El Lucero Salvadoran & Mexican Restaurant

Why I won’t eat at El Lucero any more

First time I tried El Lucero was at the beginning of the pandemic in an effort to help support local businesses. I ordered my food to go that time also; the service was okay. The food was fine but nothing spectacular. I figured it was the pandemic, restaurants were struggling and let it go. Thursday, March 10 I tried again. I had a friend coming for dinner and after working a 60 hour week, wanted an easy meal and you can’t go wrong with tacos — or so I thought. I ordered street tacos, french fries and decided to try a pupusa. While waiting, I see a food box tossed up on a counter. No heat lamp, just sitting there. About five minutes later I see another food box placed on top. After about another five minutes, I asked the server, Alandra, if that was my order. After looking she confirmed it was mine but we were still waiting on the pupusa. By this point my street tacos had sat on a counter for 10 minutes and the french fries were definitely getting cold. I mentioned to Alandra that my items were getting cold sitting there. She tries to say that the pupusa takes longer because they’re handmade. What Alandra didn’t realize is that I’ve worked in food and beverage for over 20 years. I understand some food items take longer to cook than others; that’s why you start them first before the quickly prepared items (like street tacos and french fries). After giving me a snotty look, she goes back to the kitchen and has a conversation with the other staff members. Then Alandra returns saying that she can give me my two (cold) items now so I could eat them at the restaurant. And it just got worse from there. When I walked out with my cold tacos and wet, soggy, kind of warm french fries, I had planned to call the next day to request a refund. After talking with my friend about the situation (over our cold food), I realized that the manager/owner who was there, knew the quality of the food they were serving me and didn’t care. Instead of remaking the items so everything was fresh, the kitchen, server and manager had no qualms serving me substandard items. So, that was my experience and I’m sure others have had better. Kicker to all of this? I gave a fair tip on my order ($4 on a $20 order) so basically, not only did I pay for cold, wet food; I tipped the staff for horrible service. Lesson learned, don’t sign the tab until you actually have your food. Good to all of this? I see that a Santa Fe Express is moving into the center so there’s another option for tacos soon.