El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Fairview Park

Tried this place yesterday for the worst experience ever at a Mexican restaurant. No chips and salsa, that’s extra (strike one). No Mexican place ever charges extra for this. How tacky. No hot sauces on the table!? How weird. Strike 2. Then there were about 18 more strikes. At first there were about 8-10 tables occupied and the bar seats were full. There were 2 servers working the dining room but one disappeared. (Later 4 more people would emerge from the back area, so they definitely had staff). Took about 15 minutes to get drinks (sodas) and place our order (3people). 2 of us got chicken quesadillas and one got steak quesadilla. I ordered grilled peppers and onions, but got a pile of raw onions. Barely any cheese and it wasn’t anything like typical queso cheese at every Mexican place. Send it back, they scraped off most of the raw onions and put a ridiculous amount of peppers and slightly grilled onions on top. Still no cheese. Brought me a half melted bowl of what seemed like shredded provolone. Totally worthless. The chicken and peppers were so completely bland I can’t even describe it. Totally void of flavor whatsoever despite what looked like seasoning on them. Didn’t bring any of us the salsa and sour cream supposed to be with the quesadillas. 3 more trips to the kitchen for that. Empty drinks for ages, finally got refills. Brought back with no straws. No silverware to eat our food. 2 more trips to the kitchen. Endless back and forth. The absolute WORST service I’ve experienced in a long time. The ambiance was lame, the decor and faux finish walls were super tacky and dated, although they were just done. Multiple others had issues and were talking to the “manager” one by one. People waiting concert for carry out orders. So inefficient and poorly run, terrible quality food, absolutely no reason to ever come back here again. I will bet anyone on the planet $500 this place does not make it a year. Destined for failure...

Padrino’s in Fairview Park: An Underwhelming Addition to the Taco Scene

Padrino’s in Fairview Park is one of the latest entrants in the ever-growing taco and cantina restaurant scene. Given my love for tacos and enthusiasm for supporting new businesses, I was excited to try it out. Unfortunately, my experience was underwhelming at best.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a friendly hostess, which set a positive tone initially. However, this was one of the few highlights of our visit. Our server, although pleasant, was not very attentive. After taking our order, she disappeared and did not return to check on our meals or provide any follow-up service. It felt as though the servers had somewhere more important to be.

For our meal, my daughter ordered the chicken quesadilla while I opted for the chicken chimichangas. Sadly, both dishes were quite average. The chimichangas, in particular, were disappointing. The portion size was notably small, lacking the hearty serving one typically expects from such a dish. The flavors were bland, and it seemed like the dish had been hastily prepared without much attention to detail.

My daughter’s chicken quesadilla was another letdown. It was a complete mess, poorly assembled and lacking the cohesive, satisfying bite you hope for. The ingredients seemed to be thrown together without much care, resulting in an unappealing and disorganized dish.

In a crowded marketplace with numerous options for taco enthusiasts, Padrino’s needs to step up its game. The combination of lackluster food and inattentive service does not bode well for a new restaurant trying to make its mark. Sadly, I won’t be returning to Padrino’s. There are simply too many other places that...

This place has great food, but the service is awful! My family and I came in at 4pm party of 8, seated immediately since there were only 2 other parties in the small restaurant. Talking amongst ourselves we didn’t even realize that 20 plus minutes goes by still without alcoholic drinks but not even glasses of water were given. The staff was gathered talking around the bar so I approached them at the bar questioning the drinks they claimed they were working on it, mind you the restaurant is pretty empty. 2 minutes later the drinks appear. Then we we finally get our food, rudely we started getting rushed out as the restaurant started getting busier like they didn’t want to tend to us anymore starting around 5:10pm, they started dropping off to go boxes and taking away our Patron towers that were still full with drinks but just asked us to remove them off the towers! The staff was seemingly getting irritated as we ordered more drinks as well which didn’t make sense, we weren’t a needy group at all most of us have worked in service. Finally as we get to wrap things up we weren’t even there 2 hours, the bill comes, obviously there was 8 of us so we knew it’d be heavier, but we thought it was happy hour since it stated 4-8pm is happy hour. WRONG the server finally tells us that it was not happy hour which would be understandable if the days were clearly stated on the website & the menu, but it was not. Even paying the bill took SO LONG, my stepdad went to grab our server at this point. He just paid the bill, no complaints to the manager, just amongst our table & decided we will not be back. All in all, great food, but definitely would only go back for take out or a small party of 2for...