Hacienda El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Elk Grove Township

I grew up in the area and this place was a staple in the community growing up. Went back with my wife and kids when we were in town and the restaurant has definitely "crashed and burned." We were greeted by the smell of vomit when we entered the restaurant that was consistent through the entire meal. We were seated in the main area and it was painfully clear they haven't cleaned or updated at all since I was a kid 25 years ago. You could still see heavy smoke residue on the walls and ceiling from when smoking was legal in restaurants many years back. They also used to have a live mariachi band playing every weekend. We sat down at about 9:30 to discover they now had the worst house band in existence that barely fit in the bar later in the evenings. They were also so loud we could barely talk sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant. Additionally, they couldn't hit a note if their life depended on it and I've seen plenty of bad bands in dive bars over the years, lol.

Moving on to dinner. My wife, who was starving when we came in, was too disgusted to eat. My 10 year old son wouldn't wash his hands in the bathroom before dinner at stated the "toilet looked cleaner." The server, who seemed like she'd rather be having dental surgery, then took our order. As we were waiting for our order, I watched the bus boy/food runner clean other tables then immediately bring our table water. The large herpes sore on his mouth that he scratched made our upcoming meal that much more appetizing too (not). Shortly after, the chips and salsa came that was bland at best. Eventually the food came. It looked like it was just thrown on all the plates and equally as poor tasting. It was bland and the quality was definitely gone. Even my oldest son, who will eat anything, commented "you said this place was good dad?" Ashamed, we moved onto fried ice cream. You can't screw up ice cream right? Wrong. The fried crispy coating was now just thrown on it and not the same from the old days. Epic failure all around. We then paid the bill and left to find one a bar patron smoking a marijuana pipe right out in front of the restaurant. No one from management even noticed much less did anything about it.

Yikes,...

Saw this place had a pretty good rating so i decided to come here with my family to celebrate mothers day......big mistake. I have never had such an awful experience at a restaurant. The service was slow, the food was not good, but worst of all the staff was rude. Everyone ordered at the same time but for some reason they brought out one plate before all the others so by the time the rest of the food came that person was done eating. If they had waited for the rest of us their food would have been cold. To make matters worse they didnt even bring out the sides for their dish until we managed to flag down a waiter because our waiter was M.I.A. When they eventually brought out the rest of the food most of it was wrong. A kids meal was brought out as an adult meal, an adult meal was brought out as a kid meal, they brought out the wrong tacos, and we were missing an order of fries. The waiter that brought out the food was not our original waiter so not sure if he knew what was going on but when he was told we were missing an order of fries this guy tells the person to share with the guy whos fries did come out until he can get the kitchen to make another order, and then he told the person who got the wrong tacos (they had sent the tacos back) that they were delicious as if to say he went back there and ate them because we didnt want them. We were never offered refills, nobody came by to see if we needed anything, the margaritas tased super sweet as if it was nothing but the mix, we ordered a bottle of water when we sat down and never got it, then when we asked for it later we were told by a person who claimed to be the owner that they dont sell water bottles ( even though its on the menus) because someone got sick from it before 😒. Honestly i could go on and on, long story short take your business elsewhere...

Been going here for the last 20 years on New Years Eve, for dinner- we're in the early crowd about 5:30p. It's a family tradition. Seen the change in ownership and really liked the changes that were implemented. The place has seen some improvements on the inside but maintained the same feel. I have a lot of good memories here. Margaritas never disappoint. Food has been good but not great. Troubling service in 2022. Table of 6, and we waited for drink order, waited for over an hour for food. Restaurant was not even half full. A couple that sat after us, ordered and ate and left before our food came out. Honestly, the service was really, really poor and slow. That happens and we are an understanding group. What really left a bitter taste in my mouth was how that all changed when the bill came and after we had sat for so long, they had no issue with retrieving the bill and collecting the tip before we left the table. Are you kidding me? It was tacky... The owner seems like a really hard worker and a nice guy and I think he truly cares about his business and patrons, I hope this was a one off for us. I'd recommend this place but I do have reservations based on my...