Cantina Laredo — Restaurant in Florida

I write this feedback to your corporation as an example of some of my worst customer service experiences. The evening began on February 8 where a member of my party made a reservation at the Fort Myers location. She made a reservation for 8 people at 6:30 via google reservations. I was the first to arrive and told by the hostess that I could not be seated until my party arrived. When my party arrived, we were told there wasn’t a table ready for us. The hostess told us that they don’t “in fact do not take reservations and it’s more like call ahead seating.” I am not sure who would have ever told her this, but a call ahead is not made online days in advance. As we all continued to wait, a few went to the bar and again spoke to the hostess about a large table available. We were told no because it was for 6 and we were 7. What a confusing situation to have a reservation with no table set aside for this time or even an attempt to push tables together. Ultimately waiting an entire hour before being seated. We entered the restaurant and asked to speak with a manager to express our frustration with the situation. Once at a table, we again asked for a manager. Paul, arrived moments later. The exchange between one of our party plus Paul quickly escalated to beyond distasteful. It was expressed to the manager that it was quite upsetting that we waited so long without any kind of acknowledgment. To which the manager replied, “I apologized didn’t I?” He did not. The guest then expressed at other establishments, there is an action to show appreciation and reduce aggravation with the guests. He begins to shout, “I don’t know what you are looking for!” The guest suggested options from comped drink, appetizers, to a percentage off etc. The manager belabored the fact that “it was a Friday night in Fort Myers, in season.” This fact was irrelevant as we are all residents and fully aware of the “time of year.” While a shouting match did occur, I was completely taken aback that a manager would even rise to this level to yell at a guest. Regardless of the issue, this is not how you treat a guest. I can also attest that he was the one who began the yelling. As a manager I’d imagine the goal is to have happy satisfied customers willing to return. So for him to have no idea how to handle the situation is poor management skills and poor behavior. He had the opportunity to turn our evening around and ultimately made it worse. Overall, a bad experience for a going away dinner that made 7 customers ready to...

I have been coming here for years. I'm not even one to complain about ANYTHING, but our service tonight deserves some words. It appears they have hired new managers recently and our experience was incredibly subpar. We arrived at 6pm for a birthday group of 9. I understand its a Saturday and we did not make reservations, so we were prepared to wait, but what happened was inexcusable... we put our name in at 6pm. Confirmation text at 6:04pm. By 7:00 the hostess was apologizing profusely and ushered us to the bar for drinks and chips and salsa. 7:15, we are standing at the bar- it was 7:40 by the time a bartender even acknowledged us to take our order. We were sat at 8:00... TWO HOURS after we put our name in. Server was fantastic, food came out at 9:00, when I was advised that the kitchen "forgot" to make one of our entrees. At this point, we were 2 margaritas and 3 buckets of chips deep, so no one was hungry and we requested our food be put in boxes and settled for margaritas and dessert for dinner. Ordered dessert. 45 minutes later, it arrived. Around this time, the "manager" came to ask us how we were doing. We advised him that we had been there for almost 4 hours and only just barley eaten, where he in return reminded us that it "is a Saturday." I have been here on a Saturday. I have been here on a Saturday with parties bigger than this. Without a reservation, at that, and have never had to wait so long for anything. About 5 minutes later, he returned to our table to "let us know that it has not been 4 hours." He "checked the tickets" and we "put our first drink order in at 7:40." What kind of management argues with a customer over something like that, when the entire rest of the restaurant is aware of how long we have been there and apologizing profusely?! I just feel like someone needs to be made aware of how the current management is handling an insanely unacceptable experience in hopes that no one else has to go through it. We have been loyal customers for many years and have all decided that we will not be back for a while. I know that 8 people not returning won't mean much to current management, but I am so incredibly appalled at tonight's experience and wouldn't wish it on...

Let me start by saying that I spent the last 30+ years in the Intermountain West, which has a fair bit of good Mexican food from food trucks to high end. So, my bar is relatively high. But, I live here in SWFL now.

For starters, this place has a very nice and novel take on the chips & salsa thing. They serve the "hot" stuff warm (mild is brought cold), which I have never had anywhere before, and it was really good. The salsas are thin, which is great, and very tasty. Chips are homemade, thin and crispy white corn tortillas quartered and served warm, lightly salted. Very nice. Also, the tableside guacamole is not to be missed, and was very well done. For those who are a little more adventurous, ask for the hotter tomatillo-based salsa with habanero peppers. Not too hot, but very flavorful. Very unique.

The entrees are where things go a little awry. My wife had the Carnitas plate. It was served with some sort of warm chipotle corn salsa as the side which was sort of sweet, and the corn was obviously from a can. Not great. The pork was well cooked, falling off the bone, just as I like it. This would have been awesome had the meat been seasoned well.

I had the Veracruz enchiladas, and I won't do that again. The chicken was so bland, it would have passed for boiled. And the rest of the dish was just confusing, unauthentic and tasteless. Served with an unexciting side of rice and black beans.

I get that here in SWFL, there may be a bit of bias toward the bland end of the spectrum, because not all patrons will appreciate the spicy nature of some ethnic foods. But, we are not all served well by this. :) If you like your Mexican food spicy and flavor-full (and I don't mean just HOT), then keep looking. Good, not great. We will be back, at least once more, to try other items. But, the first impression...