Cafe El Tapatio — Restaurant in Lake View Township

I've been working in restaurants for almost 20 years and I've never experienced ownership towards customers like this in my life. I ordered some food through their webpage. Said the food would be about 30 minutes. Went to go pick up my food and the server working said they didn't get the order. Annoying but that's fine. The server asked if they could make the order or I could get a refund. I was in a hurry so I asked for a refund. The manager came over and told me I could a get a refund by going through the third party. They never once appologized. Or tried to rectify the situation. I walked out the door pretty annoyed. I went on their website and couldn't find a customer service number anywhere. So I went back to the restaurant and I asked the manager where I could go to get my money back and he said he didn't know, he would have to go through the website. And then he started talking down to me for whatever reason. We started going back and forth then he went and got the owner. I explained to the owner what the situation was, told him that there was a charge on my GFs card and just needed help figuring out how to get a refund. In lesser words, he kept telling me that he didn't know the phone number and I would have to get it through whoever I ordered through. I told him I went through his website, and I asked if he could get me the phone number of who I have to call. He said he didn't know. I told him "all I want was my money back. Anyone who looses money would want it back. Why is that so hard to understand? Wouldn't you want to help get your guests money back when you messed up?" Then he has the audacity to say "it's not your money. It's your girlfriend's" that's when I got angry and started going off on him and he strong armed me out.

I've never in my life been so dismissed as a guest from beginning to end (even though I was rightfully shown the door for causing a scene). If someone spent money at my restaurant and didn't get their meal, I would be bending over backwards for them. Instead I was given the attitude like it was my fault they didn't get the order and I was a problem for trying to figure out how to get my money back.

I cussed the owner out and I'm not proud of that but a customer asking for help on how to get a refund due to the businesses mistake shouldn't have turned into this. You should be able to provide a customer service number to the guest without the customer having to dig around and...

My daughter has food sensitivities and texture issues but owner Mauricio (See Photo) was not receptive to listen to or make things right.

Indignent owner couldn't handle making a simple cheese and beans quesadilla for my 10 year old daughter who was there to celebrate her birthday with her grandma who came from out of town to join.

The first time the quesadilla came out unmelted cheese only on a flour tortilla. We wanted corn tortilla.

The second time it came out beans only and small bit of cheese.

Again my daughter has food texture issues so it was incredibly important that it wasn't just a dripping mess of refried beans. Gross!

Instead of making it with beans and cheese, he said he will make a cheese quesadilla and beans on the side. That doesn't work for my daughter and he wouldn't make it right. He literally would not make what we initially ordered! How is the kitchen's mistake my problem?

Oh but Mauricio's gas lighting continued.

Instead of being proactive or helpful, Mauricio found it more appropriate to be taunting.

Mauricio had the nerve to call my mother who was upset by his indignent behavior (who doesn't drink anything but water) an alcoholic!

Mauricio is not the kind of owner who truly cares about making things right with his customers. He's really seeing how quick he can get you out as another reviewer mentioned for their birthday.

Food was cold, bland, wet guacamole clearly from a bag. Chips bought not made. Music so loud you had to yell to be heard. Server was doing a great job but the owner had to come by to "help" (sarcasm here).

We left with my 10 year old daughter hungry, our cold food sitting on the table, and this joke of an owner in the rear...

I wish I could speak to the food, but due to the incompetence of the staff we were unable to enjoy a meal we had planned more than a week in advance. Don't bother making a reservation. Although they provide this service through OpenTable, they either 1) don't honor them or 2) don't understand how reservations work.

We made a reservation for a birthday dinner on a Saturday night at 7pm, and arrived right on time. The host told us to wait a few minutes while he checked to see if our table was ready. He disappeared for nearly 10 minutes, and at that point several large parties walked in (the line was out the door). When the host finally returned, he seemed overwhelmed, disorganized and completely unaware of which parties to seat. He then told us it would be at least 30 minutes. We told him we made a reservation, to which he replied, "The reservation doesn't guarantee you a table because we take walk-ins. All we can do is put your name down." When we questioned that policy (which is not stated anywhere on OpenTable), he shrugged and said there was nothing he could do because they accept walk-ins.

We chose this restaurant because it's local and we thought it would be a fun place to celebrate a birthday. Instead we had to find a back-up plan for a group of eight. It is completely unacceptable and absurd to take reservations through OpenTable if you do not know how to actually reserve tables for your patrons. I can understand that restaurants get busy, but the way this situation was handled by your host was...