Tacos Chabelita — Restaurant in Delaware

Shame on you, Tacos Chabelita! My experience tonight was awful. I ordered wings over the phone, picked them up, and they were lukewarm—clearly not fresh. As you can clearly see in the picture below, I only took one bite.

I walked back into the restaurant to see what could be done about it. They told me it would be another 20-minute wait—after I had already waited more than 20 minutes! At that point, I said, “No, that’s fine, I’ll just take a refund.” I was told that no refund would be given because “there was nothing wrong with the wings.” Really?

I reached out to my wife, who was not happy. She called the restaurant to speak with the manager, Caira. When she asked for her name, the phone suddenly went silent. My wife asked again, and this time, Caira moved the phone away from her mouth so we couldn’t hear her clearly.

When my wife asked if she was aware of the situation with our wings, Caira replied immediately, “Yes, I do, I was just talking to him.” Okay, fine. Then my wife asked what happened with the wings and why they were served cold. Caira replied, “Because the wings are small, they get cold fast.”

Excuse me, what?! How are the wings going to be cold after being told it would take 20 minutes to make them? I showed up early and still had to wait. But now you’re saying they’re cold because they’re small? That makes no sense.

So my wife said, “If the wings are cold, and you’re saying there’s nothing wrong with them, do you think it’s acceptable to serve cold food to your customers?” Caira then said, “No, we don’t.” My wife followed up, “Then why were my husband’s wings cold and why was he told he couldn’t get a refund—just a reheat of the ones you already gave him?”

No—we don’t want reheated wings. We want fresh, hot wings.

My wife asked again, “If you claim you don’t serve cold food, but my husband’s wings were cold, why wasn’t he refunded? Just because you don’t think something is wrong doesn’t mean there isn’t something wrong.”

Caira then said, “Well, the wings don’t really take 20 minutes to cook and they’re small, so they got cold.”

So my wife said, “Let me get this straight. Not only are you unsure how long it takes to cook the wings you serve regularly, but you also gave my husband false information about when they’d be ready (which means they were sitting), and you think it’s okay to serve cold, dissatisfying food just because you believe there’s nothing wrong with it. Yet, you just admitted the wings were cold because they were small and didn’t take long to cook. Is that correct?”

The manager was speechless.

So my wife asked again, “How are we going to handle this?”

Caira said there was nothing she could do and added, “I don’t know what to tell you because this isn’t something we have to worry about.”

Why would she say that?!

My wife let her know we would be reaching out to the owner, Mr. Don Miguel Barrueta, and informing him that his staff feels customers’ concerns about cold food aren’t important. Since Caira said, “This isn’t something we have to worry about,” we’ll also make sure everyone knows this restaurant is a disappointment. They give out false information and don’t even know how long their food cooks for—so there’s a chance your food might not even be fully done.

As you can see in the picture, the wings were not small. The manager, Caira, clearly didn’t care and wasn’t trying to help at all. After this eventful trip I won’t be coming back to this...

Parking is good here, plenty of places to park around the building. This is a stand alone restaurant right off the highway. First thing I saw was the bathroom was outside, and had a little chuckle to myself. This is a small place, maybe 10 tables, and a bar that extends nearly the length of the place. The decor was aesthetically pleasing, and had a clean look to it. I chose to sit at the bar. Service was outstanding, anything I needed I got in a reasonable time.

I ordered a Modelo which was perfect temperature and refreshing. They have a small tequila selection, but plenty of Mexican brews. I forgot to ask tequila prices. Slacker!

Chips and Salsa!!!! Chips....excellent, fried hard, fresh, and could handle a topping. Salsa....pureed with a strong tomato flavor, a touch of spicy, with a slight cilantro kick on the end. Not my favorite, I prefer more cilantro on top of more cilantro. It was serviceable and I'm sure most folks would enjoy it. Green salsa pureed texture, cool, almost tasteless to me. Creamy green cool, creamy texture, with a bit more heat with no real standout flavor. I'm thinking maybe some avocado and jalapeno??? I was hoping for creamy cilantro. Creamy orange again, cool with the creamy texture. I couldn't find a standout flavor, but had a little creeping heat to it. My theory is that they may just help hydrate meat without overpowering with flavor. Or maybe my tongue took a break.

I ordered Torta de Milenesa: Breaded chicken, mayo, beans, lettuce, tom, onion, and avocado. $7.99. Can you fall in love with a sandwich? Because I did on Dec 2nd 2018. Easily the best torta I've had so far in my travels. Perfectly cooked, it had some crunch, yet was moist and delicious inside. The bread was amazing, and everything came together like a marriage made in Heaven.

I ordered Tacos....Chorizo, carnitas, cabeza, pastor, and lengua. Chorizo...solid taco, good char, almost dry, low on the greasy factor. wow the tortillas are out of this world fantastic! Carnitas...melt in your mouth with a great crunch. I feel like these hit the fryer. I could eat these forever and stay happy!!! Cabeza... not that melt in your mouth butter flavor I love, but a good taco none the less. Pastor...outstanding! great char, seasoned well, cooked to perfection with some pineapple chunks in there for good measure. Lengua... nothing really special to me. Id say this one was middle of the road in the lengua game. With the salsa's provided, each taco showed improvement. All but the carnitas... I wolfed it down before the thought of salsa came to mind. Must again mention the great tortilla...

I'm very upset about an experience we had today at lunch. My husband and son ordered 5 tacos each and I ordered the steak nachos. We asked for our drinks in to go cups. Our drinks were brought to us in the larger, much more expensive cups instead of the regular size cups. We didn't say anything, but just let it slide. Very shortly after our food was brought to us, my husband, who is a Delaware State Fire Police, got toned out for an accident, so we had to leave. We were given our check and boxes for our lunch. The guys had only eaten 3 of the 10 tacos (my husband ate 2 of his and our son ate 1 of his) and we were charge full price for the remaining 7. We understand your policy is to charge full price for take out tacos, but this was an unusual situation. We didn't take them because they couldn't finish them, we took them because there was an emergency that required the fire department to which my husband belongs. He felt like he was being penalized for serving his community. I asked the waitress if the upcharge could be omitted under the circumstances but she said no. This isn't fair! If you or a family member were in that accident, would you want the emergency crew to stay and finish their lunch before they responded so they didn't have to pay full price? I don't think so. You would want them to respond ASAP, which is what my husband did. Please rethink your policy. I don't know that my husband will be coming back to your restaurant again, any time soon, if you don't. P. S. I neglected to mention that we have eaten here MANY times, so it isn't like we were 1st time diners, trying to get over . The food has always been great and most of the staff has been VERY friendly (there were a couple that were the pits, but we noticed are no longer here, so we obviously weren't the only one that...