Villa Grande Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Gainesville

I want to start by saying, I know customer service is a thing of the past, well in your restaurants anyway. We have given your restaurant too many chances to make up for the horrible customer service experiences each time we go to the Gainesville location, examples; standing at the front desk during rush hour dinner for 15 minutes while people stand behind the bar and look at us talking to each other until we walk out, never to be acknowledged, waiting 25 minutes once we are seated to see a waiter/waitress (multiple times), waiters disappearing for 20 to 30 minutes at a time and no one tending to us, but tonight (Friday 2/9/24) was the icing on the cake! I ordered carne esada tacos that I have ordered at least 10 times in the past). The waiter (who again disappeared for 15 minutes at a time) brought the food out which was not what I ordered but rather something I couldn’t make heads or tales out of and only came with two very small tacos leaking with a rediculous amount of grease. In the past at least 10 times there has always been 3 tacos and a couple of times 4 tacos that were actually carne esada. I told the waiter this wasn’t what I ordered and with a smug look told me, yes it was. After arguing for 5 minutes going know where with this guy, I asked to speak with a manager. After waiting 10 minutes he finally showed his face with an immediate attitude telling me that’s what I ordered and what I have received in the past was always wrong. I showed the horrible amount of grease on the plate after 1 bite and he stated “I will take the plate back if you are done”. I said please do as we will NEVER come back to this restaurant again but his comment is what did it for us as he said “good”! Now, I know nothing will come of this but I pride myself on helping people with good customer service and spreading the word but in this case it will be opposite. Your establishment has proved to lack customer service time and time again. Cudos...

We went for dinner last and were promptly greeted and seated by a very nice hostess. They were maintaining social distancing which was a plus, however almost all of the staff were wearing their masks improperly or not at all. Our waiter started off super great and very attentive, he got our drinks and chips and salsa out right away. I saw something on the lunch menu that looked really good so I asked if they had something similar on the dinner menu. He offered to check with the manager to see if they could make the dish for our dinner. When he came back he told me that they could make the lunch item for dinner but there would be a small upcharge of a couple of dollars. I was totally ok with that, the dish was like $8 dollars or so, so a couple more dollars on top of that was fine. After our food was delivered our waiter completely disappeared, he never checked on us again, not even to leave the check, even though he was still walking around serving others or at the bar. Another waittess ended up taking care of us in the end which was fine cause she was very attentive and polite. Our check came and I saw that we were charged literally double the price for our dinner items so I did question why it was so much when I had been initially told it was a small upcharge. She then took the bill to the manger who took $2 off the entree, like seriously. I'm not asking for free food cause I ate it and it was good or trying to be a "Karen" but when you tell a customer one thing and then don't stand by it, really makes you not want to give the place...

Wow… I honestly can’t tell you the last time I gave a restaurant one star. I always try to find SOMETHING worth more than one star but tonight, I would have to say was one of the top 3 worst experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant. Walked in to a host station with no host. Okay, maybe they are busy? Nope. Maybe 5 families in the entire place. 5 more mins go by, this kid with black and blonde hair comes taking his sweet time to seat us. No apology for making us wait, no greeting at all. We finally got seated, keep in mind, this place was NOT busy. Well, another 5 mins goes by, nobody to be found. Our waitress FINALLY gets to our table, the same one that walked by us when we were being seated and didn’t even acknowledge us. Drinks? Uh, okay. Guess we will just have some waters and we had plenty of time to look over the menu. So we were ready to order. Ordered Queso Blanco, as an app, and then ordered some street tacos and nachos.

Queso came out COLD. Tracked down another waitress because ours could not be found, and asked for another bowl of hot queso. Got another bowl finally… Yep, it was cold too! I just gave up. Then tried to eat their salsa, but it’s literally tomato sauce and onions. No thank you.

Well, not to be surprised, our meals come out, and BARELY warm. So cold, that the cheese wasn’t even melted on the nachos, it was just clumped. Street tacos came out cold and the meat was old. I tried to get pictures but I was so irritated I found the manager, stated I would not pay for this and we left. We will...