El Pescador | Cantina 11 — Restaurant in Downey

Went here for a dinner double date on a Wednesday night. It's relevant to point out that this was not a peak time for crowds. We were seated in the back restaurant area. The place looked nice. We had high hopes. But then.... The server was terrible. It took almost 15 minutes for him to take the order. After that he disappeared. Different servers brought out the food. He didn't check on us even once after that. We saw the photographer more times than we saw our server, which is ridiculous. One drink server lady asked my friend if she liked the food, my friend told her what she didn't like about it, but the lady did nothing about it. My husband and I had the mar y mar plate with mojo de ajo. It was fine... But we have had better mojo de ajo dishes other places. My friends ordered a mocajete and they said it was terrible because:

1. It contained pork when it shouldn't have. Pork was not listed on this menu item. My friends don't eat pork.
2. The beef was low grade and not carne asada like the menu states it is. My friends were showing us it looked like a dry piece of jerky.
3. Hardly any shrimp included. After we were done eating we sat around for another good 15 minutes because nobody came by to clear plates or ask if we wanted anything else. So all 4 of us got up and walked to the front to pay. Nobody was at the register up front. We notified the hostesses, who had to get the manager to ring up our bill. My friends and I told the manger about the poor service and he asked if we said anything directly to the server. I said how could we say anything to him when he disappeared? The manager did nothing- no apologies, nothing to remedy the situation. A good manager would have at least given a discount, taken off the bad menu item, or some other kind of incentive to come back to the restaurant. At this point, we have no reason for returning to this location. This place is lucky we are honest. People sitting in this server's section could have easily dined and dashed, that's how little attention they were paying to us. Two stars for just ok but expensive...

I took my girlfriend and mom yesterday for dinner to experience without checking any reviews and to help others at the same time, well we didn't have to wait too long, Monday 8 pm kinda late we know, we got our table, check the menu, place the order etc. Couple minutes later we got some chips with salsa and water, about 15 to 20 minutes later we got the dinner, my girlfriend got shrimp enchiladas, my mother ordered mole enchiladas and I went for some beef,, all dishes came with rice, beans, little bit of cactus salad and guacamole, , rice was no good , guacamole tastes as if one more minute later it will go bad, my girlfriend's shrimp enchiladas were cold, and so my mom's mole enchiladas, my beef was not too hot but it was soft, which was perfect i didn't need to struggle to chew it, the place is perfect for people who wants to have a beer at a noisy environment, nice music with DJ , not sure if is an everyday thing, anyway while eating, there was a huge fly, for a place like that flies shouldn't be near the dining area, I told one waiter about the he fly and nicely she offered me something to kill the fly myself, "nice job " young lady. Later same girl asked us if everything was ok, well soso, finally check time, she brought the check, I was ready to pay and nobody pay attention to us, our waiter was talking to guys that were drinking near the bar, maybe a friend I thought, then I waved at someone and told her if I have to go to pay at some other place she told me that she will call our waiter, our waiter came over took the check and I guess this is it, my opinion, if costumers have to wait too long to get taken care of, there should be a bottom to call for service instead of waiving till someone realizes we need help, good luck to others, this is our 1st and never come...

The food was good We order Mar y tierra, tampiquena, Mar y Mar, Carne ranchers. The kids had cheese burgers and pizza. The drinks were nothing special ( mojito, Paloma, cazuelazo). The only drink that was good was the coconut margarita. The service was not good that's the main reason I'm giving three stars. After we sat down we waited to order drinks which was about 10min, but after we got our drinks the server didn't come back to take our food order until we said that we were ready because it had past like 15min and no acknowledgement. We received the food like 20min later which I think it was good a time. But then they forget the tortillas, we let her know we are missing 3 orders, she checks and says okay. Brings back 2 orders places them at the table doesn't say anything and leaves, I wanted her attention to let her know we are still missing one more order, but doesn't come back to see if we need anything else, finally she passes by our table and we let her know ( I'm like halfway done with my food). She makes sure that in fact we are missing an order and brings it. Technically she only took the order and brought the food, never are you guys okay, is there anything else you would like to order, any napkins ect.. I'm not a person that likes bother or be asked so many times if we are okay . We came here because one of the person that came with us said that she came with her friend and they had good customer service and the food was good. Then when we ask for the check we notice that tip was already included I'm guessing because we were a party of 8. Which got us thinking that's why the service was bad, because they knew the tip was already included. I think the server should of at least have acknowledged us since they know they are...