El Paso Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Lafayette

I've been pretty understanding about short staffing at restaurants as things return to normal, but this was not that. What happened tonight was unacceptable even in the COVID era.

I was seated at 6:45 on a Sunday. Nobody came to the table for ten minutes. There were three servers crowded around flirting with a Real Cool Dude seated a few booths down. None of them seemed at all interested in working. I heard one of the people at the table next to mine say, "Is she ever coming back?" I looked around when I heard that, and all their drinks were empty.

I was about to leave at 6:55 when my server finally showed up, and I ordered. She came back right away with my drink, but she said the chips and salsa she was carrying were not for me.

Then she didn't return for 40 minutes.

A separate guy brought out my food. It came pretty quick, and the food was pretty good. That's the only reason I gave them two stars instead of one.

But not only did I never get a drink refill (or chips and salsa for that matter), whenever I would try to get my server's attention she would look away as if she didn't see or hear me.

Two of the flirting servers eventually went back to work, but one stood around chatting up Real Cool Dude the entire time I was seated. She did zero work while I was there. Others would drift over every now and then to flirt with Real Cool Dude, then drift back to work. So it's not as if they were understaffed.

Finally at 7:38 my server showed up again and asked if I needed anything else. By that time I figured it was futile to hope for a refill, so I just paid the check and stopped at a gas station for some water to finally wash the lump out of my throat.

I see that this place usually gets good reviews, so either I got the worst server they had on a night when their worst people were working, or the standard for good service around here is really low.

All I know is that although the food was good, it wasn't good enough to justify the poor service, and I won't be back.

Edit: Downgraded to one star for the snarky response from management. Obviously these folks don't care about...

My 1st time here was disappointing. I made an order to pick up since I started working in this part of town and I LOVE Mexican food. When I walked in and said "Hi!, I called in an order. " to the host, she was looking down and said hi in a low and very unpleasing way and didn't even look up at me. She then told me to go wait behind her. The gentleman that took my payment was nice. When the hostess brought my bag that had 1 box, one round plate the bag of chips and a salsa she was walking trying to tie it, an i could see that it looked off. She hands it to me with the smaller round one on the bottom of the large to-go box and the salsa falling down the side and told me the wrong thing was in it. when i corrected her she said yes. the shrimp quesadilla had nice size , generous amounts of shrimp but had a strong seafood taste to it so not very pleasant. The chili relleno was not pleasing to look at. it had some orange stuff on top that looked a little congealed and tasted very spicy. No clue what it was. The pepper itself was a decent size and quality but the whole thing itself was just very hot, but no FLAVOR. You expect lots of taste from Mexican food. The tortilla chips were awful. They tasted like they were fried in old oil and had a bad after taste. The quality of the food was sub par. I would not go back. I'll stick with...

Not a good Friday night experience. Service was good, for the most part. Now let's talk about the food. First, I was blown away by the prices- $14 for a combo plate that consisted of a taco, enchilada, rice & beans? I'd consider paying that if the place had earned some sort of reputation for being world class, but this is just an average Mexican place that is clearly profiteering. But it gets worse. I ordered a taco, enchilada, and tamale, all a la carte. I asked for them to be put together on one plate, FOR A REASON- namely, because Mexican food is supposed to be mixed up a bit, with sauces blending with all the items. So I was not thrilled when they all arrived on separate plates, with the female bartender announcing "they all came on separate plates, unfortunately." Translation: "nobody cares how you want it, we'll be doing this based on our convenience, and what do you care anyway?" The enchilada sauce was based on an ingredient NOT a staple to Mexican cooking: Salt. It. Was. Salty. As in, not a hint of cumin or chile- if there was, I couldn't taste it from the sodium chloride poisoning. The taco shell was completely broken in half down the bottom center, and i knew better than to send it back. Boy, nothing worse than an overpriced bad meal when you're on the road and all you want is some Mexican comfort food. Will...