Flamingos Mexican Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Laguna Hills

We have been regulars at Flamingo since moving to Mission Viejo in 2007. The service and the food have always been great. That has changed with the new ownership.

Today, I ordered a house Margarita; they have a new bartender. The drink was nothing like what I am used to; it was plain Margarita mix and ice, with barely any detectable liquor. I brought this up with our waiter, who made it right by bringing me another one.

I then ordered a quesadilla with carne asada. I have ordered this dish many times; it is supposed to have cheese (after all, it is a quesadilla) and Ortega chiles. The chiles were missing. I pointed this out to our waiter. He again made it right by bringing me a plate with the chiles. Although it was not the same because they were quite cold, I was willing to let that pass. I opened the quesadilla to add the chiles and noticed hardly any cheese. I decided to let it pass and eat the dish. However, I saved the last piece (see attached picture) and asked for the manager; my plan was to gently let him know what problems I encountered and suggest looking into it and trying to improve it.

What developed once the manager (or owner, I am not sure) led us to decide never to return. He came over and seemed to have an attitude from the get-go; I opened by letting him know that the service was great and pointed out that the quesadilla needed to be improved. I told him it did not bring the Ortega chiles, and he blamed the waiter for not asking me if I wanted them when I ordered the dish; what? I had never asked before; the dish always had chiles in it, and it was right in the description on the menu.

I opened the quesadilla to show him hardly any cheese; he just said it was there. Really? He went into a rampage about how the restaurant still has the same cooks and how he has been in the business for 35 years, whatever that meant. He then walked away.

Long story short, we are...

Went here for dinner for the very first time with my neighbors who frequent often. Perhaps Taco Tuesday is the time to go as this was a Thursday. They had a customer with an altercation just outside the door to the restaurant - yelling and disturbing for cliente entering the restaurant. I ordered a basic beef taco and enchilada dinner combo with rice and beans. The chips brought to the table looked as if they either had been sitting in the deep fryer for hours or had been re-fryed from a previous cooking. I was not asked if I wanted my taco crips or soft and the crisp taco came - it could not be eaten it was so deeply fried - the beef inside had been fried with the taco and was hardly recognizable as shredded beef. I had to spoon what was in it and eat it with some rice to get it down. The enchilada was average and the beans and rice unremarkable. I contrast this meal with one priced at 75% of the cost of this meal at a nearby Mexican restaurant where food is always fresh, always a lot of shredded in my soft taco (which I prefer) and service is always tremendous. I cannot recomend...

Staff wasn't necessarily very friendly or personable, but they were busy and they kept up with refills on water and chips and salsa, so I really have no complaints about staff or service. The inside was pretty clean and welcoming. However, the quality of food was lacking big time. My wife ordered a tostada and nothing looked fresh about it except the lettuce that was mountain-high on it and the shell was all soggy. I ordered a dish called Steak Picado. The flavor wasn't particularly great, but what the menu describes as "tender pieces of steak" really just tasted like really tough pieces of meat that have been sitting in a crock-pot all day long. Just overall bad quality and ingredients. I understand that this isn't an authentic Mexican place, and that's alright. I appreciate the authentic hole-in-the-wall places and also the more Americanized sit-down places, but food quality was still lacking, even for a...