Los Portales — Restaurant in Hayward

A very disappointing visit. First time since the new ownership, and I had really high hopes, as Hayward could use a good sit down Mexican restaurant.

We wanted to sit in the bar, but after many minutes of waiting for anyone to show up there, we gave up and moved to the dining room. Unfortunately, many more minutes for any staff to show up.

The restaurant was not very busy, yet the waiter kept telling us how the kitchen was under staffed and it would take a while. And he was right. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really worth the wait. My enchiladas were fine, but my wife was very unhappy with her dish.

The strange thing was, we didn’t once see what appeared to be a manager. Nobody except the waiter stopped by to explain the situation or apologize. Had a manager stopped by that might have made it tolerable, but the fact that the poor waiter had to go beg to get our food out doesn’t bode well for the future of this place. It is clearly poorly managed, and that’s a shame. Can’t blame the staff for that. They need to be coached or led by example.

I doubt we would go back until we hear that there is yet another owner. A well run Mexican place in Hayward would do very well. Owners, go check out Casa Mexicana in Rice Lake if you want to see how a well run Mexican restaurant does business....

Rarely do I leave a place knowing that I would never voluntarily eat there again. I noticed in the reviews that the food is inconsistent. We must have gotten there on a bad night. Both people who got rice said it was not salted. I got a taco salad. Bottom of the shell was so soggy, it took me a while to figure out if it even had a bottom. The hamburger was so pale and mushy, I questioned whether it was truly beef. The scant bowl of chips brought at the beginning of the meal were thin, some of them highly artificially colored, and accompanied only by a tiny dish of bland salsa. One of our party asked for some cheese sauce to go with the chips. They brought it promptly, a very tiny bowl with perhaps 2/4 or maximum 1/3 cup cheese sauce. It was soon gone and I asked for another. At the end of the meal I was shocked to see a charge of $9.98 for those two teeny bowls of queso sauce. We had expected they were complimentary like the salsa. But it's odd that the waiter did not mention the charge for the queso, when we ask for it.

It was a nice place to visit with each other. Atmosphere was good. And visiting was the main purpose for our being there.

The portion sizes were decent. But yeah, I...

I'm so sad right now. I wrote a 5 star review for the first time I came here with a friend from out of town. I have begged my husband to go for months and tonight? We went. I was approximately 1/5 of the way through with my meal and my husband about 3/4. Suddenly, he exclaimed, "OMG!" He proceeded to remove something from his mouth, which I assumed was a chicken bone. He dropped the biggest lug nut I've ever seen on the table, full of food. He bit down and will be seeing a Dentist ASAP. I immediately called the Manager over and advised him as to what occurred. He merely grabbed it and said, "Oh". We were then, quite obviously, done with our meal. Approximately 2 minutes later, a Waiter came by with our bill and asked how everything was. i, admittedly, became emotional and asked him if he was serious. He stated he was told about the incident and claimed it was from their meat slicer. I simply have no words right now for how they responded. We left both of our meals and left. I cannot explain just how sad I am right now. No. I will not return nor will I ever recommend going to this establishment when they're are so many other options...