Ramona’s Mexican Food — Restaurant in Lakewood

Had so enjoyed this place for my entire life, that is until about 10 years ago. Took a group of friends from work who had never been there before. We happened to be in town for a meeting in the Gardena area. Was stunned to see former workers outside protesting their firing. Going inside, all new people working there, and food was somewhat the same, prices were somewhat the same, but within two years of this incident, prices went up, astronomically, and it was no longer tasty as it once was.

I say this because the quality of everything went down for me big time. There might still be lines out the door. I don’t know because I do not go to the Gardena location unless I’m in town. But I have visited their newer franchise businesses, which are run by I’m not sure who exactly, however, prices are astronomical in comparison to the past. I’m not used to the Tacos being made with piles of meat and piles and cheese and piles of tomatoes so the price of these tacos went from a dollar some thing to three or four dollars to whatever it is now. I definitely preferred smaller. Enjoy the flavor much better. I could have two or three and not be concerned that the Taco would fall apart, and then I could taste every component within that taco. Nowhere near as enjoyable to have one giant taco that falls apart before you have a chance to consume it. More recently, I have gone to one in the Long Beach area, as I have business over there as well. The people are fabulous. But you never see the same people twice like in the Gardena store for years she would see the same people for years at a time. Their passion was intense. Unfortunately, the way this store was designed is so inefficient it’s unbelievable. You have to go in to see it. You order and pick up at the same place and because of the lack of a really true coordinated system, you’re lucky if you can get your meal, even though there’s rarely many people in the place. That’s because the people behind have not been trained well, and there’s no complete sequence. Your food goes in the opposite direction and sometimes ends up, sitting there while somebody else is taking an order. You have to go in to see this to understand completely. I miss the flavor of those beautiful Tacos, the way they were made for so many years. I miss the quality as well as the passion of the people that had worked for years in the Gardena store. The food was always excellent; I used to take home containers of the beef and potato for my family. Now I just take a taco or two and I’m gone. I even used to buy their burritos at SmartandFinal and I don’t do that any longer either because of the quality. It’s a shame, because this place had it down like a science. I suppose they make more money now? I don’t really know. But they lost the majority of my business as well as those that I took that day because of what they saw. Watching the workers out front trying to figure out a way to protest, was heartbreaking. That was a turn off for all of us as we know what losing a job means especially when you are not able to get the training you need to find different work. And the new workers had an indifference towards the food like I’ve never seen. So, this is what it is. When I respond to the questions below, it will be regarding my trip to the Long Beach location at this point. Not a fan any longer of Ramona’s’s. But I will probably go once a year just to go down “Memory Lanes“ but definitely not the same. A shame, the fruits of the labor of the ones who brought this to fruition is totally gone. There’s no lines out the door in the Long Beach location. And there...

I gave this particular store 2 opportunities to get it right. No plans to return. First visit, I saw them preparing my food. It wasn't right, I asked them several times if they'd prepared my food correctly, they said yes, and when I got home, the entire order was wrong. I called them up the next morning, (it was near closing time when i left their store) and spoke to Rick, the regional manager. He replaced my entire order with many apologies. 4 days later I return to the store and there was a manager on site. I was sure this would be smoothe sailing. Not so. I gave the manager my name, (it was on the list she had at the register right next to her), but before she would honor the replacement food, I needed to give her a full recap of why my food was being replaced. So for the next 3-5 minutes, while a line was building up behind me, I had to go over the entire incident. When she finally decided to replace the order, exactly as I ordered it 4 days ago, she kept asking me the same questions over and over. Finally, my food was ordered. Then the girl who's standing on the sidelines being nosy begins to prepare my food. I'm watching her because she's one of the same people who was at the restaurant the night they messed my food up in the first place. So she fixes the first order, mind you all of them are supposed to have extra cheese and green onions, she puts the smallest amount of cheese that she could possibly put on the food and sticks it in the oven, but she doesn't leave it in there long enough for the shells to get soft, takes it out and begins putting the lettuce and tomatoes on the side. She puts one tomato on the lettuce, forget the green onions and covers it up. She does this for both of the combos that I have already paid $17 each for. Then she begins making the burritos which are supposed to have the meat, the lettuce, tomatoes, and I paid extra for rice, beans, and green onions plus extra cheese. She puts on the beans, and the rice, a half scoop of the meat and begins wrapping it up. So I stop her and tell her that the burrito is supposed to have extra cheese on it and lettuce, tomatoes, and green onions. Her comment is, oh you want lettuce and tomatoes on it? Lettuce and tomatoes come on the burrito, it's part of the burrito before you add the extras. So she finishes that burrito, and then she puts it to the side. The next burrito she fixes she put rice and beans with cheese, forgetting about the extra , but she puts just enough cheese on there for it to be cheese, then she sets my burrito to the side and let it sit there for about 2. Finally she puts lettuce and one tomato slice on it and begins closing it up. When I go to pick up my food I bring it up to the manager that she has not prepared the food correctly, she opens up the burrito and says I put lettuce and tomato on it. So I informed her that she forgot to put the meat on it. Her response was oh my bad . This Ramona's is a sad testimony to Ramona's restaurants. I have tried contacting the manager since this visit and have had no success, so I'm placing this review right here to let them know that their service is beyond horrible. I don't know what happened to the original owners of Ramona's, but for the past few years the service and the food has gotten worse and worse with this franchising out. They water down the food, they're literally serving the rice out of bags, because they're too lazy to put it in the steam tray and let it heat...

I wondered why this Ramonas is never packed. Besides the fact that it has became so over priced...this staff is beyond rude. I walked in and said good morning, I was the only person in the place at 10:14 and both women ignored me. From the beginning they have not had good customer service but today reinforced why I will drive to LA on Western to get ramonas and no longer come here. Customer service is still a standard. I can understand young people being a bit less chatty and insecure in speaking up but these were women in late 20s and 30s

My money is valuable and will only, ONLY go to businesses that have good customer service and respect the fact that I choose to come to your business, no one elses...give me common courtesy for buying your over priced food

What's crazy...after posting and reading other reviews...this place is at a 3.3 and a few of the 5 star reviews were from workers or affiliates. That's really sad when you just opened your doors, had lines around the building to get in but now it is never crowded. Go to western and tell me when there aren't people there? Fix the customer service and it would go a long way in fixing...