Pancheros Mexican Grill - Mason City — Restaurant in Mason City

I don't know how this place is staying in business.

I ordered takeout the other night. I arrived on time for pickup, but had to wait 20+ minutes with my food getting cold on the other side of the counter because the employees were either cooking food or helping the other customers in line. When we got our food, one of the entrees, a burrito bowl that I paid $12.50 for, came with maybe a cup of soggy, virtually inedible food. It was ordered with tofu as a meat substitute since the recipient is vegetarian, but the employee who made it initially put steak on it and instead of making a new one, made a poor and largely unsuccessful attempt to scrape the steak off before adding the tofu, ultimately ruining the entire dish. Several side items were also forgotten.

And I don't blame the employees one bit. There were only two of them working that night with me waiting for pickup and about 10 other customers in line. I could see the exhaustion and desperation in their eyes while trying their hardest to serve everyone as best they could, and my kudos goes out them. The issues I had were 100% symptomatic of an establishment that is grossly understaffed and incompetently managed.

So this is a constructive criticism to the management and/or owners of this Pancheros location: Pay. Your. Freaking. Employees. A. Livable. Wage. And. Staff. Your. Freaking. Restaurant. Raising prices on your all subpar food, underpaying your employees, and absconding with (probably) record profits might seem like a great business model on paper right now, but I promise you're going to leak customers like a sieve if this is the way you keep...

We are former residents of MC but moved out of state last year and sadly we have no Pancheros restaurants in any neighboring states to us. So as we were back visiting we came to Panch to get our fix. Will not be going back. The food was alright. Very inconsistent portions. It was disturbing to watch the staff making our burritos not care as queso/meat juice dropped into the shredded cheese, salsa and sour cream, and what appeared to be management walking out of the office area smiling laughing both touched their faces and the proceded to put gloves on without any concern for sanation. Then when my fiancee asked for a cup for water they told her that they were out of the water cups so to get water she would either have to purchase a water bottle or a soda cup for water (restaurants are legally required to provide free water) and finally we find out that they will no longer provide a cardboard bowl dish to transport leftovers. Not sure if there's been a change in management but that place has gone way downhill. Not worth it and we won't be back.

P.S. when your owner is continually responding to these negative reviews with a copy paste apology do they really actually care about...

Very, very friendly employees. Appearance of restaurant was very nice and clean as well. The food was alright and just very average I'm sorry to say. I had a chicken, rice, pinto beans, queso cheese, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream burrito. The guacamole, sour cream, queso cheese were all extra cost but the regular price of $7.25 or so for burrito without those extras. 9 year old I took out for food had steak, rice, black bean, queso cheese, salsa bowl. Her's I believe without queso cheese extra price was approximately $6 and some change.Each had the smaller of the 2 sizes offered of soda. Total price was $24.02. A higher priced, yet very average tasting and very similar tasting of each other's choice of order lunch. Very large burritos and bowls for sure but still not impressed by taste or cost. Again we really enjoyed the friendly,...