Carnitas Express — Restaurant in Menifee

There are, at least, 4 things we consider vital when going out to eat to a restaurant: quality of the food, service, value, and cleanliness. In Carnitas Xpress our party of 4 had a good experience. Ines, our server, was prompt, friendly, and made the time spent there very nice. The food: Tamale Combination plate, $6. Pork Tamal soft and tasty, with rice and beans. 4 Stars. Chile Verde Plate, $10.95. Pork chunks with green chile sauce, rice, beans, choice of flour or corn tortillas, and the typical sprinkled Mexican cheeses melted on the beans. Family member that ordered this plate, enjoyed it very much, amount and taste right on the money. Mentioned that the beans and rice were quite enjoyable, as opposed to a review condemning Carnitas Xpress ability on making this well known couple of dishes. 4.5 Stars. Carnitas Plate, $10.95. Carnitas (pork cooked for hours in traditional cooking methods) is after all the name of this eatery, so it would stand to reason that their Carnitas preparation would be above average, but the consensus from the one who order this dish, was that their Carnitas was decent, but not extra ordinary, still he ate it to the last bite, no questions asked. All the sides mentioned above included. 4 Stars. Albondigas Soup, $2.95-$7.95. Small and Large sides, respectively were ordered. This dish is elusive in its availability, and it's preparation. I guess what I am trying to say is that is a little hard to find a good Albondigas soup, and this version was well done. Actually a full meal on the large size. Came with decent size meatballs, perhaps not as soft and savory as the ideal ones, but serving was generous, broth thick and very tasty, carrots, potatoes al dente, and with the side of rice, and corn tortillas, it was enough to fill the tank. 4.5 Stars. Matador Burrito, $8.95? A powerhouse that comes with a warning in the menu: Do not order unless xtremely hungry! (I threw in the xtremely to rhyme with their Xpress title), and this Burro is indeed a nap inducer, enough to please hearty appetites everywhere. I was thinking about the many times I have ordered the Macho Burrito at Del Taco, and this burrito, for just a couple more dollars, is such a better bargain, plus is so much better all around. I chose Carnitas as meat of choice, and it was well worth it. 4.5 Stars for size alone! Salsa bar was handy, their red sauce with warm tortillas a hit for everyone, plus marinated vegetables adding to the value. 4 Stars. Flan, $3.65? Not too shabby at all, the 4 of us shared one, and took one home for the midnight craves, not overly sweet, good stuff. 4 Stars. Total came out $62+, not counting a gratuity well earned by Ines. Yes, we will be returning at a later date. 4 Shinning Stars. 3-31-2022 And finally Carnitas Express joins the ranks of the most mediocre in the food industry. When their cooks wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or realistically lack the most basic required skills to prepare food worth eating, I pay dearly for my decision to eat there again. This one is back to back, somber kitchen area, dry personalities preparing the food I am going to consume. No love bouncing of the walls, no fresh ingredients, El Matador at its worst. Carne Asada in tiny amounts and sections, the coldest beans I ever been slapped with, nasty volume of food. Oh how I wish they eat similarly and pay equally. Yet, they survive. Where is my acid...

I’ve been to this restaurant multiple times and the service is always great but today I went in and if I could leave a 0 star I would. I walked in with my kids and I didn’t see there was a sign to have the customer sign in. The waitress told us if we’d signed in in a rude manner. I asked to speak to the manager and her service was even worse than her employee. Their reasoning of being rude was because their understaffed but even so there is no reason you should speak to a customer the way they spoke to my family. We got seated after 15-20 minutes of waiting which I find quite ridiculous since there was only one family of 3 eating there. People walked in after us and were treated much better with quicker service. I politely asked for another menu and they threw it down on the table. By any means was that unacceptable and plain disrespectful to do. The waitress demanded for my daughter to turn down her phone volume because others were complaining but the way she a approached us wasn’t necessary to do. I would’ve understood “would you mind asking your daughter to please turn down her volume for the other customers dining.” The whole 40 minutes we were there, I was treated with utter disrespect for no reason at all. We walked out after telling them that we would be leaving because of their service and the waitress said “that’s better for us”. If you want to be humiliated and treated worse than animals then here is the spot to go. I will never be stepping my foot into this disgusting restaurant or recommending people to go...

Incredibly disappointed with our experience here today. Our server lacked customer services skills, along side his coworker. We were treated like unwanted guest. Our server seemed to intentionally avoid out table, and would give us cold stares. It was such an uncomfortable experience. Once we were ready to pay, an older lady came to our table, With a negative demeanor and said, “ whoever is paying with Apple Pay come with me”. We were so confused by her negative attitude. At this point i have had enough, and I said, “ there is no reason for you to come to our table and be rude unprovoked.” Which she respond with, “ i was just sent over here because someone was trying to pay through apply pay, so who ever is can follow me”. I was shocked at this women behavior. Her facial expressions, tune and body language was unacceptable. She could have said, “ I’m sorry I didn’t mean to come off rude, anything really. Instead she disregarded what i said and started walking away. In this economy, you would think employees will be treating paying customers with dignity, and respect. We felt bad but ultimately decided that there behavior was inexcusable; leaving no tip.

When walking out our server asked one of the girls, “are you guys all high schoolers” in which she responded , “no but we sure were treated like some.” We are between the ages of 27-35

My assumption is that they felt comfortable treating us disrespectfully, because they thought we were kids that were planning on dinning...