the other reviews and thought that perhaps this was going to be one of those "close your eyes and pretend you are in a five star restaurant" type of deals. Sigh.. I wish I would have taken a picture. I have no doubt the burritos came from a frozen plastic wrapped container meant for microwaving and the beans from a can. The taco was decent but by this point, I was mentally done.

The one thing this place had going for it was our server. He was very polite and did a good job. If you read this sir, run to better employment, you would do well elsewhere.

I really don't like leaving poor reviews as this but can't have another poor sap, as myself, dragging his children and wife in there only to have his wife look at him with disdain and children laughing it up. ;)

PS - the chips and salsa were good, however, my 9 year old believes the water tasted...

DO NOT COME HERE. It is awful. I worked in the service industry for 8 years and I have never felt more disrespected and hated. I was trying to do is place a to go order and the lady looked at me like I needed to hurry up because I was taking too long for her. She then added two tacos that were six dollars when I order the tacos that were two dollars so she added them and I didn't realize until she printed out the ticket and handed it to me so I tried to tell her no that's not what I wanted and she looked at me like I was stupid. she then just walked away because I guess I was taking too long and she had better things to do so that a man walked up and was asking me what I wanted to order I thought that he was trying to help me since she clearly couldn't he then proceeded to tell me when she walks back up that oh you've already ordered and I said I know but it's not what I wanted I don't want to be charge $20 for two tacos so he said he's already in the kitchen making them. And took my debit card pretty much a right out of my hand and swiped it it was the worst experience I've ever had in a restaurant in my whole entire life like I said I worked in the service industry for eight years I know how to be respectful. this was just the most ridiculous thing I've ever come in contact with I will be trying to go to corporate to complain to get those employees fired because they clearly don't Care about their job. Will never eat at a moderate ever again and will tell all of my...

Got my takeout order and left. I had a pollo loco, combo, large queso. They said the order is $28 which is more than it should be, don’t care about a few bucks so whatever. I looked at my change for a $40, got back $9 ($5 of which I tipped before realizing). No queso, combo was wrong, no receipt.

Came back and told them, they shrugged and pointed me at the takeout lady. Asked for a receipt, she couldn’t give one. They gave me a large queso and apologized, two other workers were signing ASL at each other (no idea why instead of speaking Spanish, I guess it’s more likely people would understand Spanish) and acting as if they didn’t really understand English. Maybe one was deaf and lip reads, who knows, but they were clearly gesturing at the takeout lady and discussing the situation.

Not sure if I’ve ever reviewed anything but this was so baffling I’m giving them a one star out of principle. I mean congrats, you scammed me out of like $6. Food...