Mariscos El Capitan 2.0 — Restaurant in Marshalltown

I do not like to give any bad reviews as I understand that everyone can have a bad day.

My wife and I came here when it first opened and they knocked it out of the park! 5/5. We made sure to let everyone working how well they did We liked it so much that later that month we brought some more of the local family to come try it out, and it was also a great experience.

Tonight I recommended that my family choose this location as I remembered our past experiences. At 6pm we were one of 5 tables as the rest of the resturant sat empty.

We were greated and treated very well by the wait staff. 5/5 stars.

I ordered the Vampiro custom drink, while the rest of the rest of the family did more basic drinks. The drink was 3/5, but hey you can't love them all.

My wife ordered the California burrito. My mom the shrimp fajitas, my step dad the steak burrito and I ordered the Camarones Zarandeados. I was very excited as I've had this dish before and loved it.

Food started coming out very slowly. My mother's fajitas came out first almost 10min before everyone else's food. Her tortillas were burnt and she decided to just pass, and ate her fajitas without tortillas. She asked for fresh non burnt ones and they never came.

My step dad's burrito on the underside looked like it had been cooked on a filthy griddle top and per his remarks, tasted as such.

My dish showed up last. Incase you don't know the dish they take Giant shrimp, cut in half, then grill to a tasty dish. Takes about 4 minutes or so to cook (2 min each side). These came out charred black all around. I figured maybe they were just a little close to the flame. Nope they were over done. Caked onto the shell and the meat once ripped off the shell was dry and over cooked. I was beyond bummed. I even had others at the table try it to make sure I wasn't off my rocker. They all agreed the shrimp was well over done.

The waitress came back around and I asked if I could order something quick and fast as the dish was inedible. I asked to just throw a burrito together and we'll be all set, no biggie. She came back to inform me that they were going to put the burrito in que but I was still going to have to pay 50% off the $31.20 dish I didn't eat, along with the full price of the burrito. As asked to talk with the manager. A very nice looking and well put together gentleman came out. I tried it to talk to him about the dish, and how ive had the dish before. He proclaimed that's how the dish is supposed to be and that I was still going to have to pay because there was nothing wrong with the food. I politely told him to cancel my burrito and I'll just pay for the 50% off of the food I didn't eat.

The family finished their meals as I tended to our new born. The waitress came over and profusely apologized. We paid with cash, and tipped well as the wait staff was great, even coming over to want to see our little one.

I would have been more than happy to have paid full price for anything on the menu. I would have even waited for them to refire some fresh shrimp, but I didn't want to cause any issues and just get something simple. But do think it's right for paying for a terribly done dish that I know was overcooked.

Reading other reviews, it appears that my expeience is not a one-off. Management doesn't want to listen or take care of their customers experience. Very sad as thier menu offering is to die for. And for what you get is actually not badly priced.

I'm sure there are more people that have had similar experiences that haven't taken the time to voice thier experience. Must be why we were one of only 5 tables during the evening dinner...

La expectativa de un nuevo restaurante es en la mayoría de los casos una experiencia intrigante por cuanto no se sabe que esperar, siendo que esta puede terminar en una cena amena y cómoda, como también en un desdichado impase entre lo que esperamos vs lo que recibimos.

Para comenzar, debo de aclarar que al momento de asistir a este restaurante el mismo se encontraba en lo que se denomina un “soft opening”, por lo que, puede que se hayan realizado cambios desde mi ultima visita. Aclarado lo anterior, relatare mi experiencia:

El restaurante sufrió una remodelación amplia fácilmente identificable desde las paredes hasta los reconfortantes sillones pasando por las mesas y un amplio bar, mismos que resaltan un restaurante pensado para grupos grandes.

Hablando al menú, como bien nos deja ver el nombre del restaurante, este se especializa en mariscos. Dada esta especialización, el menú es grande pasando desde lo básico como camarones a platos más complejos como pulpos y torres de mariscos.

En mi caso particular, ordene un molcajete que incluía un pescado frito con camarones y otros acompañantes. De primera impresión el pescado no parecía haberse salado, pues no tenia un sabor claro (nada que el salero de la mesa no pudo arreglar), los camarones tenían un fuerte color rojo gracias a su proceso de preparación, aunque este cargaba con un sabor muy predominante el cual opacó el sabor natural del camarón.

Tocando el punto del servicio, no vi muchos meseros, pero asumo que no se necesitan debido a la hora que fui, pues esta se considera una hora muerta (tipo 2:30 pm- 4:00 pm). El trato fue cordial, un poco tardado a pesar de la hora, pero nada te haga sentir menospreciado.

Después de terminar la comida pedí la cuenta y aquí surgieron varios puntos que a mi parecer son importantes. Desde un principio, los precios del menú son menos asequibles que los de otros restaurantes (debemos estar holgados para ir a comer y beber), al final del menú hay un aviso de un cargo de servicio a tu factura para grupos por arriba de 6 personas (el que avisa no traiciona).

Dado lo anterior, mi factura revelaba dos cosas que no esperaba, la primea fue un cargo por servicio proporcional al monto que consumi (debo aclarar que fui solo), como también dos montos diferentes dependiendo de como iba a pagar, si con efectivo o crédito, asumo que el fee del pago de tarjeta de crédito lo desembolsa el comensal y no el local, dato que no vi en ningún momento en el menú, así como tampoco mencionado por la persona que me atendió, que dicho sea de paso no supo dar una respuesta acertada a tal interrogante. Estos cargos adicionales son importantes, ya que son proporcionales al monto que consumes, es decir, entre mas gastas mas vas a pagar por el cargo de servicio y por el procesamiento del pago con tarjeta de crédito o débito.

Para cerrar, el restaurante rebosa de un ambiente renovado con un menú amplio de mariscos llevados de la mano con unos precios por arriba de la media de otros restaurantes con platos similares, además de la falta de un mensaje claro en cuanto a cargo adicionales por servicio y...

Came for lunch as we love the food here, it’s always great but the service was terrible. Our waitress took 10 minutes to bring us chips, took someone else’s order, didn’t take our drink order or food order so we just left. There was only 3 tables in the entire restaurant too, so it wasn’t busy. Definitely going to just go to Mojitos...