El Don Cocina & Cantina — Restaurant in Lathrop

Despite the concerns we had, im still giving this place a good rating. Hopefully management reads this, and addresses these issues. Reading others reviews it appears im not the only one with this experience. First the food and atmosphere was great, and my margarita was delicious. It’s a fun restaurant and I’ll be coming back for a night out with friends.

Here is some constructive criticism, cause it seems like you guys want to be successful. The girl working the front in braces, is doing her best, but someone more experienced should be up there. It’s your guests first point of contact, and I watched 12 people walk out frustrated (within an hour), that will probably never come back again. Communication is everything. I watched her tell a family of 8 that a group was finishing their food, and they were next. Once that group finished they split the tables up into 3, to sit other guests, and told the people they weren’t next after all. This wasn't her fault, but she was put in a bad position by other staff. Me and my wife personally waited for an hour and a half before we were seated. Service is really slow, and it doesn’t feel like there is a sense of urgency. One guy who must be a manager, paces back and forth thru the restaurant, real slow like a sloth, he walks to the front, talks to the host and walks back sipping his drink and recording videos for social media im guessing. Well he should record all the people who have been waiting up at the front. Or at least acknowledge them, like “hey just want to thank you guys for patiently waiting, we are going to get you seated as quickly as possible” or go in the kitchen and help someone, or help a waiter, check on some tables, help behind the bar. Watching you casually walk around while others are hustling and guests are waiting is irritating. One worker made a comment that it’s not their fault, people are having fun and dont want to leave. I agree, if you guys cant find a way to keep people moving along, and let them just hang out all night like they’re at a night club, then at least provide guests with a wait time. We were told they couldn’t provide us with a wait time. Had I known it would be 2 hours before I finally had food on my table I would have came back another time. Also dont give people a 15 minute grace period to show up once they receive their text. Thats crazy, I saw a group leave and had enough time to go back home if they wanted, meanwhile a lobby full of people sat there and waited for them to come back 20 mins later.

Food- Chips are made there and nice and warm, and the salsa was served warm, 10/10. The flautas and salsa were also delicious. Enchiladas were slightly warm at best but full of flavor. Work on getting the food out hot. Steak and chicken for the tacos was overcooked but still good. Even at that, the food was delicious and I enjoyed it. The presentation of the food is really nice as well.

Parking- Parking is limited. I saw people having to stop mid dinner after being told that they needed to move their car from the Dennys parking lot to avoid being towed. The first thing that needs to be told to your guest walking in needs to be “Hi welcome in, lets be sure you didnt park at Dennys”. Not when someone is halfway into their meal. People aren’t reading the little sign you have at the front either.

Overall, the staff was really nice, the energy and atmosphere were great, the food was good, and I plan on coming back. I understand the place is small, and it gets busy on the weekend, and thats totally fine. You guys just need to set better expectations for your guests when they arrive, and then they can decide what they’d like to do. Hire some people with restaurant experience and know how to keep things moving along and improve...

Where can I start, the food is good but the service was beyond horrible. If you guys have a party of 6 be prepared to be added a gratuity tax on your bill once you're done 18%. It's not added on the "new" menu and the servers will try and get you on that. This location called Lathrop police out and we still at the end didn't need to pay that gratituity. My family has worked in the restaurant business for over 20 years and once we saw our bill we knew something fishy was up. Once we asked for a manager, the lead on duty stated she lived 3 hours away. Once we told them we weren't going to pay this outrageous tip that came out to 83 dollars for tip she said her manager directed the restaurant to call 911. We came here for a tik tok trend due to seeing it on tik tok but didn't expect this type of treatment. I really wish we would've met the owner instead of the manager on duty she was very undertrained . Lost her cool even when Lathrop police arrived . I couldn't believe my eyes seeing the manager lose her cool and walk away from the situation instead of getting a resolution for my family . That's her job . Now maybe that's why the leads in the restaurant think the law doesn't come in place . They think California codes don't pertain to them . Moral of the story cops were called, customers didn't need to pay outrageous tip for restaurant having undertrained managers and leads on duty. Lathrop police explain to the manger on duty California law and reasons why we didn't need to pay that outrageous tip.

You guys did not advised my family anything about the gratuity. It was not on the "new" menu after the leads demanded it was if you see the pictures we updated. We also even asked the leads on duty.

We respectfully paid our food, drinks, and even tipped you guys. But didn't pay that outrageous tip. If the owner would like to reach out for any questions we would be very happy to speak or show any pictures and videos of what we have . please our family has been trying to reach out to the owner.

We're definitely are not making any claims or fake accidents Donald. Your manager on duty sandy or Sandra acted very unprofessional. She told us she would be there within an hour to two hours . Then once we started asking the leads for the owner she told us either we pay the tip or cops would be called ,then she got here within 15 minutes .

We clearly told her we were going to pay the bill. That is why Lathrop law enforcement told her we didn't need to pay the outrageous tip. Law enforcement assisted us talking with your manager on duty throughout this whole process .

Please check your email my family has been trying to reach you. We really liked the food just the service was not great. We just would like to speak directly...

Probably one of the worst experiences I've had at a restaurant. I have been in food service myself so I understand the struggle of a restaurant however this was on another level.

The hostess mentioned that everyone has a 2hr dine in which would be no problem if it didn't take over 30 minutes to take our order and then another 1hr 15mins to actually get our food. Not to mention the food did not come all at once and people in our party had to wait even longer while people who were sat after us were getting their meals on time. (We had a party of 6 and one ordered an appetizer). Refills did not happen or water and one person did not receive their drink when we were seated and we had to ask again. The restaurant was not insanely busy considering we had made reservations at 4:30.

A member of our party was celebrating their birthday and we had mentioned this on the phone when they called to confirm our reservation. When we got there amongst everything else that was happening we mentioned it once again. The waiter said they would be working on it. The food arrived and once we were all done we had asked for boxes this request again took ATLEAST 45 minutes this is not an exaggeration the waiter dropped by our table 2xs to mention boxes were on the way. As for the birthday request two tables besides us got theirs and by that point after how awful the service was I once again asked for our boxes and the tab.

The tab was brought to us with of course another wait and then they came out to do the birthday request. Our boxes were plastic lids and a piece of foil... tables around us received small boxes??? The waiter apologized and gave us a drink on the house however we still had a mandatory tip of $32.00!!! I didn't even want to leave $5.00 by the end of our visit however I do know it is not the fault of everyone there so we paid it. I would've rather kept the mandatory tip than take a $7.00 free drink.

Do not waste your time here the food was average the experience awful it looks cute to visit online but don't. Trust me save yourself a headache,...