El Sombrero — Restaurant in Longview

MAN, THIS PLACE IS AWFUL NOW! When it first opened it was GREAT! now forget it! The food has really gone down in quality, and the customer service has also started getting worse and worse, at both resturants. Two ladies from work and I went to eat there yesterday, now we have been there dozens of times, and had'n't had a problem, until then. We have been there when we've had to wait on a tables, but still we get in, get our food and get out. NOT yesterday, we had one of us go get a table so the others didn't have to wait. The rest of us arrived and sat right down. The waiter came pretty quick got our drink and food order at the same time, usually he gets the drink order then comes back for the food order. So then, we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally we told the waiter to forget the order we had to get back to work. We walk up to the register to pay for our drinks and the set up, and the guy BRINGS the food up to the register all the plates balancing on his hands! The bit* at the register says can we get that to go for you, we said no two of the three work as receptionist and can't eat in front of people, we need to only pay for the drinks and chips. THEY charged me $15 dollars for 3 teas and one basket of chips, HOW'S that for customer service? Well the register bit* got all mad and started yelling that she could not sell this food to anyone, that they were losing out money, that we got there late, and we had not been waiting for our food that long. We tried to tell her that we arrived at around 12:05 give or take 3-4 min, and that it was now 15 till one, and we had to go! She yelled that was a lie, I said we will not be coming here again, she started yelling that they did not need customers like us, that she would be glad if we did not come back, and just kept bit**n.. Now I used to go to the El Sombrero in Kilgore about 1-2 times a week, and each time my son and I would eat there and take my other son a take out from that same place. I would spend at least $45 everytime I went to the Kilgore resturant including tip. My co-worker and I would go to the one in Longview at least 4 times per month. Now, I CAN ASURE you I will not be at ANY El Sombrero EVER! They need to do something about that crazy woman they have working the register, she is always there, she NEEDS a vacation, so she will like to do her job a...

The whole experience was very unpleasant. They were busy and we were told there would be a wait and got put on a list to be texted. It took about 30 minutes before they had a table ready for us which was longer than we were told. We requested a table not a booth unfortunately when they called it it was all they had and It would be considerably longer for what we requested. Once seated it took awhile before they brought us any chips and even longer before we even met our server. The young man who was serving us didn't bring any menus with him. He had the audacity to ask if we even needed menus to order (we have never been here) he disappeared to get menus which took him about 15 minutes to bring us them. 5 minutes later we had our drinks. We decided what we wanted to eat but everytime we tried to wave him down to take them he looked right past us and kept taking to the two young men at the bar. He seemed more interested in polishing the bar counter that helping us. I had to get up to grab him and take our food order. The food was out in good order surprisingly however the fish I ordered had a piece of tilapia on it. The fish was very burnt and dry. Everytime I tried to catch our waiter to see if they would remake it for me he would dip out or disappear before I could get his attention. We finally gave up and I went to the bar and asked for our check we wanted to leave. This process took another 25 minutes. Our waiter came to the table with our receipt and before I could even hand my card to him he ran off. I tired to pay the bar but the refused and said it had to be the waiter. We waited an additional 30 minutes before we returned to get the card. I asked him if he could please bring us one to go container we were ready to leave asap. His disappeared with my card for another 20 minutes before returning without our to go containers. I gave up and we left. I understand they were busy and there was a lot going on but we weren't treated like valued customers and our time was not respected. I hope this isn't how they treat all their customers if so they won't be in business...

I'm giving it a low rating for the simple fact that they don't have yellow queso. I find that laughable that a MEXICAN restaurant does not serve what is basically a common/popular sauce. It's an essential item in my opinion, and I have NEVER been to a Mexican restaurant that did not serve yellow queso. The waitress informed me that they've never served yellow queso since the restaurant opened, which is a very bizarre thing. From a business standpoint it sounds like a terrible idea to not serve such a popular item. It's like going to an Asian restaurant and they tell you "Oh sorry, we don't serve rice."

If you're like me and you really like enchiladas with YELLOW queso sauce then I suggest you avoid this place. I tried some other sauces and they weren't very good, and the enchiladas were sub-par compared to other places locally that I've been to, so was the rice and beans. Teles and Little Mexico have WAY better food, or at least enchiladas, rice, and beans. Oh and they both serve YELLOW QUESO. I also sent a letter to El Sombrero asking them for a reason as to why they do not serve yellow queso, as I'm really just very curious what the logic behind that decision was. I can only think that buying yellow cheese must be outrageously expensive and the owner decided white cheese would be cheaper, but even then that's still not a very good excuse for a restaurant to just not serve a very common/popular/staple item that's served at most likely EVER Mexican restaurant across the nation. I can assure you that I'm not the only one who has complained or been flabbergasted by them not serving yellow queso, and I won't be the last. The restaurant would probably get more customers if they served yellow queso, I mean, not everyone likes white queso. Last time I checked I thought yellow cheese was much more popular than...