Perlita's Mexican Food — Restaurant in El Centro

Well, this place really sucked. My girlfriend and I decided to give it a shot regardless of the mixed reviews. I went in today around 11:40 a.m. thinking I could avoid the so-called “rush hour,” since I had heard the customer service here was slow and inattentive. But nope. I walked in and it was crickets. No one at the counter, just a group of doñitas wrapping up their meal before their Grocery Outlet run, and another group already done eating. Easy, right? Should’ve been.

I waited about four minutes at the counter, rang the little bell, and finally just seated myself with a menu I grabbed. Eventually, a lady came out, looked like the server, but instead of helping me she went straight to chat with the doñitas and the other table. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there like Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, confused and waiting for someone to notice me. Finally, she comes over, sees I already have a menu, and asks what I want. I order a small pozole and flautas. That’s when she tells me, “uuuy qué pena, pero no tengo pozole ahorita.” So I say I’ll check with my girlfriend since she’s been craving it. The server disappears and comes back a few minutes later saying, “bueno sí tenemos pozole, pero va a tardar unos 15 minutos.”

It’s barely 12:01, so I figure that’s fine. My girlfriend shows up and I explain the situation. I also tell her I ordered two horchatas that still haven’t arrived. She smiles and says okay. The server returns, asks me “oye tú, qué me pediste,” and I remind her about the flautas and the missing drinks. She says, “aaa sí, eran dos cocas mexicanas?” I correct her: one horchata and one Mexican soda.

Fast forward to 12:20. She finally brings the flautas, still no pozole. I wait a bit but my girlfriend tells me to start eating before they get soggy. Common courtesy would’ve been to bring our food at the same time, but whatever. By 12:40, I’ve finished my food and still no pozole. I go up to ask and she says, “aaaay se va a tardar más.” That’s when I just ask for the bill.

What gets me is that my girlfriend sat there the whole time, waiting and hungry, while I ate in front of her because of the false promises. That’s the worst part. Be better, Perlita. Or don’t open if you’re not ready to serve. I’m all about buying local and supporting local, but this is yet another example of poor customer service in Imperial County, just like my review a couple months ago for Caliber Collision Center.

P.S. To whoever is replying to these reviews: you need to chill. Some of your responses come off defensive, demanding, or even blaming the customer. That’s not a good look. You can’t fault people for saying they waited when you’re the one telling them their dish will be ready in 15 minutes. If caldos (menudo, pozole, de res) take two hours to make, then be upfront about it. Don’t overpromise and underdeliver, that’s on you, not...

The food was definitely not bad. However, we spent so much time waiting for our food. Approximately 3 tables were being used, we sat on a table, 10-15 minutes later, a waitress just came and gave us out menus, after another 10 minutes, we ordered our drinks, drinks didn’t take as much time to arrive, they took our orders and we waited. We had ordered some tortillas, right after that, we had to wait an hour or so, just to get our tortillas, 5 minutes later, we finally got some food which was pozole and some birria. After that, I had to wait a little more to get my quesabirrias. However, we had also ordered some pancakes, they took approximately 30 more minutes to bring them. The pancakes were kind of burnt so we couldn’t enjoy them as much. The service made our experience very unenjoyable. We took approximately 2 hours there and we spent most of our time...

The food was edible, but unfortunately, it didn’t meet our expectations. We tried the Birria tacos, which were dry and lacked flavor. Additionally, there weren’t enough vegetables provided for the two orders of tacos we placed. We also ordered a beverage, which was overly sweet and had an off taste. For dessert, we selected the cheesecake, but its texture was somewhat liquidy and not what we would typically expect from a cheesecake.

Additionally, the service fell short of expectations. The overall atmosphere felt a bit lackluster, which made the experience...