El Paso Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Florida

This is a lengthy review, but worth the read. I had the worst dining experience of my life last night, no exaggeration, and wish I could select "0" stars. I've eaten here frequently, but never again.

A friend accidentally knocked my soda over, completely submerging my phone. I wasn't mad, it happens, and took my phone towards the hostess stand to get napkins. I saw a server on the way and asked her for help while holding up my dripping phone. She stared at me, kind of through me actually, didn't say or do anything, no hand gestures, body movements, nothing. Confusing behavior from an employee, but I was too distracted and anxious about my phone to worry about it so I just walked away and continued towards the hostess stand. I asked the girl at the counter for something to dry my phone, but she wanted to know what happened before helping me. Feeling frustrated, I explained - and then saw a stack of napkins on the counter. I was drying my phone (finally!) and thanking them when the server I had tried talking to approached us. She began speaking to the other employees in Spanish, and it occurred to me that she may not have responded to me because of a language barrier. This is also the point when things went very south. As soon as the server finishes talking to her coworkers, I'm suddenly being yelled at by several angry employees. I have never been more speechless or confused in my life. Then a man walks up to inform me that I was never to speak to his employees like that and that people who call others "stupid" were not welcome. Stupid? I never said anything like that - nor have I ever or would I ever call someone "stupid" or otherwise derogatory. I've been there and it sucks. And honestly, I was more concerned about my phone than immature name-calling. I think what may have happened was that the first server I tried to talk to mistook my panic for aggression because of the (unknown to me at the time) language barrier, and then said God only knows what to the girls at hostess stand. I don't know if she honestly misinterpreted or incorrectly translated something I said as the word "stupid", or if she just made it all up for some reason. I don't know because I wasn't allowed to ask questions or provide my side of the story. The guy who told me I apparently called someone "stupid" wouldn't let me ask what he meant, defend myself, or even speak. If I tried, he held his hand up to my face and spoke louder. I am 38 years old and have never been kicked out of an establishment. I wasn't drinking either, unless Diet Coke counts. My sisters and I have worked food service and understand how awful people can be. Because of that, I truly strive to go above and beyond as a customer. I tip a MINIMUM of 20%, regardless of quality or experience, a lot more for good service. I know first hand how difficult any customer service position is, especially food service, and am so upset that I was accused of doing something that I specifically avoid doing - because I've been called names, disrespected in my own work place, and would never want anyone else to experience that. And despite their appalling behavior towards me, I still refused to retaliate. I wish I had a better ending to this story, but this restaurant doesn't care about positive experiences or basic human respect. Since I DO, I will share my story with anyone who has the desire to spend their money at this...

This was the worst experience that I have ever had in a restaurant. We were part of a large group there for a birthday party on a Saturday evening. We were seated in a room in the front that was very hot. Even though we called to make sure that the restaurant could accommodate our group the restaurant was understaffed. We had just one server handling our group of 25 for most of our visit. It took over an hour for the food to come out, a couple meals at a time, and at least three meals were never served. Afterwards we waited for so long to get our bills that some of the group started talking about just leaving. We finally ended up lining up in the lobby like we were waiting to check out in a grocery store, while the manager tried to sort out the bills individually. This process was frustrating and very time consuming. Even after all the bills were supposedly paid the manager informed us that we owed an additional $75 or the waitress was going to have to pay the shortage. We went ahead and paid the additional amount and verified with the manager that everything had been paid. We even had to pay for the meals that were not served. One of our party left their phone number with the waitress in case anything else came up. Later in the evening we received a text from the waitress that we owed an additional $30 and she was being charged for it. Some of the group went back and paid the extra and once again confirmed that our party was paid in full. So guess what, we get another text that another $20 is owed. We paid that too so that it wouldn’t be held against the waitress. At no point during this did the manager apologize for the wait or any other part of this disappointing dining experience. The manager even went on to insinuate that it was partly our fault because we had 25 in our group instead of the 20 or so that were supposed to have. While the food that we did get was ok this was a horrible evening and we will not be back and would not recommend this...

El Paso is a quaint little Mexican restaurant off Mobile Hwy in Pensacola located beside the Arby's. There is plenty of parking with easy access to the restaurant. My visit was on a Saturday afternoon so was surprised how easy it was to find parking close to the front door. There is a nice waiting area as you enter the restaurant. Once inside you can clearly see this is a big restaurant with a lot of seats and tables.

We had a group of about 15 people and again had no trouble with seating. To this point everything seemed fine. We looked over the menu and when the main server passed by we said we'd like to order and he kurtly said one minute and walked away. 10 minutes later he returned to take our order.

The food came out quick enough. I sampled the steak fajitas, fish taco, ribeye steak, wings and chips and salsa.

The best thing I ate was the chicken wing, which says what you really need to know. The fajita steak was cut into large pieces not suitable for fajita and was tough. The accompanying beans were flavorless. The fish taco was sparse in fish and very dry. The ribeye steak was very tough and full of gristle and overall difficult to eat. The chips seemed slightly stale and the salsa was watery. The chicken wing was the star but compared to wings at a chicken restaurant they didn't stand out.

The server even took my plate which still has food on it that I was eating but yet failed to ever refill my empty glass of water. He also failed to split the check as requested and scoffed at his $80 tip at the end of the meal. Maybe he had a bad day but he sure translated that into a bad experience for us.

I won't go back and would urge anyone to think twice before going. There are much better choices such as El Patron and La Barra del Taco and others. Maybe that's why the parking lot was empty and finding a table...