Zapata's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Smith

I have been a returning customer at the restaurant Zapatas multiple times, and have been a previous El Zarape customer. Backstory: Saturday night (December 1st), the manager (I don’t know his name) pressured one of my friends at the table to order shots, since it was his birthday. My friend stated he would “take a shot.” Joking for them to be on the house. The manager then said he would get us 4 shots, but my friend made sure to say only if they would be well shots (being cautious about price). When we got our food we had to ask multiple times for hot salsa that our waiter kept forgetting, the onions and jalapenos ordered, as well as, our shots and drinks. Clearly the service was chaotic. Then, to top off the night, when we received the tab there was almost 30 dollars charged just for the shots!?!? We asked our waiter why the well shots were $7+each, and he informed us we didn't get well shots; instead we received patron shots. Basically, the most expensive tequila they had… When we asked about the shots and the price, our waiter left and went to grab the manager (the same guy who persisted on the shots). I discussed with the manager that it wasn't right of him to pressure and persist that we buy shots and then when we made sure to ask for well shots…. he brings us out the most expensive shot. After bickering with me, he said he would fix the issue and charge what a well shot would've cost. Normally, I would thank him for the understanding and move on. However, this is the 2nd incident where something like this happened with this same manager (the first was when he worked at El Zarape). I will not be returning to Zapatas after this incident (even though I really love this place). I would love to say this incident was just an off night, but I felt disappointed and disrespected. I felt that when I brought up the issue, things could have been solved without the arguing and disrespect. I have worked in service management and when issues arise it is important to remember “the customer is always right”. There should not have been any arguing or disrespect.

Thank you,

A...

It just wasn't good. We went on Tuesday for their all you can eat tacos $14.99, tacos are $1 for corn tortillas. We order 4 tacos first, asada, and carnitas. They were awful. Like texture but no flavor. We then ordered the birria but they didn't have it, even though it was advertised. So we did both of the chicken variations. Mind you NO one came and refilled our drinks, and it took them 10 minutes plus to get our second order of tacos, but all the tables were empty except one. The second oder of tacos was actually worse than the first. Also I asked for a side of rice, we reminded her 4 times..it came after her delivery of the last set of tacos. THEY literally charged 3 dollars for a 1 ounce container of rice, like a sauce cup for reference. The rice wasn't even good. Over all we each paid 15 dollars, plus 3 for the rice, and 6 for the drinks that weren't refilled. If we had ordered the tacos by cost it would have come to $16, because we didn't order anymore than the 16 we got. Instead we paid double for tacos we didn't like, and honestly were just trash. I love the local Mexican restaurants and I love...

Best I can say is that of all the Mexican restaurants in town, this is one of them. The good is that the service was friendly and quick. The requisite pre-meal tortilla chips were good and fresh, but the "salsa" was basically like tomato juice - very runny and overall bland. I ordered the Tenderloin Burritos, and they were tasty but relatively small. My wife gave a solid "meh" to the taco salad. My usual go-to is a chile relleno, but the menu described it as "topped with cheese and ground beef" - isn't a true relleno a STUFFED poblano, and GROUND BEEF?!?!? Really??? Seemed just wrong, so I passed. As far as atmosphere goes, it had little or none. Very western, tan/brown color scheme, not a good Mexican vibe. Hard walls, hard tables, and hard chairs, all in a mostly wide-open environment makes it quite loud in there, especially with music going in the "background." Despite being right across the table from each other, we had to speak loudly and distinctly in order to hear each other above the music and din from other diners.

My recommendation: meh. There are much better options out there....