El Jalapeño Mexican Restaurant Indy — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I, along with many of my coworkers, have eaten at El Jalapeno's quite a few times over the years. Service/food has always been great however this most recent visit unfortunately was met with a not so pleasant experience. While eating, I noticed a bug crawling on my food - figured it was a gnat, ready to fly away, but it continued to crawl and I realized it was some other type of bug that came on my food, more than likely from the kitchen. When the waitress checked on us, I showed her the picture I took (as this thing just continued to crawl and crawl) and my coworker and I requested the food be taken away as we didn't have the appetite to continue. Didn't complain, didn't ask for the tacos to be removed from the bill, didn't ask to speak with the manager... We planned to continue to enjoy our beverage and chips (knowing how sometimes these things are just simply inevitable having both worked in the restaurant industry).

The manager soon came over to the table demanding to see the picture and kept saying 'what is this' as I continued to explain it was a bug I saw in my food. His response was 'why didn't you call me or the waitress to show us the bug'. I explained that we told the waitress, she took our food and he proceeded to huff and puff and walk away. We were soon presented our bill with the tacos removed from the receipt.

When we went to pay the remaining balance of our bill, the manager came from the kitchen, saw me, and quickly returned to the kitchen. I asked the waitress if I could speak with him, which I then expressed to him that I was disappointed with his approach to the situation; I shared with him that I didn't request that he come to our table as I didn't want to cause a scene (which he ultimately did). We enjoyed eating there and did so frequently - we simply just did not have the appetite to continue. I told him we did not ask for the tacos to be removed from our plate, although it was appreciated. His response? "I have never seen you come here before". No apology, not a speck of remorse.

After we left, I plugged the photo into chatgpt to see if we could figure out what kind of bug it may have been - "the bug in your photo appears to be a baby cockroach, also known as a nymph".

If there are baby cockroaches, then there are definitely more where he came from... Unfortunately, that is perhaps why he was very dismissive, I guess we'll never know.

I certainly hope the restaurant looks to rectify their likely bug issue that exists, but that also the manager can learn to develop a sense of compassion for...

We were hesitant to eat there because my husband had seen some bad reviews, and he knows I'm a very picky eater, but the food we ordered was as expected, the flavor was just fine, our meals were hot, our server was really nice, the only suggestions we would make is the salsa needs more flavor, it's a bit on the bland side, I feel the chips should come out hot, and I would highly recommend adding caldo de res soup with potato, carrots, corn, etc... with some lime, rice and warm tortillas on the side, and a nice flavorful broth, I would recommend skipping the broccoli and cabbage so that the broth doesn't taste like broccoli and cabbage water, I didn't see birrria tacos on the menu, so if they are not , I'd suggest adding them, baked bacon wrapped cream cheese jalapenos would be great too as an appetizer, but overall, great value for the money, and very clean. We would return if we were in the area again. Truckers, the parking lot will not accommodate a tractor trailer, so don't even try, we were able to get into the back lot in a 40ft straight truck, but it was not peak dining hours, we got away with it but I wouldn't recommend even parking a vehicle that large in there, maby find a larger lot to park on and walk over...

I was visiting clients in Indy and figured I would try a Mexican restaurant for taco Tuesday. The Google reviews were pretty good and I decided on this spot and I was disappointed! There is not a bar but they do server alcohol. The place is small. It has booths and a long table. If it’s busy, you’ll be sitting right next to other guests unless you get a booth:

I selected this place because it supposedly has the best burritos. Although it looked like it was going to be sooo good, that was not the case. I forced myself to eat as much as I could. It just lacked flavor although it was stuffed with flavorful items. I also ordered a margarita.with no simple syrup or sweet and sour mix. It came out tasting like it had extra of both! I tried to send it back and was told no by my server. I asked for the manager. He said alcohol couldn’t be returned and that it’s just my tastebuds. I was shocked and I politely told him I was not going to pay for anything that I don’t want. He then stated he would remove from my bill but the next time, he wouldn’t be able to. Needless to say but I would never return there if I’m ever...