Don Tapatío Minot — Restaurant in Minot

I usually have a good experience at Don Tapatio. However not so much this last time. My wife and I just went for drinks at the bar upstairs. My wife ordered a Mule and said she wanted it made with tequila, thinking it would normally be made with vodka like a Moscow Mule. The waiter had her pick a tequila and she picked Jose Cuervo. We said we were only going to have drinks. The check turned out to be over $50! We asked for an itemized receipt and found out that we had been charged $16 for an extra shot of Jose Cuervo! The Mule was definitely not strong enough to have had two shots in it. The clincher was that they also charged us $5 for chips and salsa! Apparently if you only have their expensive drinks and no food they charge for chips and salsa. Huh? It was just given to us with no mention that we would have to pay for it. Even after we specifically said we were only having drinks. We paid over $50 for two weak, poorly made drinks with cheap tequila and a basket of chips with some salsa. It made no difference when we questioned our bill. We left feeling angry. It ruined a very good night otherwise. The days are gone when you dispute charges and point out how a business failed you and someone actually cares about how you will view their business when you leave. At the very least they could have refunded the charge for the chips and salsa. They definitely made money on the drinks. I will not order a drink there again. It may be a while before I eat there again.

Response to Owner - Your response is another example of a business owner not knowing how to treat customers. Your policy of charging for chips and salsa when someone doesn't order food is ridiculous if they just spent over $45 dollars on drinks. You need to be up front about charging for chips and salsa, something that is always free. Do you have this on your menu? Legally speaking, you need to inform your customers of what you will be charging for. The menu is a form of a contract.

When a customer is unhappy with your service. You don't just smile and say, "You paid for what you consumed, hope to see you again." If you want to keep your customer, you make sure they are happy. Even if this means you lose a little profit that time. Noone knows how to sympathize with a customer when they feel wronged anymore. They all just smile and say, "Have a nice day." In my line of work, you have to make the customer happy and that can mean losing some of your profit so that they come back and don't bad mouth you to others or write reviews that even more people will read. Is this whole thing a little ridiculous? Yes! But I'm tired of poor customer service in this town. There are so many restaurants in Minot that would not make it in a bigger city with more competition because people would just not go back. They know this so they don't care. They just want your $5. If you are the owner and you read this. Reread it because I bet you just skimmed it and didn't actually understand what I'm trying to say, just like you didn't fully understand my initial review.

I hope this gives everyone something to think about and improve in their business. Have a...

First and foremost, I want this place to succeed. Don Tapatio is new and has a lot of kinks to work out; and I hope that they do!

From the get-go, the restaurant was busy! No big deal because I don't mind waiting for good food. I think that the wait list could be a little better (I suggest getting an automated system where the patron can be sent a text message when their time is coming up). My wife and I would've loved to have left the cold entry to go to Iron Horse for some pre-meal drinks, but didn't want to risk losing our place. Good thing we didn't leave because after being told it would be approximately 45min to be seated, it was closer to 25min. In those 25min of standing in the entryway, we watched as 3/4 servers run up and down the stairs to the second floor with food upon food and drinks upon drinks. Hope that they figure out a better way for those servers to get those items upstairs more effectively.

Again, the restaurant was PACKED! Good for them and also bad. Our drinks took about 15-20 minutes to come out and over an hour for our dinner. (Before receiving our food, we overheard that they had shut the doors to the restaurant [8PM-ish] so that the kitchen and bar could catch up.) I'm sure potential patrons were peeved, but good on them for not over-committing.

The drinks were awesome, but the food was bland. I ordered the birria tacos: these are birria and not quesabirria, as I'm sure, most people would expect. The meat was tender, but it and the consumé were bland. The tortillas seemed homemade which was nice; as well as the rice and beans. The rice had peas and carrots, which I always find funny. My wife ordered the carne asada: the cook on the steak was superb; perfect medium rare. But again, it had little flavor and had a very common issue on restaurant carne asada... It was wet and had zero sear! Patting the meat dry before grilling would do wonders on the cook.

I hope this place succeeds and improves because the location and building are great. It'll be a fun place to hangout and eat/drink when we get the two months of...

Let's start off by saying the guacamole is a MUST. Someone is actually making your guacamole fresh and on the spot. But instantly as soon as I walked in, the atmosphere just wasn't it. The lights are too bright and give off cafeteria vibes. For an expensive, high quality restaurant that calls itself a "Mexican cuisine", you HAVE to dim down the lights and get the feel just right. The music was great but again, warm lighting or color lighting is necessary. With that out of the way, I ordered the fajitas fully loaded meaning it came with melted cheese, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and pineapple. The pineapple was different and only enhanced the fajitas. Their salsa with chips is the best salsa I've had for a sit-down restaurant. We also ordered the street tacos (chicken, birria and pork). The meat was dry. Not the best I've had but willing to give another try. I would definitely go back. The menu had variety and plenty of appetizing treats. The churros seem like a hot commodity there but way too expensive so we didn't try. The fried ice cream is reasonable. Lastly, I ordered a Michelob ultra dressed and they came back with a michelada. If I wanted a michelada I would have said it, not to mention it had olives in it. Dressed generally means salt on rim with a lime. I didn't even drink half my drink. I wish the server was more aware of the situation but she didn't even offer to change it out once she noticed I wasn't drinking it. She still charged it. Sure, I could have said something but I didn't. However, good servers are usually aware. Just to be clear, Not entirely her fault. Just beware of ordering your beer dressed, which I do recommend, but be specific as to how you want it or ask how they do it. Don't get me wrong, the michelada was tasty but not refreshing. All in all, I would go back and I really hope they changed the lighting ASAP! It could be the best restaurant in town with...