Gabino's Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Locust Grove

We were driving when we hit traffic. We decided to grab some dinner and wait out the traffic. There were about three accidents north of us and we hoped they would be cleared off the road by the time dinner was finished.

The parking lot was a little tricky and it looks like a limited number of spaces. I saw people sitting on the bench outside and sent my wife to get us on the list. Luckily 3 cars were leaving while I was waiting. As I parked the car my wife came out with the old school hockey puck that lights up and vibrates to alert when your table is ready. I haven't seen one of those since 1990. The girl at the front desk said it would be a 15 minute wait. I'm not sure why because there were so many empty tables.

As we were waiting, the manager showed up and he took charge. He started seating everyone who was waiting. It's good that he showed up because I saw some customers leaving.

We placed our food order and I was surprised at how fast our food came to our table. The girl delivering our food was in pain as she lifted burning hot plates of food for us. I felt so bad for her. She needs a glove. I was very nervous thinking that it would be very slow to get our food but the chefs were extremely fast. That's great for us because we did need to get back to the road.

The menu has a lot of choices with several Mexican combinations. I ordered the burrito the combination that came with two ground beef tacos, a ground beef burrito and rice for only $9.95. The ground beef was seasoned nice and reminded me of some old school tacos. My only complaint was the taco shell got soggy on one side from the burrito juice. They need to invest a few holders or put them on a small side dish.

The rest of the crew got the kids chicken enchilada with rice and the chicken enchiladas with the three different sauces with rice and beans. The sauces were all unique and the chicken was supper tender. I can't stand dry tasteless chicken.

They also had chips and salsa which were complimentary. We did have a second round as we waited for our food to arrive.

I would totally come back here. As we left the manager who sat us gave me a big strong handshake and said, "Thanks for coming! See you soon!" A handshake? What? Now I really love this guy. That's the way an old school restaurant is run. That's the best thank you ever and I'd love to...

Started w cup soup. There was a load of onions mixed with cilantro. So it tasted and looked like there was barely cilantro. Which id prefer. Usually they have that separate from each other OR they have a pico de gallo type which there was no tomato. Which is fine. But i prefer more cilantro, not barely any, and being overwhelmed by thicker pieces of onions. Soup wasn't bad. It was just ok. Im allergic to dairy, wheat, treenuts, and shellfish. He was so fast that i didn't have a chance to barely get a word in. Feeling dismissive. The salmon was so overcooked it was hard or so so dry. I love salmon and eat it often. I've never had such bad salmon. Now, grant some ppl like their food overvooked or cook super well. Well, not me. The salmon was not soft, moist, good, and tasty at all. It being a special and new im unsatisfied. The vegg were also overcooked. They were chard but overcooked thin, super dry, tasteless, and just awful. The mashpotato, even by looking at it, i knew it wasn't going to be good. It wasn't. This meal spent was very disappointing. Also, when i bit into the veggies, this extremely hard item was in there. im surprised i didn't chip my teeth. Idk what it was. i just took a picture, and now it's just time for me to get out and get my check. Im so over it. Barely can get a sentence in to tell the server what my experience was and about this hard thing. Started by asking if i could get a togo cup for my drink, and he quickly rushed away from the table to serve that i had to yell and the ck as well pls. Like, ughhhh. Calm dwn! Listen to your customers. Anyway. I'm never coming here again. Sorry. It looked great from the outside, and ppl seemed to be enjoying their meals. Guess i ordered the wrong stuff at the wrong time. Beautiful place tho. Beautiful pictures. Clean bathrm. Ps sorry took pictures after i tasted food so some stuff missing. Like the avocado i started scraping the brown parts off and dots. Usually that onthe avocado makes me itch (allergic when its not freshly good) when it browns for some reason its not good for me. The salsa for chips was sooo red soupy no texture no flavor no kick. I had 2 chips and was over it. Im surprised by all these good reviews how much this place wasnt good at all at all. There must not be many good restaurants around or idk whats up...

On Thursday evening, our family went for dinner. The service was poor and it was not crowded but we had to wait about 10 minutes after being seated to give our drink order. If you go, don’t get Alejandra for a waitress!!! She was horrible! Not sure if she was new, never had a customer service job or just young! Every question about the menu we asked she had to go check!

We ordered our drinks - a lemonade and sweet tea. Neither were good, even after a half of glass. At every free refill spot, Ive been able to change drink flavors without purchasing a new drink. In this case the 1st drink wasn't good, so we swapped out.

Unbeknownst to us, when we got our bill, we were charged $2.95 four times! When we brought it to her attention her response was ‘oh my bad, I thought you wanted to order another. I said no, the tea wasn’t sweet and the lemonade was watery.‘ She just starred with a blank face so we asked for the manager. When the manager finally arrived (also young with a I don’t give a shit attitude) vs a how can I help mentality. He proceeded to tell me that I ordered four drinks and there wasn’t anything he could do and he wasn’t taking it off my bill. When I further explained he said you drank it did you not? I responded, no not the whole glass because it wasn’t good. He refused to remove the two $2.95 charges! I said you offer free refills correct? He said yes but you have to have the same flavor.

NEVER at any restaurant have I been charged to change a flavor especially when the first one was not good!

So this review is to forewarn you - first if you get Alejandra - change seats! Second, don’t expect to order a fountain drink and change flavors on your refill- whether it tastes bad or you just want to start with Sprite and change to Coke! Free refills at this place means drink all you want of what you order at the beginning and don’t change your damn mind! Oh and if it’s bad, after that first sip - get a manager to swap at no charge - don’t bother to tough it through a watery drink!

When I told the manger I would never be back this is unacceptable you can remove the charge - you just don’t want to. His response was a simple ‘ok’ and he let me walk out!

I would not recommend this place, or the waitress or manager to my worst enemy!

Buyer beware!!! Not...