Tacotlan — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

Because of my job, I have had the opportunity to travel to several states and have eaten at hundreds of different establishments and despite that, I have never experienced a more egregious example of poor customer service.

I suggested to my family that we visit Tacotlan since I had eaten there before and enjoyed the food. Because I have eaten there before, I know that there is at least a 30-minute wait after ordering. We had all worked a community event and were tired and hungry so to get our food faster and alleviate the work for the wait staff we tried to phone in our order. There was no answer, so we ordered online.

When we arrived, we were seated at a table. Then the waitress approached us, and we informed her that we had ordered ahead. She became visibly annoyed and said that she had to talk to her manager. She walked away and came back to inform us that we could not eat in the restaurant because we had ordered online. We explained that we were not aware of this policy (it is nowhere on the website) but that we would make note and avoid doing this in the future. She then went on to state that our food would not be brought to the table and that we should take it from the counter. I asked, “So we should take it and bring it to the table ourselves?”. I was genuinely confused. My sister wondered if the issue was because she thought we wouldn’t tip so she assured her that we would, even though she had not personally taken our order. She responded that the tables were only for people who did not order online and that we should take our food and go. To which I asked, “So where are we supposed to eat? We don’t live near here.” She motioned to the tables outside and said that we could eat there. She then noticed that the tables were taken. Her response, “Oh well, those tables are taken so you’ll just have to wait outside or take the food with you”.

Had I been by myself, I wouldn’t even take the time to type this up, but I was with my family (including my mother) who was rudely forced out of a restaurant that took our money but then opted to hold an empty table waiting for customers who may not arrive while we ate in our car. I understand that establishments have rules for a reason (as arbitrary as the reason may be) but I hope that you understand that there are times when exceptions should be made.

At best, I hope the restaurant changes this seemingly capricious policy. At least, I hope that you update your website to make your customers aware of it instead of being dismissively thrown to the street.

As to your response: I have ordered online at other places and have opted to eat in and have never been asked to leave. On the contrary, I have treated with the same courteous service as if I had ordered there. Also, there was no wait list at the time because we were seated upon our arrival. Regarding the tip, as I mentioned, we offered to tip the waitress but she ignored this. Finally, a more detailed explanation may have been appreciated at the the time but probably would not have made up for being kicked out as a paying customer. I hope that you reconsider keeping the policy of kicking out your customers for something as simple as asking to be allowed to sit after paying...

Food was pretty good. Was craving Chips and salsa and I ended up getting QuesaBirría meal as well. I was given a generous amount of salsa but that salsa was 🥵 The chips were so crispy and had the right amount of salt. I can tell those were fried in house 😋 just what I wanted. I could only finish 2/3 QuesaBirria tacos before I was stuffed so you’re getting your moneys worth. Ive also tried the tres leches. The best one so far is the Biscoff tres leches 🔥

Edit: 4/25/24 just tried this place again today and spent nearly $50. First off let me say that the money isn’t the issue for me. We got the Biscoff Tres Leches, Lalos on the beach Fries and a Birría Torta. The male cashier has 0 customer service skills. He should not work with the public at all. I ordered the Biscoff tres leches cake and the Lalos on the beach fries. My brother considered changing his fry order due to the cost ($22 for Lalos on the Beach Fries) and the man at the register would not listen to him. He was only speaking to me. He was clearly ignoring him 🚩 So I repeated what my brother said. Then I ordered the Torta and the cashier asked my name so that he could put it on the order. I spelled it for him and he ignored me and still spelled it wrong, like really wrong. 🚩🚩This is the second time he’s done this to me. I’m taking it personal this time. Then when we received our food and we went to the car tell me why the cup of consomé was on its side! It’s a cup full of boiling hot liquid and it was laid on top of our styrofoam containers instead of just sitting it upright in the bag 🚩🚩🚩 1/4 of my consommé was in the bag instead of in the cup. My brother liked his fries, but my Birría didn’t have much flavor and unfortunately that’s the trend here. I’ve patronized this place so many times, and sometimes the Birría is flavorful and sometimes it’s not. I really really wish they would get consistent with their food. I want to support a small business, but I also want good service and good food. Whomever runs their social media accounts (the owners I believe) are rude and they should consider hiring a professional social media manager to respond to customers on Google and Instagram. Scroll through the responses on here YIKES! A fish rots from the head down. You can have decent food at your establishment, but if your customer service is bad your success may have a...

Edit: The owner of the restaurant, Jessica, called me from her own cell phone to apologize and to make things right. Not only did she thoroughly read my review within minutes, but understood my frustration and understood where I was coming from. She made things right and it takes a lot for people to take accountability and this is why we need to support small businesses because a corporation would never. I redact my statement at the bottom because it would have killed me not to have Tacotlan in the summer. 10/10

I used to love this place but after today, theres better restaurants out there. I placed an order over the phone for 5 quesabirria tacos with chicken instead and plain and a single quesabirria plain and 1 small consome. I got a call from my husband that it was $98…

I called them to explain that they had my order wrong. Not only whoever was on the phone was completely rude and was cutting me off as I was trying to explain the situation but she goes “This is why I asked you if you wanted single or combo”. That’s when I knew I no longer will do business with them. Why would I order an extra consome for combo? I never order the combo! She never even asked me if it was single or combo. I would have remembered because it’s just for my husband and I. I felt like they wanted my money. Oh to make matters worse, my SINGLE PLAIN regular quesabirria…yup didn’t even get that. I don’t like chicken so now we have an abundance of chicken ones and I didn’t get to enjoy my single quesabirria from them like I wanted to. Completely disgusted with how I was treated over the phone and how they rang me up knowing they were going to get more money.

The fact that the person on the phone instantly tried to blame me as the customer and did not offer solutions. As someone who has worked many customer services roles, I’d eat up my mistake and say “I am so sorry, let me reimburse you the difference and let’s make things right.”

Honestly, it’s not about the money. It’s the fact that she could not take accountability for her actions when I have ordered this meal many times in the past before and everybody else has gotten it right without any mistakes and without charging me $98. I have always paid closed to $30-$50 for this order if not similar.

Never will I ever support his...