El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Lampasas

We come to Lampasas often and have eaten here several times. Always love a good Mexican food meal!

The service and food is pretty good overall. Certainly not stellar, but it’s not poor either.

Tonight it appeared they were busier than expected and possibly understaffed as well. Our server (a gentlemen) was keeping a positive demeanor and did his best to keep up with our table but unfortunately our glasses of water stayed empty most of the meal. We waited an exceptionally long time for chips, salsa refills, and our queso appetizer as well as our dinner.

When our queso came to the table, it came in two small bowls and we confirmed we ordered a large. The young lady bringing the queso said two smalls were the same as a large. A little while later, a young man came to our table with two large quesos which we denied but will be important later when we discuss our bill.

Two of our dinners were correct (the special for the night was #30 and they were correct). My dinner (Mexican Salad) was supposed to be without beans but it came WITH beans. The fourth dinner was supposed to be puffy tacos with one extra. Instead, the extra taco came as a crispy taco.

With all of us having been in the service industry at some point, we can appreciate that nights like this happen. All service staff seemed to be working hard and maintaining a positive attitude despite being busy/understaffed.

The lost stars actually come from the billing and how it was handled when we tried to get it corrected.

We were overcharged for the two dinner specials. Their explanation: “we haven’t updated our specials board” (see picture…their specials board is in CHALK). It seems that is a quick and easy fix. We 100% understand that the current state of the economy requires increased prices. We support that. However signage should be updated. I found it quite disappointing that we were not charged according to the prices we saw but instead charged for the “new prices” which were not visible.

It also appears we were charged for FOUR quesos. When asked about this, they only agreed to refund us for two.

The young lady who was assisting with the billing questions did not know how to properly perform a credit card refund so the refund was given in cash.

In summary, a quaint and nice enough small town Mexican restaurant. I have been to many that are far superior but our experience has always been pleasant enough and we’ve never hesitated to return when we are in town. Understaffing and long waits and order mistakes do not warrant a poor review unless they are recurring because these are things that are bound to happen from time to time at restaurants. Unfortunately the overcharges and lack of care with it was very disappointing and DID warrant a less than perfect review. We will be back so I hope this was an isolated occurrence and not what we should expect on...

We stopped in to eat lunch today after church with a party of 6. The place was packed and it took a little while for a table to be cleared. We've been eating at El Rodeo since they opened and have always enjoyed their food and the service has always been really good. Today, we received the worst service that I've ever been subjected to. So bad, that we will never visit this establishment again. When we first sat down, our waitress got to us pretty quickly and took our drink and food order. After that, things went downhill fast. We had been sitting at our table for nearly 15 minutes and had never been served chips and salsa, while everyone else was getting theirs. We asked out waitress, a little blond girl, if we could get some, she said she would check into it. We waited another 10 minutes and finally had to ask her about it again. She informs us that they were out of clean salsa bowls and when my father mentioned that other tables that had come in after us were being served, she rudely turned her back on my dad, mid sentence, and started talking to her friends who were seated at a table beside us. Finally, our table was served, all except my mother, whose food was not served. It took another 15 minutes for her food to be served and that was only after we complained to the management. We also had to wait for silverware, which was never given us, so we had to wait to eat for that as well. Also 2 people at the table ordered fajitas and we were only served 2 flour tortillas. Had to wait to receive additional tortillas. Our drinks were only filled after having to ask multiple times and one of our party didn't get a drink refill until we were nearly done eating. We complained to the management and were not charged for mom's dinner because they were so late to bringing it to the table. If you ever eat there, sit at another table is the blond waitress is your waitress. If you don't, you will probably get horrible service. She honestly should quit and find another line of employment that has nothing to do with customer service. She was extremely rude and...

Not sure how this place got 4 out 5 stars or even how this place was placed at the same level as Alfredos. The queso compuesto was literally queso with taco meat in it. The rice had an odd flavor to it. I had the chimichanga, which is supposed to be a meat-stuffed flour tortilla that is deep fried and slathered in queso.....the epitome of tex-mex food. Instead I got a flour tortilla that had been stuffed with refried beans and "fajita" meat (it was tough skirt steak that had not been cut against the grain), and was not deep fried, causing the tortilla to become a wet mess. And.....dont get me started on the service. What tex-mex restaurant waitress brings your order of queso to the table without bringing any chips? The chips she finally did bring were all broken into small pieces. Having been in food service, it is my belief that a customer should never have to ask for a drink refill, especially half-way thru a meal and after everybody at the table had run out of something to drink. The only edible thing was my daughter's cheese burger (oh the irony). After she finished eating, we were waiting to receive our ticket, but never received a ticket. We finally had to go to the cashier to get our ticket, even though the waitress had removed our half eaten plates of enchiladas and chimichanga.....and I watched her ask 2 other tables if they wanted their tickets separate or together and then bring a ticket to them. As for the excuse of "maybe they were busy"....yeah no. There were only 6 tables occupied and of those occupied tables, 4 already had food in...