El Matador Cafe&Cantina — Restaurant in Columbus

Celebrated my son's 13th bday party here and ordered our meals. The waitress wasn't friendly like usual and when refilling drinks reached over my mother in law's plate and my sons to give me my drink back. My wife and I ordered the Mexican flag dinners and so she got the salad bar and shared a couple chips with my 5 year old step son. When I went to the register I looked at my bill and was wondering about a charge if 1.49. so I asked the lady and so she had the waitress come over and clarify the charge and she's like well I saw you guys shared some chips with the 2nd youngest and so I charged for the salad bar. And so I said he had a couple chips too which the other waitress says well if you go to a Chinese restaurant and try to do the same thing they will charge you for it. I was irritated so I said nevermind I will never come back here and said run my card and I'll leave. The last time we went there had bad service and our food was not fully warmed up and when I talked to the owner he said oh maybe the microwave wasn't working right. I get that my stepson ate some chips but it's not like he had his own bowl of chips and salsa. Spent over 135 bucks between the last two times and that will be the last time we will...

El Matador is a place I have eaten at many times years ago when I lived in Columbus. It is absolutely NOT authentic Mexican food, so don't expect that. I like to call it Mexican food for White people. But anyways, since it's not authentic, they do kind of have their own flavor profile going on in their offerings. One that many locals swear by. My favorite item on the menu is the Chimichanga meal which comes with beans and rice on the side. This thing is massive and you'll for sure get stuffed. Hadn't been to Columbus for over 9 years, happened to be there this last weekend and it happened to be my 50th birthday, so for my birthday, I just had to have my favorite dish from El Matador. Tasted exactly the way I remembered them from over 9 years ago. Delish!! Then, to top it off, they even brought me out a free Fried Ice Cream that I shared with the wife and kids (I'm diabetic). Don't know when I'll ever be returning to Columbus, if at all, but if I do, I'll most certainly be looking up El Matador for my...

Meh. Not the worst I've had but far from the best. I'm from out of town and was looking for a good Mexican restaurant to sit down and eat with my daughter after her volleyball games. I've eaten at El Mezcal which was decent but wanted to try something different. Once we walked in and I realized it was not a true sit down and order from a menu place, but order from a counter with a drive thru and high school students working the food prep, my expectations were too high. My suspicions were confirmed when the food came out in roughly 5 minutes. I guess living in Omaha with good authentic Mexican, and having eaten authentican Mexican in other areas of the country I've been spoiled.

My burrito and beans were ok, but the rice tasted like a box of store bought Mexican rice I would cook at home. I didn't finish the rice and my daughter didn't eat the...