San Jose Mexican Restaurant - Lutz — Restaurant in Florida

My wife, I and my (non-service dog) visited this location on 11-08-23 at 17:00. I asked a man (who appeared) to be a manager if they had outside seating where my dog could sit with us (as we were traveling and didn’t want to leave him in the car).

This man was super accommodating and even raised the umbrella over the table for us.

A separate waiter came and took our order. I included and explained clearly that I wanted to order a cheeseburger with no bun for our dog to eat.

The drinks and appetizers came and were fantastic. The food came and quickly there after the cheeseburger arrived.

The food was fantastic. My wife cut the cheeseburger up for our dog and I placed it and the glass plate that it was served to us on, upon the concrete so that our dog could enjoy his cheeseburger.

All was going great. We were all enjoying our food, when the original person that seated us came out to check on us. Again, he appeared to be a manager.

He was “super” unhappy that I had place this plate on the concrete for the dog to eat off of. My wife and I were a bit taken aback by this. I asked if they washed each plate after each use and what did it matter that our dog was eating a cheeseburger off it. A cheeseburger that we were gladly paying for.

He explained that basically the service ware was for humans/people and not animals.

I explained that the waiter knew full well that the burger was for the dog and that if the animal eating off of the service ware was an issue, then he could have easily brought the burger out in a to-go box.

I told this person who appeared to be a manager that if he would get me a to-go box, that I would gladly transfer the remaining burger to it and give him back his plate.

He did get me a to-go box. I did transfer the remaining burger to it.

As I handed him his plate, i told him to insure that he washed the plate or throw it away as it was clear by is demeanor that he did not approve of my dog eating off of it.

He promptly walked 3 feet to the outside trash can and threw the plate away.

I’m sure this was his way of showing disapproval of my actions that evening.

He only lost 1 customer and 1 plate that evening.

It’s a real shame. I felt that I was completely transparent with who was eating and what we were eating.

Maybe his policy of no animals eating off of plates hadn’t made it to the wait staff.

It could have been handled very differently. We would have gladly fed the dog out of a to-go box had it been served that way.

Not the case.

My rating of 1 star is solely base on this man’s actions. The food was great. The wait staff was great. This manager became childish and he lacked the ability to read a situation and manage it in a professional manner.

Still a great eating establishment. Just be careful stopping here if you are traveling with or considering eating outside with your...

Hi, keep in mind I have kept this review hidden away for 2 months because I thought maybe it was unfair. And I was wrong. I try again. Go to the restaurant during mid day to try and get a new experience. We end up with the SAME girl and let’s just say I’m not going back and this needs to be known about. I don’t want anyone else to be disappointed.

May, 24’ San Jose used to be a restaurant that I’d go to, with my family to enjoy authentic Mexican food. Today I realized how times have changed. My husband and I go into the restaurant excited to eat and we get sat outside, where we most enjoy sitting. This younger woman was our waitress and she must have been new. She didn’t tell us her name upon greeting us and just asked if we wanted drinks. Let’s call her blonde one that stands out. When she came back with the drinks we ordered the queso but we weren’t ready to order our entrées. She came back with the queso 5 minutes later and we order the taco salad and a fajita dish. As she left taking our order, we tried the queso and it was ice cold. So we waited for her to come back and check on us but instead we sat waiting 10 minutes for her to come back to our table, even though we saw her picking up checks from empty tables and standing at the pos station. But the great thing is, we had to yell out “excuse me miss!” to get her attention since she walked past us to go inside after looking at us while clearing checks from empty tables. We felt forgotten about and ignored. She then apologizes for the queso being cold and says “I’ll go heat it up for you” rather than offering a new one or even asking if we wanted it off our bill. We got the new queso and chips and held on to the little bit of hope we had that the experience would get better once our main food came out. The taco salad and fajitas came out and the plate of the taco salad was warm, but the actual food itself wasn’t. My husbands food was well prepared though, so that’s the only plus I can give for this whole thing. I had gone to the restroom, but my husband was in the middle of eating and our waitress comes up to him and says “hey so you guys are the last table I have tonight. So do you think I could give you the check early to you know? If not it’s okay just let me know.” He was dumbfounded by what she had just said. After the service she has given us this whole time, she wants the check in the middle of us eating our food so she can get her tip and clock out for the night. To just let you know it was 7:50 pm, and they close at 9 pm. To see how the restaurant industry has changed so much over the years just leaves you disappointed. The service was unacceptable and I will never be coming back to this location again. I hope no one else gets the same service that we had...

We arrived at San Jose Mexican Restaurant around 6:15pm. We joined my sister who was waiting at a table for us. It took about 10 minutes to be greeted and place drink orders with our waitress. Another 10 minutes later, when the waitress came back with drinks, we placed the order. Our waitress, Melisa, kept repeating back the wrong order and we’d have to correct her, she didn’t seem very knowledgeable about the menu. I ordered a side of pico de gallo and she kept asking me if that was the one with avocado. And while she was in the middle of taking our order, she walked away to join her co-workers in a birthday song. I thought that was very unprofessional and rude. Then another 10 minutes passed and she hadn’t put the order in yet. She came up to me again and asked if pico de gallo was the one with avocado in it. Food was entered at 6:51pm. When the food finally came out, the waitress and manager had the order all wrong. They were slamming the plates in front of us. They had to go back to the kitchen twice to get the rest of our corrected orders. At one point, my 7-year old nephew found a small sharp bone fragment in his soft chicken taco. The “manager/server” on duty told us that when they cook and take apart the chicken, ‘sometimes they don’t get all the bones.’ I’m sorry, what?! The manager didn’t even apologize or show any signs of empathy. I am shocked that the “manager/server” actually argued with us at the table over an error that was clearly theirs. My nephew was hungry but too scared to eat the rest of his food. Melisa brought the check and was understandably embarrassed by how badly she butchered our experience. This was by far the worst experience I’ve ever had in a restaurant. They didn’t take any responsibility for their mistake and I am dumbfounded as to how their business is still open. I would hate to see this happen to...