Tequila Mexican Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Manheim Township

I want to preface this review with the fact that they are understaffed (help wanted signs outside asking for all positions). That being said, they let us know after sitting us that they only have 1 chef in the kitchen, but the food was the best part of this place and very quick to make it to the table. Now for the actual review.

The waiter let us know that this is his first night doing full-service. This is totally ok and we are very patient normally so this isn't a big deal. We ordered a soda, a frozen strawberry margarita, an order of queso and chips, chicken fajitas, and crab enchiladas. After a very short wait (I'm talking 10 minutes tops) we got our chips with salsa instead of cheese, my drink (the soda), and both our entrees; I asked for the cheese for my chips which the waiter then reminded us that there is only one chef (once again totally ok with us, no issue there, they had time to put salsa in a dish, I'm sure cheese takes the same amount of time to put into a dish). The food was really good, no issues there. The rice was pretty fresh, the refried beans actually had flavor. The entrees were both good as well. The queso was kind of runny, and the bonus salsa was pretty mid.

After we got the food we never saw the waiter or our margarita again. No drink refills. No checking on the food. Nothing up until about 45 minutes after we got the food. I asked him at that point if he could give us a box to-go (chicken fajita portion was huge), our bill, and then take the margarita off because we didn't get it. And this is where it gets weird...

The waiter responded with..."well that is going to be a problem, you see once we put in the order, we are responsible for the food that is ordered and I will have to pay for the margarita out of my money but I want to be sure you all have a good experience." I said no that's not needed we don't need the drink at the end of our dinner, we would just like to leave at this point and you can just take it off our bill. He responded with..."I don't think you understand, I will have to gift you the drink and then pay for it with my money, I'll check with my manager, I'll be right back." 10 minutes later he comes back with the box and the bill and says I won't have to pay for the margarita ($13 by the way) but it was still on my bill. He leaves again and comes back with "a gift" of a margarita (not the one we ordered, probably another table's drink) and then I proceed to pay the full bill (including the $13 margarita). He once again let me know he would pay me the $13 for the drink. I left a very small tip to outweigh the cost of the drink we didn't want at that point and bounced before he came back (no way this guy is paying me with his own money).

1. Train your staff better. We saw 1 table of 3 people leave because they had no service, the table next to us had a complaint of missing food, and another table of 6 near us had wrong orders as well. I don't blame the waiter for this, it is up to management to train their staff; do better.

2. If you are making your staff pay for "incorrectly ordered meal items" you are horrible management; get it together.

3. Your chef is great, they should leave and find a better place to work.

4. Too many flies in the dining area.

5. Turn off that trumpet music, it hurts.

6. Don't hold people hostage over a...

I will preface my review my saying that I RARELY, if ever, write a review for a restaurant. This review is based on multiple dining experiences at Tequila, in Neffsville area, and all experiences have been the same with great food, but utterly horrendous service.

Tequila has, by far, the best shrimp tacos I’ve ever had. 12/10, mouth watering good! Their chips, queso, and salsa are amazing too. No complaints about the food whatsoever.

However, service is abysmal. If you order drinks from the bar with your food, expect to get them after your entree has already come out. Servers will check on you once, if at all, and won’t ever replace your water, even when they clearly can tell you’re slurping on ice cubes. If you wanted to order a few drinks from the bar or have multiple drinks with your meal, forget it. You’ll be lucky if the servers replace your water let alone ask if you want another beer/margarita. Food service is fast, which isn’t a bad thing, but customers shouldn’t be receiving their entrees before they even get their drinks. Servers won’t even ask if you want the check and they’ll just bring it to you without asking if you want anymore drinks or dessert. You would think you’d want to get customers to buy more, but they seem to just rush guests through the dining experience and then kick you out. Even when they give you the check, the servers will run off, even if you have your card in your hand, and you’ll have to wait another 20 mins for them to come back just so you can leave.

Overall, I highly recommend Tequila for their food, and if they had better service, I’d be there every night, but they don’t, so we can only tolerate going there every so often. So, Tequila, if you want more consistent customers, do better in training your servers and staff and making the dining experience overall better. Or don’t and you can just keep making...

I don't normally do reviews but this is much needed. It's Cinco de Mayo. One would think they would be properly staffed. Waited about a half hr to be seated(No problem). Got drinks at the bar, poorly made with barely any alcoholin them, ordered apps once we were seated along with our entrees. Apps came within 15 min but I can't say the same for the entrees. Waited over an hr for food. Didn't get it until I requested a manager. The waitress was good but the manager (Tall heavy set guy, not so much. When I brought up my complaints and requested some type of comp or percent off he stated "You have to understand, we opened 4 months ago and we're understaffed, we're trying our best, our kitchen is backed up. We try not to have people waiting outside." No apology, no explanation, just excuses. I told him it's not our fault they overbooked due to lack of staffing and questioned why 2 tables, a party of 2 and a party of 8, received their meals before us (a party of 3). His excuse was the kitchen messed up my original order and were trying to get it fixed. The waitress apologized multiple times throughout the night but the lack of communication on why the meal was taking so long to come out was a fail. Will not be back. The food is expensive, the portions don't match the price, paying for salsa and chips...