Casa Linda Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Forest Acres

On Tuesday evening of last week, my sister and I decided to have some good ole' Mexican food! We have been to this location on many occasions. Never had any issues. When we arrived, we noticed a sign on the door that said "credit card machine down, cash only".. my sister and I both had cash so we were cool. We walked in, the boss lady immediately told us and we let her know we understand, we have cash. Then she told us to sit anywhere. Now to mind you, we didn't even get our menus. We sat down, waited on our server for 15 minutes, LITERALLY. He came over, noticed we didn't have any menus then got us some. He came back, asked what'd we want to drink and if we knew what we wanted. We told him the drinks, and asked for elote, cause they have the best corn! My sister was still in the middle of talking, the man just walked away. So my sister and I are confused, like what just happened? :/ about 7 minutes later, I saw the man at another table greeting and order taking a white family who just came in.. I waived my hand to call him over, he came and I said "hey we weren't done ordering" He said "oh no, you want more".. I kept my cool but I was starting to be over it.. We then ordered ... but after we ordered, we felt super unwanted there, and started to debate on leaving.. So few moments goes by, we get our corn. It tasted undercooked or overcooked, it just didn't taste right..We notified the boss lady, she was certain that the corn was fine, then proceeded to go around the restaurant asking other people how was the corn. She came back to us and said "nobody complained about the corn, you're the only ones.. corn good, its fine." She kept talking about it and we didn't care about that b/c everybody taste buds is different, as I mentioned before, we never had any problems with the food or service but they messed up this one time and it was ok.. at least for now. So feeling like, the lady didn't care, she didn't even ask if we wanted it to be remade but she did say they cooked the corn earlier.. If you knew that, then why not make fresh corn? She then left, came back to talk some more about other people who liked it and now we are really feeling uneasy because thats not how you go about it. So my sister and I said we didn't want our food, we're about to leave, we didn't get our actual dinner yet, but it was about to come out... They lady said she'll take the corn off the check but not the other food. they came and brought it but we didn't want it so we left. Boss lady chased us out the store saying we have to pay for the food, that we DIDN'T eat, which doesn't make sense. She cause a BIG scene and my sister and I kept our cool and was like ma'am we're not paying for food we didn't eat or like, the lady threatened to call the cops, she got our license plate number, started recording us and everything! It was a hot mess. My sister and I are both Afro-Panamanian, she probably thought we were African American, and didn't understand the terminology she was using in Spanish! She called us stupid and complained about how ungrateful we were! It was utterly disgusting and we were the ONLY black people in the restaurant that day btw. Never again will...

Normally, I would never write a negative review, but this annoyed me. I used Casa Linda's website to place a lunch order for curbside pickup, and that part was a great experience. Choices for customization were comprehensive and easy. I opted for a "build your own burrito" with two proteins. One was present, but the second, more expensive of the two(shrimp) was not. At the same time, I ordered a "Linda Quesadilla" for a lunch companion, and per his request, asked for it(using the customization options) to Only contain cheese, onions, and shrimp. Well, it only had one vegetable, but it was, curiously, broccoli. Another very small nitpick, this was supposed to be curbside pickup, but nobody was keeping watch, so I had to go inside anyway. When we discovered the mix-up with the quesadilla, I called to request a refund, offering to send pictures, whatever. They offered a replacement, or a refund if I brought the item back. Having to drive 20 minutes back in the time I had was not an option. The Lady on the line refused to budge. In the end, I just hung up. In the end, my burrito was missing a $5 ingredient, my friend's order was just wrong, for a $12 quesadilla, and I had already tipped an additional $8 on the assumption that someone was going to have to meet me at curbside, which didn't happen. I don't expect anything extraordinary out of my restaurant experiences, and I'm usually a pretty easy going customer. In this case though, I really do feel that Casa Linda owes me an apology, and about $20. For their part, they have lost my future business for quite a while, which is a shame. This would have been so...

We have been regular customers of Casa Linda since we moved here 4 years ago.

They went through an ownership change a couple years ago and I have to say we are saddened with the current state.

We know the staff well and always sit at the bar. The problem is they do not dedicate anyone as a bartender and take care of that clientele. Mostly of which are regulars.

We noticed a progressing issue of putting focus on the dining room and if you are at the bar, you have to totally flag someone down. My fiancé sat with an empty first drink for over 30 minutes as staff walked by, never acknowledged us and ignored us when we asked. Last year, I spent over $7K here and always tipped 20-25%. (Even on to go food).

My fiancé had to eventually find the manager. He was dismissive at best saying “well, we are busy”. She did finally get a glass of wine, and we were ready to pay out. My Credit card sat on the bar for another 30 minutes without anyone ringing us out, even though we asked a couple of the staff.

We finally had enough and my fiancé engaged the manager again telling him we’ve had it. Not coming back. The proper response would to be to apologize, maybe comp a drink (which has never happened) and say “Please come back in and we can discuss “. But, he just passive aggressively waved and said “Buh bye”.

We aren’t the only regulars who have had it. There are other options in the close proximity.

Not spending another dime in an establishment that doesn’t appreciate customers that were loyal.

Sorry to the staff (you know who you are). ...