El Rodeo Mexican & Salvadorian Restaurant — Restaurant in Fredericksburg

Last night, my husband and I went to El Rodeo for "Taco Tuesday". It's basically a religion in our house to celebrate Taco Tuesday every week. We haven't found our 'go to' taco place yet, so every week, we've been trying out a new Mexican restaurant in the area. Mexican happens to be my favorite cuisine, so even when it's bad, it's usually still good.

First off, let me say that El Rodeo is off the beaten path. We were cruising out some back roads and I thought, "there is no way that there is a Mexican restaurant out here". I would be wrong. Next to nothing sits El Rodeo.

What brought me to try El Rodeo was there advertisement for 99 cent tacos on Tuesday. Now my husband is a fajita guy, so he could care less whether the tacos are on sale or not. But me? I like my tacos! So we drove to the middle of nowhere to give El Rodeo a try.

They weren't busy at all. The place looked clean and typical Mexican restaurant decor, with bright colors and drawings and paintings of Spanish background. There was one other couple dining in, a birthday party in the backroom and 1 elderly lady waiting for her pickup order. We were greeted and sat immediately. A young man asked for our drink orders and we ordered our typical, "water with lemon". I can't have soda or alcohol, so unfortunately, this doesn't leave me with many beverage options at most restaurants. Someone brought out the typical chips and salsa and the waiter asked if we were ready to order.

I first inquired about the 99 cent tacos, "What comes on your special 99 cent tacos?"? Instead of first answering me, he immediately offends me when he says, "You can't just order water for the 99 cent tacos. You have to order a soda or a beer". First off, it doesn't say that on your advertisement. Secondly, I have a medical condition in which I can not drink soda or alcohol. And lastly, we weren't just ordering the 99 cent tacos. I would also be ordering the guacamole and my husband was getting the chicken and steak fajitas. So it's not like we came in to just order 1 taco each for 99 cent. It was rather presumptuous and rude of him to say that. Once I explained the above, he said, "...okay well that should be fine" and then answered me. By then I was already irritated and said, "Well if it's a problem, we can certainly take our business elsewhere". He said, "No, it wasn't".

So we went on to order the side of guacamole ($4.50). I got a chicken taco and a ground beef taco (99 cent each); neither of which I finished. My husband ordered the chicken and steak fajitas (which was $15 to $16) and the waiter asked if he would like "corn or flour tortillas" at which he replied 'corn'.

Now onto the food. The salsa was okay. It was tangy with a little kick, which I like. The chips were hot and fresh and not all broken, like you get at some restaurants. The guacamole was super good. I didn't care much for the flavors in the meat in my tacos and did not finish either one of them. My husband really enjoyed his fajitas, but they never did bring out his tortillas. I mentioned that I could say something to the waiter, but he insisted that I don't.

Service could have been better. Not only were we immediately offended, but they forgot part of our order. Otherwise their fajitas seem to be on point; the tacos not so much. With that being said, we won't be coming back here mainly because of their service. Work on your service skills El Rodeo and perhaps you might get...

My 12 year old son and I walked into El Rodeo on Thursday evening around 7 pm to place a Togo order and were NEVER even greeted.

We had eaten there with my parents previously around the time of the county fair and the restaurant was packed. We generally had a good time. Food was delicious and my mom swears by this place. We had just visited her and my son mentioned wanting tacos for dinner so she suggested we stop by El Rodeo as it is on the way home.

As we entered, I noticed the restaurant was completely empty except for a woman that appeared to be annoyed that was waiting for a pick up order. I thought to my self this should be quick since there is no one here tonight. I grabbed a menu and took a seat on the bench while I waited my turn.

While waiting, a family of 3 came in and were seated immediately. By this time I had approached the counter to indicate that we were ready to order. We waited a few minutes and watched the family receive their drinks and place their order. Surely, the woman who sat them or their server had noticed us still standing there.

The woman who sat the family was wearing a green Polo shirt and their server a blue one. The woman in green made numerous trips to the back room to clear what I can only assume was a table that had not been bussed since the previous guests left. She made eye contact with me each time and I thought, let me be patient while she clears this table but she just kept making trips. On the third pass the literally rolled her eyes at me.

At this point we had been there 15 minutes in total.

Another family of 3 came in and waited behind us for about 5 minutes when the woman in green (still making trips) hollered in Spanish. This is when ANOTHER woman in a black (non polo) shirt came over from a table in the darkened front room. I couldn’t believe this woman had been sitting there the entire time unbeknownst to me and had not come over to greet us. To top it if she looked right past us and grabbed 3 menus and took the other family to there table.

Me: “ok, I guess it doesn’t make sense to make a family wait while we place our order. Surely she will come right back. “

Nope!

I know you are probably thinking… why didn’t I speak up? But should I REALLY have to?? I have been standing at the counter for 20 minutes.

I spent the next 10 minutes determined to let someone who appeared to be in charge know what was going on.

During the 30 minutes I was there I never saw any employees other than these 3 ladies that made eye contact with me at least 10 times and several cooks coming out of the kitchen to use the same restrooms as the guests. I stood in the lobby and called in a order to El Patron.

I don’t write all of this to bash this establishment. Ultimately I just hope that someone in there that cares about people will read this and let these ladies know that this is unacceptable.

As we walked out my son asked said “Dad, what just happened?” All I could say was “I guess for some reason, they REALLY didn’t want to serve us tonight”

I have never felt more disrespected by a restaurant staff in my entire life....

Honestly if I could give them a zero star I so would!!! My boyfriend and I went there tonight and it was a nightmare. First he orders a frozen margarita and we were told that they have no frozen drinks at all. Okay maybe they were busy enough to sell out. Then he goes to order a Corona beer she brings it over in a can telling us that they don't have any bottles because when people start drinking they get knocked over or thrown and broken. He asked how much the 12 ounce can was and said it was $6 for the can or the bottle. I'm sorry that doesn't make sense. A 12 ounce can beer should be cheaper then a 16 ounce bottle. So he ends up getting a draft beer of something else. I ordered a coke she brings it out to me and it's not carbonated at all same with my boyfriends coke. We order our food and have to ask to get some chips and dip as they normally bring it to us without asking she rolls her eyes and storms off. While we are sitting there I notice a couple of guys sitting at the bar drinking a Corona from a bottle. When she comes back with the chips and dip we ask her about that and her response was "I don't know." At that point we told her just to cancel the food and bring us our check for the 2 flat sodas and the draft beer. We have been going here for the past few months and have had some issues in the past but nothing like this at all. We don't believe we will be returning. From the moment we walked in we felt out of place and felt like they were trying to get us out of there. I would NOT reccomend this place to anyone! They can barely speak any english at all and some of them don't speak it at all and you have to point to the menu to show then what you want. Save your time and money and go somewhere else other than this hell hole! El Charros is always a good alternative then this place.

UPDATE*

My boyfriend and I decided to come and try here one last time. We showed up and the manager on duty came over and spoke to us. He apologized for the service we received last time and for the inconvenience all of our drinks would be at happy hour pricing. We were appreciative of that at first. That is until in return he asked us to remove the review. The service was definitely better this go around that being said I think they were trying extra hard/had a different waitress. The young lady that was interpreting for the manager told us that on Fridays and Saturdays they target more towards Latinos, Hispanics etc. After she had said that I heard the manager say "no no no" then something in Spanish. I'm sorry, but if you're a business you should target everyone not just one group. My boyfriend and I have decided that we won't be returning here and we will find another place to...