Casa Pantera — Restaurant in El Paso

Wow! That was my first impression, when we first walked through that one giant, double size door. We got in here by some of accident. this part of town, it's somewhat of a district hub area, there are many bars to choose from, within walking distance from each other. As we were making our way to OUR destination spot, I happened to see some beautiful sparkle over there, (as the sun was setting) it turns out, it was a giant disco ball, right at its peak. I just had to go check it out. I could only see the tippy-top of the disco ball with nothing else but tall walls. Going through the massive door, it feels as if you are walking into a completely different place. The restaurant is so beautifully designed, it's a completely open area, with different tones within the restaurant. The flow of the restaurant, wraps around the perimeters of the entire building. The outdoor / patio areas are all different, in their own sort of way. We made our way straight to the bar section, where the bar is both an indoor / outdoor bar. On the bar's patio, they have a small section towards the back with a couple of small tables, with the complete dinnerware set up, very classy and intimate. On that same area they have some outdoor patio lounge chairs, as a booth setup area with a low table to match the chairs, the furniture seems to say. "Make yourself at home." As you make your way to the back of the restaurant, there is another indoor/outdoor section, here they showcase their kitchen area. This section sits the same way as the bar area, there are stools & chairs on the counter, but instead of bartenders you see cooks and sous chefs preparing you meal, right before your eyes. It looks a bit more casual compared to the front, but still fun. On the opposite side of the restaurant is a family-style area with a large table for a large group, also on this side, is the indoor seating area, with a dimmed nightclub kind of feel. Lastly, and probably the best of them all, is the front porch patio area of Casa Pantera, where there is a beautiful outdoor patio with all the trimmings. This patio is on a very cool checkered floor, with a giant disco ball above your head. I suggested that later on, they should put away the patio furniture, and turn it into a dancefloor. Although I'm going on and on about the restaurant itself, the service at Casa Pantera sucks, it was less than stellar. It must have been obvious that we were "out of our element", since we were casually dressed, going to our local pub, or maybe it's that we didn't look "money" enough, for such an upscale, pinky up, type of venue. The bartenders were conceited, short & rude, treated as poorly, and make me feel a little bit uncomfortable. I felt as as if I was being scrutinized, judged and definitely ostracized. It's to bad that such a beautiful, free, chic, sexy restaurant, has such bad, miserable, bartenders, with no personality, proud, and think they are better than. We probably would have stayed and enjoyed dinner, if we hadn't had this bad feeling & experience. After all, my money is as...

To start off, this place is NOT ADA accessible. We had a reservation for my in laws anniversary and arrived several minutes before our designated time. We were told we had to wait for them to finish setting up. They wanted to seat us in the front of the restaurant, keep in mind, they knew we needed ADA accommodations. If we sit at the front, how are we suppose to use the restroom that is located on the second floor? There are NO ramps at the front, therefore, they couldn't sit us there, unless they expected us to not use their restroom facilities. We had to wait an hour if not more so that they can "persuade" other customers to give up their tables for us. We had to get back in the car, drive to the back, and come in through the back of the restaurant because that is the only place they have a ramp available. We asked to speak to the manager several times and he couldn't bother showing his face to us and speaking to us. We get seated, orders are being taken and what not. Ceviche came out relatively fast so that helped us settle our hunger for a bit. We had to keep ordering drinks given our food wasn't ready. They told my father in law that the beer he wanted had run out, my cousins ordered a clamato and they had to run to the store to buy some and did not bother to prep it, they literally just poured from the bottle and served it as is, they were also running out of beer. Now, it took them over an hour to serve us our food. We kept asking and they kept on saying it was coming and what not. When we finally get our food, it wasn't great. My father in laws $120 steak was cold, my mother in laws fish wasn't appetizing to her and didn't taste well, one of our aunt's chicken was burnt and dry, our shrimp was really hard to bite and even chew, and our cousins tortillas from her carnitas plate were extremely hard. We were extremely disappointed. We spent a total of 4 hours there yesterday and only until we were done eating and waiting for the check was when one of the managers decided to approach our table and speak to us. It was the first time many of us went there and it is definitely the last. I know they do not care, they could even be pleased but so will we. It is very sad to see that they lied about being ADA accessible and that their food isn't up to their prices or...

1st and definitely last time here!

Our reservation was at 7:30...we got there at 7:20 only to be sat down until 8:10...the table they were waiting on for us wouldn't leave even after the manager asked them twice to do so. Usually when this happens at a restaurant like the one this place is pretending to be (expensive), the manager at least comes over to apologize and maybe offers a round of drinks or something on the house due to the inconvenience...well that didn't happen by either a manager or our server...not even an apology.

The drinks are ok...but definitely not worth $15 at least for what we ordered. The drink presentation made it seem they wanted to go with an artisanal approach so it was surprising that they didn't have common mixes like say hibiscus, tamarind, or mango for the mezcal drinks...very very typical for these types of drinks. The sangria too was like blended or something...it had texture to it which was just odd.

The food was also ok in taste. We ordered steak as main entrees and honestly, piece of meat was too condimented with spices to even taste the actual meat. When you're selling $70 steaks, they better be really good steaks that only need salt and nothing else...well not here. Not sure if they tried too hard on offering something "different" with their cooking but it didn't work for us. As for appetizers, they were also ok...I mean, you can't get fried caulifloeer or fries wrong but it wasn't necessarily "out of this world" good either.

Overall, experience was bad from start to finish...only to then find out when we got our tab that they also pass on the bank credit card 3.5% fee to the customer! If we're already paying $600 (5 adults sharing entrees and 2 kids under 8) for overpriced, average tasting food and they still cannot cover a $20 as "part of doing business" then that is just being greedy! Oh, they also forced a 20% tip! This place wont make it far charging big city steakhouse prices with their service...