Pueblo Viejo — Restaurant in Florida

Pueblo Viejo of Okeechobee has fallen to a new all-time low for me, my family, extended family and friends after today. If you live in Okeechobee or are visiting, please consider ANY of our other Mexican restaurants before making the decision to walk through the door of Pueblo Viejo that does not care about your dining experience and your family, has a staff that is extremely unprofessional, and food that takes minutes to prep but apparently over an hour to be served. You will not see me walk through Pueblo's doors again. Pueblo Viejo needs to make this right!

My sister's boyfriend had called days ahead to reserve a long table for a party of nearly 20 people to celebrate my sister's birthday. Pueblo had assured him that it would not be a problem and that they would be ready when we arrive.

We showed up early for our 7:30 time slot and Pueblo was NOT ready for us. We waited close to an hour before being seated.

Our single waitress, for a party of 30, took our drink and food order, drinks came out in a decent timely manner, there was a bit of a delay on the chips and salsa; usually the crew that does this is really good about this, but for us they seemed to be too busy to attend our party. While seated with empty drinks for both adults and kids, we saw other tables being seated and served in better time than our party.

After 45 minutes with no news from our waiter, we aske for the status of our food and were told that it would be coming out soon; 20 minutes after that...still no food. It was nearly 10pm when our food arrived in intervals, many of the plates were warm however the food was clearly cold.

Myself and my siblings brought our concerns to the manager. We were given every excuse in the book; short staff, new servers, new bussers, and that she was sorry for the inconvenience but there was "nothing that I can really do for you, I'm sorry!"

I tried to empathize with the manager, since I had former serving experience however she was still hesitant to help us. More than anything we were upset not only with the long wait but the fact that our children had to wait so long for such a simple meal.

I explained to the manager that we as customers make a decision with our wallets when we dine out, we want an experience that reminds us that someone else can take care of our dinner plans for us...apparently Pueblo Viejo in the Publix plaza is NOT the place you need to visit for a good meal and experience.

Our large party tried to be pleasant but again our food was cold, no refills on drinks, our server ghosted us, and one by one our groups got up from the table to settle their bills.

It is sad that a restaurant like Pueblo Viejo in Okeechobee, FL be allowed to remain open. We were NOT the only patrons that were upset that night. I ran into a high school classmate that had shared with me as I was leaving that he had called in a simple order for some burritos and had been waiting for well over 45 mins after he arrived.

Okeechobee deservers better than this! Even worse than the super long wait, lack of refills, cold food served after an hour plus wait while customers came and went, was the lack of respect & professionalism displayed by the staff of Pueblo Viejo. To clarify this statement, I requested to speak with the manager at the server ticket station and could clearly hear the servers making unnecessarily rude comments about our party in front of me, possibly not realizing I could hear them and understand them in both English and Spanish. My sister experienced the same level of unprofessionalism and disrespect from the staff working the bar, who openly complained about our group.

Okeechobee deserves better! Please consider the following before Pueblo; Mi Familia, Santa Fe, La Mariposa, even the hot cases at Bravo and La Fiesta would be a better experience than Pueblo Viejo. Okeechobee you...

Waitress was overly stressed because the hostess was seating her big parties left and right and didn't tell her that we were a 10+ party. The stress showed in her tone as soon as we seen her/she started taking drink orders. They were short staffed to the point that the manager was serving, but valid points were someone should have been bussing, running, etc where the waitresses were struggling. We didn't even get the guac cart despite asking to come back later so my friend gave me her quac off of her entree. The table behind us had dirty dishes sitting on it for a good 30-40 minutes. Alcoholic drink orders were 30 minutes behind. We barely had room for all of our drinks and food; I had to hold the side of my plate so that it didn't fall off or squish someone else's eating space. The Arnold palmer was not up to previous standards, the almond joy lacked the joy of chocolate sauce/drizzle, and I'm not sure my friend got all of his tortillas that he asked for. It was rough and I'm not sure I will ever come back not like it's a loss but in general. I'm not even sure my fajita quesadilla came with mushrooms because they're the same color as the steak and after waiting for food for so long I was hungry. I do think the queso should come with red/green peppers to make it more appealing rather than just plain Unseasoned cheese. I was also told that someone else's fajitas were unseasoned and the amount of food (chicken steak shrimp) did not accommodate the price. Thank you...

Visited for lunch. Lunch menu very limited.

We had the Pueblo Grill Bowl with Chicken. It was tasty chicken but it needed a sauce. And Pollo Chipotle. It was also very tasty with a good portion of chicken. The sauce was sort of a chipotle bbq sauce (spicy and sweet) but the lettuce and Pico de Gallo I didn't even try it was so unappetizing looking (see photos... one is a close up of the lettuce and pico de gallo).

Oh, I asked for shredded cheese to be added but I didn't get it.

The margaritas had a grand Marnier floater (ick!) that we didn't realize. Who puts grand Marnier in a margarita? But they were bogo for lunch.

Service was slow. Chips and salsa delivery was slow. We had to go ask for the check. And he forgot my cheese.

The chips were okay. The hot and mild salsa were both thin (more like soup) and tasted exactly the same.

We would not come here again with so many other...