Zalate Taqueria — Restaurant in Knoxville

Regulars who sadly won’t return…

Let me start by saying that we’ve had many great experiences at Zalate, going so far as to make it one of our “go-to’s” a couple of times per month. But tonight just wasn’t it… from some of the food to the customer service, it was, unfortunately, just a really poor experience and one that will not bring us back. To recap the night:

Slow waitress - we sat for over 10 minutes before our drink order was taken. We’ve experienced slow service with this particular waitress before, but she’s usually pretty friendly, so we waited patiently. The manager finally came and took our drink order…

Margaritas - great. Tasty and a great value. Always pretty consistent. Chips and salsa - great. Salsa was on point per usual. Always pretty tasty. Plantains - great. Hot and fresh and yummy.

Carnitas tacos - bad. BAD. My first set came out cold and really oily, much different from the norm (one of us orders carnitas tacos almost every time we go there). Here’s where the problems started…

I asked for some fresh tacos, and our waitress obliged. Unfortunately, the second set came out just as bad, if not even a little worse. I took one bite and pushed my plate away. She asked if they were better, and when I said no, she briefly apologized and then did not come back to check on us for a long time or offer me something different. I asked for the check and mentioned to the manager the tacos were just not great. She briefly apologized and offered to take them off of the check but passive aggressively threw in that “I was the only one to complain today.” Mind you, we’ve never sent food back one time there before today. She proceeded to take my tray and converse with our waitress (who then rolled her eyes at us). Obviously, this was extremely frustrating and super rude. We’ve spent hundreds of dollars at this place over the past year or so. I expressed my displeasure at the front when I go to pay (going so far as to outright tell the manager we won’t be back because I didn’t appreciate the eye roll, and all she says is, “Sorry. Have a nice night.” No other remedy at all, and a super empty apology. I understand everyone has off nights in the restaurant industry, but it sure would have been nice to be treated with a little more respect. I’ll spend my money elsewhere...

I want the owner to respond to me. The owner was exceptionally rude to me tonight and they violated their own menu prices. I paid for a hot chicken burrito which on the menu was $11 and I explicitly called in to pay the $11 price rather than ordering it online. When I went to go pay they charged me $12.50. I pointed on the on the menu and they argued with me over the price. Then they got in a verbal argument with me over the price of it refuse to refund me at first until I demanded it. Then they locked the door on me at the end of the night. When I asked to speak to the owner they refuse to call me saying that it wasn't worth it and the manager was the dead all authority. But then she also stated that she had no power to actually honor the menu. I stated that she was violating Tennessee state law and she refused to accept that. All of this is on video and I hope that the owner sees how rude their employees were and they all get fired. They let him perfectly good burrito and food go to waste and go in the trash and piss off a customer and get this god-awful Google review all over $1.50 plus a $0.45 takeout fee that I never agreed to and the top it off. They actually have good food but I refuse to be treated like the scum of the Earth.

I forgot the best part the "manager" out of pure spite tore up my refund receipt right in front of my face. That is a level of pure spite and disrespectful. I truly hope she is disciplined and learns to NEVER treat a customer with this level of disrespect again. She most likely will be looking for a new job after the owner calls me over this incident. They were supposed to take down my information and then refused to.

For the owner this is a CLEAR violation of the TCPA law of 1977, about 10 minutes of Googling made it clear that you're in direct violation...

Food was great, atmosphere was fine. Service was abysmal.

Wife and I went there for lunch on a weekend and we were one of only two tables in the restaurant. We were sat down and before we had even looked at the menu we were being asked if we wanted any appetizers. We requested another minute and the waitress returned 10 to 15 minutes later with our drinks to take our order. My wife, who ordered coffee, asked for sugar and cream as there was only Sweet and low on the table. The waitress stared blankly and did not respond. So we attempted to ask again in Spanish, again, no response. We were forced to walk up to the bar and ask the bartender for cream and sugar. For the remainder of the interactions we had with her, she spoke English perfectly, so it definitely wasn't a language barrier. Very bizarre.

We placed our orders, two mains and an appetizer. My entree was brought out first, and then the remaining entree and appetizer came out again probably 10 to 15 minutes later. One of the entrees came with a salad and no silverware was provided. The second entree also really needed a fork, but I was able to make do with my hands as chips were provided.

We did not see the waitress again for the entirety of our meal. There was no check back, no offering of condiments ( would have really loved some hot sauce) and no drink refills. My glass set at the very end of the table for 3/4 of our meal without being addressed.

Considering that the restaurant was empty and there were easily twice as many front of house staff members as customers, this level of poor service is really inexcusable.

Again, the food was good, but we won't...