Irma's Southwest — Restaurant in Houston

DO NOT GO HERE OR ORDER TAKEOUT!

Terrible Customer Service and Experience with Irmas Southwest, extremely disappointed.

Our office had Irmas catered to our office recently as a thank you from a client (I am not sure which location it was catered from). We had such a wonderful experience and the food was great so we decided to order lunch from Irmas Southwest yesterday. We called and placed a pickup order on the phone with the manager. We couldn't order from the catering menu because we were not enough people so we just ordered entree plates but had them combine everything. Upon brining it back to our office and putting everything out we were extremely confused by the amount of food and missing things. Our order included 4 beef fajita plates, 2 chicken fajita plates, 3 orders of chile con queso, 3 orders of guacamole, and 3 slices of tres leches cake. We were confused but the actual amount we received. Everything seemed to be very little including the meat (the chicken and beef fajita ratio was the same even though we ordered 4 plates of beef). The THREE orders of chile con queso came in a 4X6 pan and the queso only filled up about half an inch, same with the guacamole, and the rice. Either their portions are astronomically small in the restaurant or they just gave us very little for what we actually ordered. I called the restaurant and tried to get ahold of the manager who took our order but she was out and I was told when she returns they will have her give me a call back. I never received a call back so I emailed them this morning but no response. I decided to call back this afternoon let them know I was expecting a call back from the manager. Who ever answered let me know the manager was sick and was in the hospital today. So I asked her I could talk to her about her order. As someone that deals with customer service and the hospitality industry, I will say she was extremely RUDE AND SHORT. I mentioned that we were charged the same price for the beef and chicken ($35 when the chicken should have been $32), she told me in their system they are both $35 and I told her thats not what is listed on their website (The southwest one), she couldn't really explain it. I let her know we didn't receive any of the toppings like the sour cream, cheese, pico. She said that is an upcharge (We were told by the manager when we placed the order that those things come with the 3 quesos we ordered).Then I asked her what comes with each plate and she said "meat, rice, and tortilla". I tried telling her how we were disappointed with the actual amount of meat received and how we got the same amount of chicken and beef when we ordered double the portion of beef. She verbatim said "maybe they were trying to be nice and gave you extra chicken". When she said that I responded confused and immediately asked her if she really just said that. She basically told me the conversation was going no where and she would have to call the manager. I let her know I would be leaving a review. I have never dealt with such a lack of unprofessionalism.

When it comes to a restaurant customer service and the experience is just as important as the the actual...

I just stopped by before tonight's Astros game. My server greeted me warmly and brought two bowls of salsa - one regular and one with roasted veggies. Both were good but the roasted vegetable salsa was particularly flavorful, with a great texture. The regular salsa was slightly runny for my palate.

I was asked if I would like to start with a flavored lemonade. I asked if it was very sweet and was told that it was, so I opted for a Sprite instead. Several minutes after that, another server brought me a lemonade, presumably on the house. I did enjoy it, and it wasn't too sweet.

I say that I presumed the lemonade was on the house because the server said it was "to try" and I gave her a look like, "I'm not going to have to pay for this, am I?" and she made a gesture which I inferred to mean that I wasn't to worry about it.

Did I mention that they don't have printed menus? Well, they don't, they only have a verbal menu, which might have bothered me, if I were very concerned about price. It just so happened that on this occasion i want worried about how much it was going to cost.

My server described the combo that was available as including a shrimp taco, fajitas, and an enchilada. However, she also mentioned that they served tamales. I asked how the tamales were and she said they were good, so I got a combo but substituted a tamale for the shrimp taco.

I am usually disappointed by tamales, but this one was quite good, freshly made and piping hot, just like the rest of the combo. The beef enchilada was flavorful, as was the chicken fajita, though they could have supplied another tortilla. The fajita could have been a bit more flavorful, though I had plenty of salsa left, so I just added a bit of that to the fajita and I was as happy as Farrell Williams. :)

The atmosphere was tentatively jovial and celebratory, with a vibe somewhere in the vicinity of a sports bar. The two TV'S over the bar were showing Fox News and ESPN, and the background music played a mix of upbeat hits from big band through the early sixties.

For those who are curious, the meal ended up being around $22, not including tip. Not to different from what I would normally expect from this type of place, especially in the busy downtown of a major U.S. city.

Overall, I'd...

I’m giving two stars because the staff did try to make things right, and others at our table enjoyed their meals. However, I had the worst beef fajitas I’ve ever had. The texture was strange, almost like sausage, and the flavor was completely off. Honestly it tasted like the cheap pre marinated ones from H-E-B. I made one taco and wouldn’t make myself to eat any more. Even though the dish was over $30, I was fine stopping and letting it go to waste.

Out of curiosity, I asked two family members (who liked their food) to try it, and they were both shocked by how bad it was. When our waitress asked how everything was, I was honest, and she sent over a plain clothed man (who didn’t introduce himself) to talk to me. He sat next to me and the first thing he asked was, “Where are you from?” It felt like he was suggesting I didn’t like the food because I wasn’t from Houston. He explained they had served over 300 orders the day before without complaint and that he tasted it today and it tasted fine. He did apologize and was very polite, but the conversation very subtly made it feel like the issue was with me, not the food.

They did remove the fajitas from our bill and offered a free tres leches cake, which I appreciated. Still, as he left, he tapped my shoulder repeatedly with his knuckles, I guess to make me feel like he’s taking care of me but how hard he was doing it made it feel like he was frustrated with my opinion. It didn’t hurt or anything but it was weird.

Look, in the end, they tried to make things right, and succeeded in some ways but fell short in others. I was the only one at our table who had a bad meal, but that and the strange reaction to it by the staff we felt that this place was bad enough that we won’t be back, and we won’t recommend this place to others. It felt like if you don’t like the food, then you...