El Pueblito Patio — Restaurant in Houston

If I could leave zero stars, I would. The service was ABSOLUTELY horrible! I went here for Cinco de Mayo. I reserved a cabana several weeks in advance. I spoke to Rolanda, and she said the reservation was from 1-6. I asked if I could get something a little later, and she said I could get it from 1-6 because they needed an hour to set it up for guests needing it at 7. So the options were 1-6 and 7- a much later time. We had guests that were not going to arrive until 2 and 3 o'clock, but because we had it until six, it wouldn't be an issue. I called twice during the week of cinco de mayo because I wanted to be sure they had the reservation. Both times, they confirmed it. When I got there, they couldn't find my reservation. Aurora, who is the manager, asked me to stand by the bar while they figured things out. There were no seats, so I asked the bartender if I could order. He said I guess. There was a man that came screaming and saying why aren't the menus ready. After 20 minutes, I asked about the status of my cabana, Aurora said "The cabanas are open. You can sit down." Two of my guests arrived shortly there after. One guest tried to order the pineapple drink, and the waitress took the menu and said she couldn't order from that menu. She finally went and got the menu that she could order from, and the pineapple drink wasn't on there. My guest went to the bar, and they told her that the bar serves all drinks. When another guest arrived, they had changed the parking from free event parking (which is where we had three cars parked for free) to $10 parking. He said his manager told him to do that. The manager then comes over and says we have to leave at 3. I told her about the conversation that I had with Rolanda, and she said well, you can stay until six. The manager then comes back over and asks for a $250 deposit! Her excuse was she needed security in case we leave. At this point, I had enough. I closed out and left! I will NEVER return. Beware of the horrible service that you will...

First time customer last night 3-16-18 to try restaurant... close to 8 o clock in the evening...noticed a light crowd and empty seats at the bar...let me say this and then I will expand...food is good, SERVICE IS HORRIBLE...but the food is not good enough to overcome a total lack of customer service...couldn't get a drink refill, chip and salsa refill, or even have anyone check on us after meal was served...all this came after the young latino HS dropout, mentioned school was waste of his time, bartender advised me they don't serve food at the bar and we needed to ask a waitress for possible service at bar...stunned by this comment we asked for a server to see if we could dine at the bar...we are having to ask a bartender to get a waitress so that we may have permission to be served, unbelievable, said it was an inconvenience issue for waitress... while waiting to ask permission to be served, the owner, Eduardo, intervened and took our order and gave us permission to dine...we were not served chips salsa or have our drink order taken until we got permission...observed other customers walk up to the bar to purchase drinks only to be ignored by bartender, after waiting patiently at open bar, the customers moved to where bartenders were doing whatever they were doing on side of bar..;total lack of recognition of customer service on bartenders behalf...my personal experience, observation of others getting poor service and the lack of customers dining is evidence along with some others reviews that customer service is obviously a problem and not being addressed properly....what a shame...other bar patrons arrived as we were finishing and were not ordered to acquire permission to be served...;unbelievable experience....let me add when we go to new restaurants I always give a 10 dollar tip in advance once my server is identified...could not identify server to give my...

I was super excited to try out this restaurant after seeing it featured in countless Instagram videos. However, my experience didn't live up to the hype.

Let me break down my rating for this place:

Parking: The parking situation was less than ideal. They only have space for about 5-8 cars, so if you can't find a spot, you'll have to pay to park elsewhere. We ended up parking across the street.

Arrival: Thankfully, we didn't have to wait to be seated. We were quickly shown to our table.

Drinks: Now, let me tell you about the drinks. They were absolutely incredible! We ordered agua frescas - Sandia, Melon, and Mango - and they were spot on. They reminded me of the ones my mom makes. And don't even get me started on the Mango mojitos. They were not only delicious but also beautifully presented.

Food: Okay, here's where things went downhill. It took us TWO hours to get our food. For a place that serves street food, this is totally unacceptable. It's not like we were dining at a fancy restaurant. We kept checking with our waiter, who kept apologizing for the wait. She said, "I am so sorry, but there are still people outside waiting for their food." Now, let's talk about the actual food. We ordered the machete, 5 tacos, quesadilla plate with rice, and the shrimp tacos. They were all tasty, but honestly, they weren't worth the nearly two-hour wait for such basic dishes.

Environment: The restaurant's pink decor is cute, but let me warn you, it is ridiculously HOT in there. They seriously need to get their AC fixed.

Honestly, if you're dying to try their food because of all the social media buzz, I would just recommend ordering...