La Cocina Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Georgia

If I could give this experience zero stars I would. I was a former employee of La Cocina and I was terminated and treated unfairly. I am writing this review to advocated for servers and other employees of the restaurant industry.

On my second day of work at La Cocina training as a server my manager Gabby sent me home because I was not wearing makeup. She told me I did not look pretty enough to be working at La Cocina and that I needed to go home and come back when I looked presentable. At the time I was a little taken back but I did not object. I simply went home put on makeup and returned to work.

Upon applying to La Cocina both of my managers knew that I am not hispanic. I took Spanish in high school and have worked in restaurants where the demographic was mostly hispanic. But by no means speak fluent spanish. Although, I know enough to speak in a kitchen. About a week into working as a server, still learning the menu and procedures of the restaurant the manager Gabby would chastise me completely in spanish everytime I would make a simple mistake. I could not understand what she was telling me so I was not sure how she would want me to fix the problem.

I made simple mistake on a taco. The customer received a shredded chicken taco and not a grilled chicken taco. Gabby proceeded to belittle me in English and tell me how she did not want me to work on her shift because I was making it difficult for her, completely disregarding that she was incharge of the food runners and food was taking longer than 30 minutes to be taken out to guest. I only mention this because no one is perfect and it is not fair for the managers to hold the servers to perfectionism when we are all human and they conduct mistakes as well.

Later that night she proceeded to write me up for being insubordinate because I "did not repeat my order back to the guest". I felt this to be extremely unfair since I had only been working at the establishment for less than two weeks. I felt as though she was treating me different because I did not speak spanish.

The following shift after the restaurant had closed Gabby again called me into the office. This time she told me an employee (who does not speak english) said I offered "illegal substance" to them. This employee also happened to be hispanic and a minor (16). When in the employee handbook it explicitly says they can not hire anyone under the age of 17. She did not ask me my side of the story and fired me on the spot. I tried to defend myself but because one person told her one thing about me that automatically makes me guilty. She refused to listen to me and fired me based on speculation.

I understand with Georgia Labor Laws employers can fire you for just about anything but I feel as though this situation was particularly unfair. The managers new my situation and how important this job was for me. I am full time college student and I support myself completely financially. I have no help or contact with family. Everyday when I went into work I came prepared and on time. It is unfair for employers to treat their employees as disposable and inhuman. At the end of the day the servers, food runners, cooks, bartenders run the restaurant and create the surplus managers exploit.

Although I had a bad experience working here I do appreciate the employees who were understanding and knew this situation was...

I embarrassingly eat at this restaurant 3 or 4 times a week. I always get a quesadilla to go and I always tip. Because of the frequency of my visits, there are obviously times when things aren't quite right with my food. So I have gotten food replaced 2 times in 6 months. Friday night, I go to pick up my food. I ask them, per usual, to drain the quesadilla because they get extremely soggy when you order them to go. So I get home. I take out the 2 quesadillas and one is perfect and the other is sopping wet, dripping everywhere and the shell is soaked. I wasn't very happy last night because I didn't want to go back out. It was already after 9:00 and we had to decide which of us would get to eat the good quesadilla. Anyway, I called back today to let them know and to see if I could bring it back and get another one. Are you ready for it? The girl who answered the phone said, why don't you just order something else?! Wow. That's the way to handle not being able to get someone's order right. Don't fix the problem. Just ask the customer to chose something else. Then she put the manager on. I have had great service from a female manager at this place, but this guy, who did replace my food once, had acted like he wasn't super happy about having to do it. Anyway, you know the old go-to for restaurants. Did you call last night to let us know? No. I didn't. I was ticked off last night. Also, I come in 3 to 4 times and week so I figured you could probably deduce that this wasn't a scheme to get my $7.95 cents back. Oh, wait. $9.95, with tip. His response was, last night wasn't my shift. I have no way to give you your money back. I can replace it, but I can't give you a refund. I said, well, I called for a replacement, but after your waitress told me I should order something else, I've decided I will do that. From another restaurant. I said, what do you mean it wasn't your shift? It's all one restaurant, correct? I just told him I was never coming back and that they had serious problems if they were willing to lose a regular customer over having to replace a quesadilla, due to their own incompetence, maybe one out of every 15 times. Just wanted to share another example of the way customer service is going down hill fast and let people know, they're glad to take your money, and they make a ton of it off of us, but when there's a problem, they start treating you like some kind of scammer trying to get their money back. I only wish I could get back all the money I've given these...

Met work colleagues here for lunch. I ordered a taco salad. I don't eat meat, so I asked could they exchange some grilled veggies for the meat. Was told no problem. Also asked for no sour cream. Lunch came - had sour cream on it, so I sent it back. Replacement didn't have sour cream. Using my fork, I started mixing the salad part together. Only to find out that if was only shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes. No grilled veggies. Just lettuce and tomatoes. For $11. No thanks. I called the waitress over and told her what the issue was and that I wasn't going to pay that much for a handful of lettuce and some tomatoes. Told her to just take it back and I don't want anything else. About 5 min later the manager came over. Didn't introduce herself. Didn't apologize for anything. Just walked up and said with a very unfrienly tone, "Can I help you?" I looked at her and said "no." She stood there looking at me and finally said, "The salad..." I told her that I already took care of it with the server. She still just stood there looking at me. So I told her what happened. And she started walking off and said "I'll be right back." I called out that I don't want anything else (she never asked, but I assumed that was why she was coming back). She just kept walking. No one - neither the server or the manager - never apologized. The manager was definitely not very friendly at all. Which is odd considering your restaurant just screwed up a simple order twice. This was not my first visit to this restaurant. None have been good, unfortunately. I'll...