Gringo’s Mexican Kitchen {Champions} — Restaurant in Spring

5 stars for the food but 2 stars for tonight's unbelievable service. I've been to this Geingos location 3 times previously and had great service and great food which is why today's visit was such a standout. When walking in we were greeted by a hostess reluctantly. Our party was my husband and I and our 8 month old daughter. We told the hostess a table for 2.5 please. She led us to a booth where I asked, how is a booth possible with a highchair? She said oh you can't put a highchair on a booth. I looked at my daughter and there was a long pause where she then said oh, you need a highchair? Uhm. So then she stated she would put us at a table but it wasn't cleaned off yet. We said that was fine as we don't have much choice and we had seen some friends at another table we would say hello to while the table got cleared. When we returned to the table the dishes were gonebbutbthebrable was still dirty. She appeared with a towel and brushed the dirty table off and I asked if she could wipe the tomato off my chair. She just swept it onto the floor. Eh. She then went to grab a high chair and dropped it off and left. I called her back and asked for a towel as it had food in the seat. She grabbed a towel and handed it to me. She then saw I was cleaning the high chair and then apologized and said she didn't see it was dirty. We finally got seated on cleaned seats and ordered drinks, appetizers and food. After drinks appeared someone dropped off chips, salsa and the green stuff but placed the green one right in front of my 8 month daughter. I was drinking my drink and didn't move fast enough! Green salsa stuff all over the table, my daughter and my Michael Kors purse beside the table. Another employee saw it and I said please bring us a towel so I can keep the salsa from my daughter's mouth let alone wipe all this off the table and my leather bag. They returned with some dry paper towels. Finally after we went through over 10 napkins someone appeared with a wet rag. How is it not taught no never place food in front of a child? Any child?? Just don't. The parent will appreciate it. The appetizer arrived- queso with chicharrones. No small plates for my husband or I and we still didn't get silverware or napkins. The waiter wasn't anywhere to be seen and I told my husband I was sure we we would get our meals and still no silverware. Granted I'm still upset that I have to go home and find the leather cleaner for my handbag. Our meal arrived and wjen the waiter asked if we needed anything, we informed him silverware would be nice. The rest of the meal went well and the food, as always, was delicious but tonight was our worst experience ever here. I really hope this isn't a constant as tonight was enough to turn me off of this location. At least an apology would have been nice but none was offered. I'm going to go find my leather cleaner and see if I can clean my...

Patience is a virtue, right? It's a good thing I have so very much of it.

I was truly surprised by the lack of reaction by the management here after my 4 year old was doused with ice cold water. Obviously an accident, and the waitress apologized. The manager came out to ask if everything was okay, but really not more than that. It wasn't even obvious he knew about the event. I had to undress my child in public - thankfully I had a change of clothes in the car - and the event wasn't directly addressed. The manager could have been referring to general well-being and service. I decided to wait. Sometimes, management will comp a meal or bring out a comped dessert for a flub - something! They didn't charge us for the two kids drinks that I had ordered before the accident, that's it.

Overall, such a mistake could have been worse: it could have been colored or sugary, it could have been on our food, someone could have gotten clocked on the head, but it wasn't that bad. It was, however, a good example of not caring because it happened to a kid. Had it happened to an adult, I feel it would have been more directly addressed and apologized for. It would have absolutely garnered a response of "your entree is on us." At the very least, "here's a free app." Nope. Just a couple general check-ins and a whoopsie-daisy apology.

One additional thing that could have been done to help our experience go more smoothly would have been to rush my own order once I put it in. I hadn't had time to figure out my order since I was changing my child into dry clothes. I told the server to go ahead and talk the order for the rest of the table so that the kids could start eating. I genuinely didn't care if I ate last; I would be making sure my two children are their food, anyway. It took a little more time than I would have liked to put my order in, but then the kitchen took an awfully long time to bring out my shrimp salad. My friend was finished eating by the time I got my order. A decent management system would at the very least have rushed my order so that I didn't have to wait so long.

So the food was fine, the staff was nice, but seriously. The amount of patience and understanding I showed versus the amount of give-a-damn they showed after spilling ice cold water on a child was grossly unbalanced. If a person has to make a scene and be a you-know-what in order to get a legitimate apology or some sort of compensation for a very uncomfortable accident... Then I hope y'all don't act like the people who make a scene are out of line. Apparently it's the only way this establishment might properly address...

This was not my first visit at this location. My office, associates and clients frequently support this location. Maybe the service was subpar because of the Astros game. As a business owner I know they should have prepared for the additional customers. When I arrived I was not immediately greeted by the employees who were at the entry podium. I thought that's odd. Then, I asked the young lady (out of four employees ) she was holding a menu and wearing an apron, "if my party was there? They came in between 6pm & 6:30pm. She immediately very curtly said, "I don't know and walked off". I then stepped back and look phoned my colleagues to find out if they were still there. They were and they told me they were seated on the outside patio area. I hung up approached the podium again and asked " where was the patio fenced area?". Again very short and curtly a young man said, "its outside". 🙄 So I asked, how do I access the area? He then responded by raising his arm and pointing towards a side door. I proceeded outside only to be seated and witness another calamity with our young waiter. Where somehow he dropped our entire order of drinks and snack chips & salsa. Over worked and obviously underpaid they all needed help. To add insult to injury after the tray was dropped...another waiter said he would assist him clean up the mess. Well they neither did. They picked up the broken drink containers, but left an outdoor floor of broken chips, etc., and our adjacent table unbused. The food was good, not great, but I have been there on other occasions and the food was great and the service was definitely better. Maybe the full moon had an...