El Rey Taqueria — Restaurant in Houston

I work 30 yards from this place and come quite often. I always order my team breakfast on the weekends and have never had a problem... until today. When I order online per usual I got a notification on my phone that the restaurant had charged me 3 times for 1 order. I thought hmm thats strange but let me just walk over there and get this resolved. When I went in the manager ignored me for a good 4 minutes before asking me what I was waiting on him for. When I told him that I was over charged he asked ME how that is possible. Still giving them some grace because they were busy I said I don't know, sir I don't work here you do, could you look into this please? He said no he only got one order it is impossible that I was charged 3 times. I showed him my bank statement to which he replied ok then call your bank. 1. It is Sunday. 2 If I call my bank and ask them to reverse the charges they will ding it as fraud and have to replace my card- I think we all know what a pain that is. I ask him again to please just take a look into this, but he was sure he was right and he had made up his mind he would not do anything to help me. All he did was look at the order screen that showed my 1 order which I had been charged 3 times for. He is not look into the charges, he did not look in the register computer, he did not and was not willing to do anything but tell me sorry not sorry basically. I will not be returning to this place purely based on the fact that especially during these times the MANAGER would not even LOOK into the situation. As a manager myself I know refunds can be tricky, I would have even been fine with store credit. My issue is not so much with the money but I think everyone deserves at least a little bit of respect and understanding. This man showed me neither. I did not even get an “I am sorry for any trouble.” I would suggest not paying online if you choose to suppose this location. If a mistake is made they are not even willing to look...

I was SHOCKED when I went into this restaurant, having visited this same location for better than 10 years now. Bottom line, customers have to contend with the taste of food versus shrink flation and hyper price increases. This is highly evident as El Ray now has BOTH! I was shocked when I saw the nocho’s now cost a few pennies under $15. We ordered the nocho’s any way and a chips and salsa plate. The chips and salsa came with a plate of 40 chips and two small salsa cups for $1.78. The nachos came to us on the same plate size with ONLY the very top 8 chips covered with some fixings. I estimate of the possible 40 chips on the nachos plate, only 8 of them had any stuff on them. I looked at both the chips and salsa plate $1.78 and the nacho’s plate $14.80 and wondered why I would ever in a million year accept this type of shrink-flation AND hyper price increases. I returned the nachos plate and informed the manager that this was completely unacceptable to have both hyper inflated prices AND shrink-flation at the same time. I will no longer eat at El Ray preferring to now just go to a genuine Mexican restaurant where nachos look and taste just like nachos and cost a few bucks less than El Rays. It is a REAL shame that El Rays has pivoted to have both shrink-flation AND hyper...

So I’ve heard about the out of hand tipping culture. But this is my first visit El Rey. The menu seems amazing. I went through the drive-through and was asked to leave a tip. I was taking aback but I didn’t leave a tip, and when she handed me my food and picked up the receipt, she looked at the tip line right away. She immediately turned to tell others, in Spanish, that I didn’t leave a tip. I just drove away.

My main thought is just don’t do this. It’s ridiculous to even ask for a tip at a drive-through. You don’t see McDonald’s asking for a tip at the drive-through. And it’s voluntary to tip, but so is the reaction to my decision. That woman’s displeasure should not not fall with me, if she is not being paid a liable wage. El Rey, by requesting tips at the drive-through, it in insinuates, or indicates that you are not paying your employees properly.

No one served me. No one came to my table, refilled a drink, asked me what I wanted to order while having discussions about the menu items or gave recommendations. None of that occurred. But, conversely, I’m also assuming that the lady I’m interacting with, at the drive-through is actually being paid a decent hourly wage. If she is somehow relying on drive-through tips, then I’m...