Zapata's Mexican Restaurant & Cantina — Restaurant in Fairview Heights

I visited Zapata's on June 14th, with a group of friends, and i cant believe how we were treated. We arrived at about 8 pm, and the interior of the resturant was almost empty, as a result we assumed we would be served quickly, we were wrong. Two servers debated amongst themselves regarding who would help us......which delayed our ordering for 20min. After an additional 25-30 min when we finally recieved our food it was cold.When my friend saught the attention of the manager express her concerns, she was taunted. She was offered a shot of Tequila as compensation for the resturants inadequate service. Several women complained about various things that was wrong with their orders, but noone was compensated. After sitting in a nearly empty resturant for almost an hour and recieving cold food, the manager never offered to remove any of the charges. One of the members of our party recieved a single burrito on a plate......no garnish, no side item, just a single burrito, and when she asked for sour cream she was charged 1.00 for it. She was charged a dollar for a condiment that was never offered to her, which is usually a mexican resturant standard. Our party of 6 professional african american women, was treated as if we were second class citizens, and not respected at all. I frequented Zapatas old location often, but I will NEVER return to be...

We stopped by here after a looong day at Barnes Jewish for my S/O appointments and we tried to eat in the Lou but it was 6 P.M. and insanely packed everywhere. To start our server Ally was absolutely WONDERFUL, give this woman a raise idk what she makes idc because it's not enough.

I got the carnitas plate with rice and beans and it was absolutely divine, Carnitas collapsed/shredded with the slightest push of a fork and the rice and beans had a classic flavor you would expect from a good Mex spot.

S/O got the Enchiladas special with Barbacoa, rice and Street corn and it was perfect for her.She really enjoyed it and had leftovers for lunch tommorow!I tried it too and it was so delicious, very good sauce and barbacoa was on point!

Also side note the little scoop of Mexican cornbread on my carnitas plate was f'ing magical, so good I was mad I've never had it on a plate before!

Good job...

I love zapatas but from our most recent visit 4 days ago i had to rate a 3. Stood at front door for 5 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us. We were told we had to sit at separate tables due to having more than 6 for my sons 12th bday dinner (we had 7) yet there was a table that had 9 seated together by us!! Our waitress was a bit rude when i tried to tell her we were celebrating my sons bday. Did not even acknowledge it and he felt a bit down. Ordered food and didnt see waitress again until food came. Had to go and ask for napkins and more chips/salsa and she was just sitting around in the back. When food came, tortillas wrapped in foil were rock hard. They literally broke like crackers!! Asked for new ones and same again!! Just not the best service i have had here and was very disappointed when we spent...