Abelardo's Mexican Fresh — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

I realize they just opened and they are trying to get their act together, but here's a few pointers that might cause me to change my review.

1. The person running the register should be fluent in English. I had questions about items on the menu, and the gal behind the counter just rang me up for those menu items. I asked if they had Coke or Pepsi products.....she charged me for 2 large drinks. My wife wanted a kids meal (she's had bariatric surgery).....she had to try to explain to the gal why she wanted a kids meal.
2. Better ventilation- it was so smokey in there I am surprised fire alarms were not going off. On top of this, I have asthma and I walked out of there gasping for fresh air, and spent an hour and a half coughing from all the smoke from them cooking/burning food.
3. When I got home (we did take out), my order was completely wrong. Thankfully I don't mind fish tacos, but I ordered the green chile plate. The fried fish on the tacos was so dried out- I got the impression they'd been sitting a while under a heat lamp or something along those lines. My wife thankfully her order was right, she had no complaints. Once again though-This goes back to my first suggestion- I realize this is a chain of Mexican restaurant- but the people running the counter need to understand and speak English. This is America, we are primarily an english speaking country. If you are going to live and work here- having a good fluency in the english language should be a requirement to run the counter at this establishment.

With all that said, I hope they can get the kinks worked out- I may change my mind if future visits improve my impression of this place. I've been to other Abalardo's and had a wonderful experience. Definitely fix that cooking ventilation- like double the capacity. The dining room was full of smoke, I was coughing like a 2 pack a day smoker after...

I had high hopes. The first time I ordered, I ordered one cheese and one chicken enchiladas but when I got them home, they were both chicken, also ordered the fried tacos with chicken and they were amazing! 🤤

Tonight I thought I’d order the fried tacos with chicken but got home to find out that I received ground beef tacos instead.

I tried to call a few times to get the order corrected, and no answer,🙄 so I tried to a leave a voicemail for someone to call me back, but they haven’t set up their voicemail.🙄

This is the second time in a row I received the wrong order but was charged for them🙄. I can’t get hold of them. I was really looking forward to what I had ordered because the food is good, but come on! You’re a new restaurant and you screw up the only two orders I’ve ever placed with you.

From the looks of it, I’m not the only one who gets random food in their order. 🤦🏻‍♀️🙄 Not a great way to start out your new business being that there are many other Mexican restaurants in this town. If they don’t get some quality control on who is packing their orders or who is delivering them at the window, the other Mexican restaurants will swallow them up!...

This place has the potential to be good, but here's the problem:

The menu is incredibly too large for a drive thru

Add difficulty hearing and understanding the order, some language barriers

Add items with similar names

Here is my experience: I waited for probably over 20 minutes in the drive thru for four items (as the first car), maybe more. I got the wrong food and the mistake cost like an extra $20, which I didnt notice right away because I misunderstood the total. They fixed it, and of course that takes longer. They were friendly and sent me off with a mistaken item to try, but I got home and everything was cold.

I would go inside and avoid the drive-thru. I imagine it would be challenging to keep a neat, organized kitchen with a large, complicated menu, as well. Something to think about.

I think there is some potential here if the logistical issues are addressed, and the food seemed like it could have been good if things had gone differently. Keep it simple, dine in, and check out the menu ahead of time. Give them awhile to get their groove before doing drive-thru unless you just need a couple...