El Caporal — Restaurant in Maple Valley

I really did want to give this place 5 stars, I really did. Good Mexican food is so rare to find in our area these days and the food was good! Very good even. The problem seems to be the owner. Rude, condescending and makes you feel unwelcome and cheated to boot. My wife ordered the Pollo Asada/Cheese Enchilada combo, which was the same price as the Pollo Asada entree, ($20) so you would expect to get less chicken then you would if you got just the entree. When the food came out it was shocking- the enchilada covered the whole plate and the chicken was, and I'm not joking, less than a child size portion. It looked absurd on the plate next to the enchilada. Even the waiter seemed embarrassed by it. My wife asked for another piece of chicken breast and I told the waiter we shouldn't have to pay extra for it. Here is where the owner made herself known to the situation. She very soon after huffed up to our table and loudly exclaimed, "No! you pay for the extra chicken!" "The waiter should have told you- I always instruct him to tell the customers when they get the combo, that they only get 1 chicken breast with it!" This seemed to indicate to us that it had been an issue of some debate before. I tried as politely as I could point to the size of the piece of chicken that was 1/4" thick and 3" long by 2" wide, and asked her, if that looked like a chicken breast to her? She again loudly protested that, "they are pounded flat!" I looked at her steadily to see what else she had to say, but she just put her head down and briskly left the table. About 30 seconds later, she reappeared at a table nearby to set it, literally slamming menus down at the place settings, while making frequent eye contact with me. Ok. I get the picture, we have hit on a sore subject here it seems. When we got the bill, there was an extra charge of $8.50 for the extra piece of chicken, which to be fair was much bigger, the size you would expect to get. We paid it, without any more comment, but we won't go back. At the end of the day, I get it, food and other costs to run a restaurant are insanely expensive. I don't mind paying for extras. What galls though is the thinly veiled attempt to cheat customers, by offering a menu entree item that adds an enchilada and then dialing back the entree to absurd portions and charging...

Don't ever go in late to the restaurant. They'll pour water in your beans and Their chicken is dry no matter what meal you get it in, they don't put enough sauce on any of their stuff you have to ask for it and it's expensive. They give you a tiny little cup and you gotta keep asking for more, you have to pay for all your extra stuff if you want any extra green sauce or any extra red sauce. And you pay for it. Because they have no sauce barely on anything. The owner of this place is very rude. And so is some of the staff they treat u bad next time u come in if u don't leave a tip their's anew older gentlemen that just started working their he's the nice person their and they r so slow u have keep asking for chips and salsa bad experience every time and the only thing that was barely tasting remotely good is green Verde burrito or their bean but after they poured water in my beans I was disgusting and appalled by them doing that was the owner who got mad cause I came in late and poured water in my beans absolutely disgusted I was and made sure there was no sauce they remember who u r and treat u awful there's hair in the salsa we had order when brought a guest the second time I went back she didn't like her meal and thought the chicken was dry too and don't ever want to go back them either cause there so rude nasty food and customer service she a real winner this biacth that owns the place omg should be shut down tables r always dirty when sit down just a no go if u don't like rude service and dried food u You purposely have to pay for the sauce. They make sure they don't put enough sauce on your burrito. So you have to pay for the sauce. Which is absolutely ridiculous. It's so dry without any sauce who'd wanna eat there with their rudeness too not me or my other friends. I took there because they wanted to go there. I didn't I told them how bad it was. They didn't believe me now they you so I hope you don't go here and get treated the same way. Have a great day love you all stay...

Short story: Food was really good, wait staff was good. My drink was not and the manager was rude to me. I won't be back.

Longer story: This was one of the first times I've ever ordered a mixed drink at a restaurant. I saw "raspberry mojito" on the Specials white board at the entrance and envisioned a few fresh raspberries mashed up with the mint leaves. Sounded good. The raspberry flavor turned out to be from syrup and I could not finish even half of my $10.50 drink.

I mentioned it to the nice gentlemen up front as I was leaving, who told me he thought he could help. A lady came back and asked me what was wrong, but did not tell me she was the manager right away. I didn't know who she was, but explained my drink situation, and she described why she could not use fresh berries. Okay, that made sense. But....there was no apology, not even "I'm sorry you did not enjoy your drink" and certainly no "Let me see your bill and I'll put $5 back on your card." Any of these options would have made me feel better about our dinner there.

What did she say? That I should have told my waiter right away when I was asked how everything was. Total implication was that it was my fault and therefore my problem. Then she walked away.

Okay. I...