El Jimador Irmo — Restaurant in Irmo

PSA- dont dine here if you are a plus sized woman or have a bit of a belly. Staff may be quick to assume you are pregnant and refuse to serve you alcohol. This is technically illegal to do even if a woman is pregnant.. however, i am not pregnant. Backstory.. even though its no one's business, I have thyroid and hormone issues that cause my stomach to look quite bloated at times. I also have an abdominal hernia which doesn't help the issue. Ive struggled for years with my self esteem and learning to accept my body. I was doing well until today.. I chose to dine here with my husband and a few of our friends. The young waitress (who looked about 18) began acting flirtatious with my 40 year old husband (inappropriate if you ask me but I pretended not to notice). My husband and our friends ordered some drinks. I dont drink, however, I do like to taste my husband's drinks from time to time if they look tasty. He decided to get a frozen piná colada with whip cream on top. I love piná colada flavored things and he doesnt like whipped cream, so I scooped the whipped cream off and took a sip of his drink to try it. I am 30 years old. Then, out of nowhere the young waitress flew across the restaurant and said (to my husband not to me) SHE CANNOT DRINK THAT SHE IS PREGNANT!!!! She said it very loudly where other diners turned their heads and I became the center of attention. I was mortified, shocked, and demoralized in that moment and everyone at the table was stunned. no one could even speak. I didnt even realize what she was saying at first. The only thing I could utter was "Yes I can". And then what she said sank in several seconds later. So as the waitress was walking away - I shouted "im not even pregnant!!!!!" I felt like no one believed me. I got horrible stares the whole time. Even if I had been pregnant, one tiny (and I mean tiny) sip of my husband's drink would not have hurt a baby.. many pregnant women can and do have the occasional glass of wine. It was not her place to try and police someone like that and the emotional damage and humiliation it caused me should have been enough to make her lose her job. But I was so embarrassed, I didnt say anything else. I just tried to continue enjoying my time with my friends, who were angry at the way I was treated and did their best to cheer me up. There was more alcohol in the half fermented fruit served on my bland lackluster salad than there was in that sorry excuse for a piná colada. Needless to say, I wont be dining here anymore. I hope this waitress...

Waiter Gabriel R. (Impeccable Service)

Second time here and once again! Absolutely amazing! The place is beautiful, clean, and tstaff are super friendly and the food is delicious, appetizing, delectable, flavorful, luscious, pungent, savory, spicy, and yummy. I tried something different and must say, it was what I was expecting! SUPERB!! I love that you get a lot of food as well for the price. I had this Raspberry Margarita and it was GOOD. It’s succulent taste was tantalizing! It’s definitely not like other expensive Mexican restaurants and you only get a small amount of food. I am definitely going back. It’s my go to place now in Columbia! The menus options are an excellent value. The dining experience overall is very pleasant. I highly recommend this restaurant. Everything about this restaurant was great. The place was clean and smelled good. The staff and greeter was very nice. Our waiter Gabriel was awesome, the staff also worked as a team in bringing and cleaning up our food. The food was fresh and awesome. Then we also had dessert and that was really good as well. Great atmosphere with really nice people.

Gabriel- Gabriel was our waiter and when I say he was IMPECCABLE that’s just not giving him the full credit, you’d have to go in and experience this world class customer service experience with Gabriel. Gabriel welcomed and seated us, Gabriel took our orders with patience and kindness, Gabriel communicated our orders effectively to the kitchen and in addition, memorized the menu and offered recommendations, appetizers, desserts, and drinks.

Gabriel presented efficiency. He was calm . Gabriel got our food and drinks to the table promptly. Gabriel checked on our needs periodically as well as the guest at his other surrounding tables. Gabriel made sure he was not making us the customers wait overly long for any one thing. Gabriel had good manners, he was friendly, approachable, presented great organization skills! I must say! If you’ve been in search of an atmosphere that makes you feel right at home EL Jimador is your place! And if you need that world class customer service experience you feel the food industry has been missing! Allow Gabriel to reintroduce you to what CUSTOMER SERVICE REALLY is! A must go to!!!!!

Thank me...

I don’t even leave reviews for bad experiences I’ve had but this is by far the WORSE experience I’ve ever had at any place I’ve ever been to. I ordered food to go well ahead of time before they close just for them to say that it’s closing time now and can’t order anything else. I first placed my order with one guy and turns out they never placed it because they were already trying to hand me the tab after one drink on that only showed up on the tab but said I’m waiting on an order to go that wasn’t on there. They then become aware that it wasn’t placed because someone else came to take my order and actually sent it this time. Enough time passes for them to be able to tell me that they didn’t have everything to make but waits until closing to tell me that it can’t be made nor can I order anything else because of what time it was and that the kitchen is closed. They placed my alcoholic drink to go which is an up charge on items and said i wasnt being charged the extra price but it showed up on my tab and was still charged for it. You can’t even order alcoholic drinks to go at any place. I have insider information that it was actually the manager who cancelled my order for whatever reason and couldn’t bring himself to tell me why he did what he did. If could give this place a zero I would. It’s sad because the few times I’ve been here, I’ve always been treated well. The manager is the main reason why I would never want to come back again for being a coward to not even be able to say his reasoning for doing what he did. Currently he is succeeding in failing judging by the way he handles business and how “busy”...