El mesón Mexican restaurant — Restaurant in Lafayette

We were optimistic to give this place a try because of the ratings and photos. We were unbelievably frustrated and disappointed instead. I got there and began waiting in line, there were two groups ahead of us and a man waiting to pay his bill. I got there early to reserve a seat, and my boyfriend came later. The hostess sat the first group, and then went back to her stand and did nothing. Did not help the man get assistance with his bill and did not seat us or the man ahead of us. I waited to be seated, as that is what the sign says. Wait to be seated. She stayed at her stand, on her phone, not making eye contact with those waiting on her, but I chose not to speak up. Big mistake. Then a huge group walks in the doors, she jumps off her phone, asks how many are in the party, and instantly seats them...so I continue to wait. Maybe, somehow, she cannot see the people still waiting... So then another LARGE group comes in, much more than my party of two still waiting on service, and yet again they are instantly seated. Hostess looks around at the people still waiting, does not do anything. Someone then comes in for a pickup order, and by this time me and my boyfriend have been standing for over 30 minutes waiting. Maybe we should have left, but this is where we wanted to eat and we had already invested the time. Another group comes in, and by the way at this moment the man waiting to pay has still not been helped. My boyfriend comes in expecting to see me at a table, as it had already been a long period of time and was surprised to see I was still in line. So this family sees everyone waiting, and asks me about our wait time. I share that the service is awful and the hostess is not servicing customers. At this point I am very upset that I have been skipped over multiple times. I walk up to the stand, simply say party of two, and she grabs menus and seats us, but never spoke to us or apologized for our wait. She also never apologized for rudely skipping us and declining service. After all that, you would think the food must be worth the wait. It was not. The chips and salsa were cold, and the food was just OK. Clearly the waiters were overwhelmed but I can't complain about that because I have worked as hostess, waitress, etc and can understand being busy. What I cannot understand is very obviously ignoring certain customers at the front of the line and making them stand for long periods of time while immediately seating others who had just entered. I would have thought it was a mistake until we went to pay for our meals and she gave us dirty looks. I have never met the hostess before in my life, as I am not from the area, so I could not think of a single reason for her deliberate ill-manners and discourteousness that felt directed towards us. It should be noted that I have quite literally never left a bad review or called to complain, this is the first time I have ever felt disrespected and ignored in...

This was my first time at El Mason. It was a wonderful experience, My server, David, was a very kind thoughtful server. Me and a couple of buddies came in at around 9 P.M. and there were a couple of sketchy gangsters who walked in. They pulled out knives and demanded the cash, David refused. Him and John simultaneously ran at them without an ounce of fear. They used eachother as a catapult to draw closer to the bandits. As they flung toward the thieves, David shot a brutal two finger jab right into one of their stomachs. He dropped to the floor without a look of conciseness in his body. John then does a front flip over David’s back, and side swept the other two whilst standing on his hands. As the robbers were quivering with fear lying on the ground, David was given the option to do one of two things…one…finish him for good…or two…let them go. David, the warrior he is, let the mindless robbers go, showing how he has changed from his past self. John agreed with him, and invited the robbers to share a meal, of gratitude and forgiveness. The robbers gratefully accepted. This just shows how El Mason can change...

Third time here. First was excellent to go order of enmoladas. Tortillas DIPPED in mole . Great food, great service. Second time I even brought someone with me. The waitress was very rude. So much so that another waiter took over after looking at our faces full of frustration. I complained and they said she was tired, so was that our fault? Today, third time, I called 30 mins before picking up my enmoladas. I arrived there and they barely starting making them! And what was worse is that they just gave me tortillas stuffed with chicken TOPPED with mole. This has been such a disolution. I am definitely NOT coming back to this place. On top of that, there is a sign on the wall that says: on to go orders the chips WILL be included, AND that a $0.50 charge will be applied. I guess we have no option anout it...I DO NOT RECOMMEND...