Cafe Mexicali — Restaurant in Fort Collins

Review for Café Mexicali Fort Collins

If the food were not good, I would rate this place with one star.

The staff are horrendously rude: disappointingly immature and unconscientious. There seems to be no hierarchy among them. I have spoken to the manager on duty multiple times, but each time the manager has been someone who is just as dismissive and disengaged as the others.

On my last visit, the immature young woman working at the cash register placed my food on a dirty tray. When I asked her to transfer it to a clean tray, she rolled her eyes and placed it on a different dirty tray. When I then asked why she was using dirty trays—they were visibly dirty with large food particles, used toothpicks, and debris, having been collected directly from the dirty-dishes area—she plucked a dirty toothpick from the dirty tray and gave me a creepy look. She was so rude that it gave me chills. She should be fired or sent to an intensive etiquette class. I spoke with the manager about the issue, and he said, "Yeah, we have a lot of problems with her." (???) Do something about it!

On a previous visit, I asked for the smothered burrito that I ordered to be made with a special modification. The modification is self-explanatory, but, to be extra clear, I explained how I wanted for it to be done. The line worker exhibited an attitude yet then PROCEEDED TO MAKE THE FOOD WITHOUT THE MODIFICATION. As she was lost in her own world, I could not get her attention. When I arrived at the end of the line, I told the cashier of the issue. She then told the line worker to remake my food (thank you), and the line worker rolled her eyes—not directly at me, but in a way that was visible. What is with the eye-rolling and weird-look-giving among these staff members? I can only imagine how much they vent about and mock customers when customers are not present.

The tables always are dirty. The floor is filthy. The women's bathroom is dirty. There usually is a long, long wait in the ordering line because 1) the staff are slow and distracted and 2) call-in/online orders are given priority over in-store orders.

Also, as is common to Fort Collins restaurants: The workers begin closing down the restaurant while it is still open. If it closes at 9:30 p.m., they start...

I really wish the owner would read these reviews and make some changes. I have been going to Cafe Mexicali since day one and have always loved their food and I used to love their service. For a long time it was a once a week staple but has become less frequent because of the out of control wait and the poor service. It has always been hit or miss but lately it has just been plain old terrible. The first in the last string was about 2 months ago when my wife and I took some food to go. My wife is a vegetarian and always gets the Corn Salad. Well aside from the fact that they forgot her side of guac she dug in and found pieces of chicken in the rice that had fallen in from how carelessly they slop the food around. That was it for her as this was the 4th or 5th time this has happened. When a person hasn't eaten meat for 5+ years just a taste of that texture and flavor can make someone sick. They used to be really careful and now they are just plain sloppy because they are trying to serve 50 times more people than they are capable of. The time after that I for the 20th time got home with my takeout and had gotten salad instead of chips like I had ordered. Once again these mistakes happen because they are hurrying so much. Today was the last straw for me after waiting in line for 20+ minutes and getting back to work late with my lunch only to discover they had served me Pork Barbacoa instead of the Sweet Pork I had ordered. I know who the manager is and have hardly ever seen him there during their busy times and this is why they are so sloppy! Who is in charge? I don't understand why they don't remodel and add a second line or open another location further north or south. Every time I go I witness several people skip it because of the line. WAKE UP MEXICALI OWNERS! You are losing business! I need to add that I tried to contact through email but both the "feedback" page and the "about us" page are under construction leaving no way to directly contact...

Came here on a whim because Inca down the street was closed. I'm from southern California, so Mexican food is important to me. I don't know about anything else on their menu, but the "cheese enchiladas" here are a joke. I ordered cheese enchiladas and watched the lady prepare them like this: corn tortilla on bottom of container, handful of cheese, buttload of sauce, followed by another tortilla on top of it all, handful of cheese, buttload of sauce, repeat. So their "enchiladas" are a stack of tortillas cheese and sauce, which they then run through a belt oven. Needless to say, only the cheese on top melts. So I had a stack of tortillas drowning in sauce and filled with unmelted cheese. Really really gross,mildly warm concoction that made me gag. So I asked to switch for a smothered burrito. They asked what meat and I said carnitas. Didn't realize their pork is sweet, since I'd never been here before and wasn't standing in front of the menu. The burrito was like, dessert sweet. Imagine eating bbq sauced pulled pork in a burrito. I also got a key lime pie, which turned out to be crushed graham cracker crust sprinkled into a tin, covered by very very soupy very very sour key lime something and whipped cream. At that point I was done. $30 spent on a poor facsimile of Mexican food. I practically grew up on the California-Mexico border, and I've never been served Mexican food like that. To each their own taste, but I...