El Tapatio — Restaurant in Houston

I’ve spent $435 this year alone at this restaurant. At the pace I was going, I was set to spend around $1,400 by the end of 2025. But thanks to one bad experience, and even worse customer service, I won’t be returning.

On April 7th, I agreed to test the restaurant’s new kiosk and ordered my usual and paid with a card. The kiosk claimed the payment was incomplete, so I used a second card to pay the remaining balance. However, the kiosk charged the first card for $8.04 and then charged the full $16.24 to the second card, resulting in a duplicate payment. When I flagged this, the manager, Hector, said he’d look into it and fix it. A few days later, one of the $8.04 charges disappeared but then reappeared on April 17th. The manager refunded me today, but the message he sent alongside the refund was the real reason I’m writing this review. Rather than apologizing or acknowledging the mistake, he framed the refund as a "courtesy" and insisted the original charge was valid. He even wrote, “a prior refund of $8.04 was already processed,” as if that somehow made it okay to charge me the same incorrect amount again.

Here’s the thing: if you make the error twice, you fix it twice. That’s basic responsibility. I’m a disabled veteran living on limited income. I don’t have time to chase down refunds from restaurant errors, nor should I have to. But what really hurt wasn’t the $8.04, it was the dismissive, tone and the complete lack ownership. He lost sight of the bigger picture: I’ve been a loyal customer, and I was more than fair through the entire ordeal.

A simple "Hey, our fault and we are sorry. Here is your refund." would have sufficed and prevented this review and the end of our business together. Instead the manager opted to send a long winded text that just dodges all responsibility verbally, while accepting responsibility non-verbally. Now he’s lost a customer because of the ego-driven refusal to...

Been coming here for quite a while, only reason stop by every now and then is just close by work. Very often out of food, which isncrazy they have a meat market next door! Sometimes the wait time for 2 breakfast tacos it's been 45min+, bc "they have big orders for delivery". As someone that has been in the food industry, this is ridiculous. Walk ins always have a slight priority bc they take the time to come! How do you run out food so often, today will mostly likely be the last day for this costumer and give my money to someone else. Food I'd ok, but between running out of food and not being able to say, "can you add one more scramble egg to my order or can you scramble meet in my eggs" bc "the cooks don't want to do it"! It's coocoo! Left bc they ran of of breakfast items and still got charged for a coffee I did not drink!...

It's been a few years since me and my fiance visited this location. When we got there, the waitress was busy but she made sure she welcomed us and let us know she would help us soon. She was very sweet and funny! We ordered our food and I have to admit the food was amazing! We usually go to Arandas, but this will be our new spot! The Mexican rice is so soft and full of flavor, you can taste the tomato sauce! The refried beans taste homemade as well! I had the red enchiladas and the sauce tasted homemade as well! It brought me back to my childhood watching my grandma cook us dinner. I'm not saying everything is homemade there, I'm saying it tastes homemade and that's good enough for me! The prices are very reasonable as well! We visited on 8.29.24 at 7 pm. Thank you all for an amazing visit and...