Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Houston

In early Feb. 2020, my wife, daughter and I ate at this location. The experience was typically good, but the aftermath was nothing more than a horrible nightmare.

Now, before I get into all the details, know that we have eaten at this location (and four or five other locations) at least 250x in the past 10 years. Most of our experiences were good. So, please note this is more about this one visit, and what you need to know about their response, more than anything.

On this particular day, my daughter (who is 16) had consumed nothing but dry cereal from a baggie while at school. When we got to Lupe in the late afternoon, she ordered Tacos al Carbon (Chicken), queso and sweet tea. My wife and I didn't have anything with fajita meat, but we did have queso. The problem, in our eyes, was that the fajita meat was bad.

When we got home (about 15 min away), my wife and I went for a walk, coming back an hour later to find our daughter doubled-over in the bathroom, vomiting uncontrollably. It was bad. Every three minutes she started the vomiting process all over. This lasted deep into the night. Finally, we took her to the ER to get an IV for dehydration and another to get anti-nausea medicine into her. This costs us a $500 deductible.

The ER doctor said that she had food poisoning. She asked what our daughter had consumed, we told her, and she said that she likely got it from Lupe. She also said that she likely had salmonella poisoning. She said we needed to contact Lupe.

The next day I called the manager at this location and told him of the situation. I wasn't asking for anything, but just informing him in case others might have it, and so he could make sure it didn't happen again. He immediately went on the defensive, saying that food poisoning takes eight (8) hours to settle in and that there was "no way it could have come" from his store. He reassured me that he learned this and that there was no way it was from his restaurant.

My daughters vomiting continued through the day / night. We even took her back to the ER (another $500) for dehydration and another round of anti-nausea meds. The Dr asked if we told Lupe, we said we had, and that Lupe's manager had said it takes eight (8) hours for food poisoning to set in. The Dr laughed and said that it can take anywhere from 20 min to a few hours for salmonella poisoning to set in.

The CDC and Mayo Clinic websites also confirm that salmonella poisoning takes about an hour, and that it can last up to 10 days. Well, my daughter couldn't hold down food for five days, she lost 14 lbs (she was thin beforehand), and caused her to miss a week of school.

Want to know how Lupe responded? We received a form letter from a Customer Relations Coordinator, who just copied and placed a "we are so sorry" bunch of garbage. It even insinuated that we filled out a card in their store (we sent a very long letter describing the ordeal, hoping they'd just acknowledge the situation and take measures internally to ensure that this couldn't happen again). They offered a $100 gift certificate for their "unsatisfactory" service. Note ... the service wasn't the issue. It was their food was likely bad and it poisoned our daughter.

So ... moral of the story. If you have a bad experience at Lupe, with their food or service, we wish you good luck in getting them to even acknowledge the issue. They didn't with us. I am guessing that they won't, and they will try and buy you off with a giftcard of some kind.

And so everyone is aware within Lupe Tortilla, salmonella poisoning takes as little as 45 minutes to set in ... not eight (8) hours. Oh, and they also lost a loyal...

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the food service I received during my recent visit to your restaurant on 05/14/24. Unfortunately, the experience did not meet the expectations I had based on previous visits and your establishment's reputation.

Firstly, the service was exceptionally slow. Despite the restaurant not being overly busy, it took over 40 minutes for our orders to be prepared. The order was placed online as suggested by the staff amd promised to be ready at 11:30am. Because the order was over $450 I called the restaurant as stated online but the staff stated it had to be ordered online deliverd by Doordash or picked up. This delay was inconvenient and disrupted our plans for the afternoon. It was a luncheon schedule for clinic staff during the arranged 60 minutes lunch period 12 noon to 1 pm.

Secondly, when the food finally arrived, several items were incorrect. I placed 18 individual orders. The hostess placed one small back of chips and a couple of containers of salsa and i requested more. She rudely replied this is the standard for a party platter and i replied the order placed was 18 individual orders and not a party platter. The cost of the order was $658.85, which included a $123.61 tip for this awful service!! Another reason to not tip before you receive your food. The hostess never returned prompting me to ask for the manager. The manager did attempt to complete the order.

Additionally, the quality of the food was not standard I have come to expect from your restaurant. The presentation was lackluster. This was particularly disappointing given the positive experiences I've had in the past.

I hope you will address these issues to prevent future occurrences. I have always enjoyed dining at your restaurant, and I hope to continue doing so. However, this recent experience has left me hesitant to return.

Thank you for taking the time to read my feedback. I look forward to your response and hope to see improvements in the future.

Sincerely

So I sent the information you requested but have not heard from you

Whoever responds to the reviews quickly reaches out for information but never responds or tries to correct the BAD experience I had

This situation happened 2 months ago and NO ONE has reached out to me yet just went through the formalities of asking for your information and...

Gluten-Free (celiac) based review

Pros Used to be regular patrons going weekly, good food, with pretty solid Fajitas, one of our favorites locally Good decent place with some good gluten free options

Cons Price has gotten pretty high. We've stopped going due to how expensive it is getting for a family. This has been bumped down from 5 stars due to this. For a while they had a ridiculous amount of pressure on their to go staff and wait on folks for to go orders. I think they had a ton of turn over on the people doing "to go" except for a few solid folks due to the insane lines and pressure. They've since installed a to-go counter and that helps, but on any busy night you could be waiting a tremendous amount of time for your order. It feels like first come first serve, even if you ordered a long time ago, so I go tired of waiting around all the time on weekends, and stopped ordering on busy nights. Frustrating to wait 45 mins+ for something you ordered to go a long time ago. Margaritas cost way too much, don't taste very good, and are way too small for cost. Fuzzy taco has this down right. It's around $4 for a big fresh rita Risk for cross contamination is there, don't think they have any dedicated separate area for preparation. Chips are not in dedicated fryer. I've not gotten sick from it (that I know of), but still not a good practice for celiacs to eat chips from that type of fryer. Confusion on rice was continual from managers. Finally had them list the ingredients and I confirmed was gluten-free. This made me think they'd benefit from a revamped gluten free specific menu and a dedicated...