El Barrio Restaurant — Restaurant in Mundelein

I really wanted this place to be nice but I had one of the worst experiences I ever had with a restaurant and management.

We booked a table a week in advance for a friend's birthday. We called ahead to make sure we were still good with the table. When all 6 of us got there we got seated right away. It looked beautiful and all of us had high hopes for the food. We ordered horchatas and waited for a few others to get there. The rest of our party got there a few minutes later and we got the chips and an appetizer. With 2 tables, max, filled we thought it should be quite for food

When we got the drinks, they were clearly not made fresh and didn't even taste remotely like horchata. It was a mix of Bubble gum, flower, and fake cinnamon. It really felt like it was just a bad powdered horchata they served us.

The appetizer was just a bowl of cheese with a little meat in it. The tortilla tasted like store-bought tortilla and the cheese was stiff and not nice to eat. For what it's worth the meat was alright. A solid 7 out of 10. The tortilla chips where stale and just not good.

After we ordered we waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour and a half we threw in the towel and went up and asked what was going on with our food. The waitress went in and asked. I do not have any problems with the waitress, she was nice enough but it did feel like she was avoiding us a little after the hour mark of us waiting for our food.

After we got our food, we all got disappointed. The medium rare skirt steak was well done and not a skirt steak at all. It was a bigger cut of meat but when you want a skirt steak for over an hour it is not fully welcomed. The al pastor taco dinner wasn't even close to being right. It was steak tacos with soup instead of beans and rice. The 2 enchilada dinners we ordered were cold and felt like they were lifted under a heating lamp for the hour we waited. The chicken taco we ordered was mostly lettuce and unseasoned chicken.

After all this we asked for the manager because we thought this was ridiculous and thought we should completely. When she got to us she looked disinterested and was replying rather sarcastically. We said we are not going to eat this and asked for the check

She left and the waitress came back saying she only took off 2 meals and removed the forced 20% gratuity.

After talking with her a bit she went back and took off all the food besides the appetizers and drinks. She was so nice for that and I'm so happy she was willing to work with us to at least try to make things right.

When we left the place was still almost empty just with 2 more groups of people that came in after us and 1 group that replaced the only other group when we came in and got their food before us and The bar had no more then 6 people when we left.

One last thing. They had karaoke going. They where setting up for most of the time we where waiting so that might of affected something but I'm not fully sure what. The karaoke was by the bar and looked like fun. The bar was beautiful but I didn't get a drink so I'm not sure how good it is.

After we left, one of us left a review and within 20 minutes the owners replied back claming that the place was busy and they took off all the food without us complaining for a 2ed time after we thought it was insane how much we struggled with them. To care more about us after we left then when we were there shows they only care about the image of the restaurant to make money instead of making a good product and an enjoyable experience for the costumer so they will want to come back.

I will never come back here again and am quite frankly upset that I went here in the...

Waiter barely paid attention to us. I guess he sacrificed a party table to a table for two. Wow. Did not give us a menu at first. At one point he stated “in case you want some water there is a pitcher at the tables near by” Really, you mean the tables that people are seated and that I don’t know?. How rude would I have be to do that. Brought us greasy chips with salsa and two cups of water. by the way left them on our table along with a small pool of water but no napkins at all. It came as no surprise to me how he treated us as his manners of a server were completely horrific to see. At one point he wedged himself between two people that were seated at a table near by and rudely went for the plate which the gentleman sitting down was not finish and made a face as he raised his eyebrows. The waiter simply disregard these folks and asked “are you finish?” The customer said, No. At another table, rather than going to the customer and stand next to him to take this guy’s order, this waiter stands across from the customer (who was sitting across from his friends or family) and was asking him out loud what he would like to order behind this customer’s friends or family members. Little things like this makes a big difference. I used to be a busboy and then a waiter long ago at a smaller restaurant. I was taught that it is all about how you make customer feel by being attentive, polite, and positive. I understand things can get busy but stop and realize what you are doing. This waiter has zero waiting or customers skills. He is Latino, slender and has shaved head. We were planning on staying to dine and move to another table as we did not want to be served by this waiter but then we just ordered one drink and then left. This is my first time and last time we come to this place. Thanks...

I would give no stars if I could. Worse place ever. Had a reservation for 5:30 and they didn’t give us our food until 7:15. The food was not good and they gave us the wrong things. The waiter never came to check on us and she was rude, the food was too expensive. We did not touch our food and they still wanted to charge us for all of it. Never again, it wasn’t even authentic Mexican food. They didn’t even want to give us our cake that we brought. Hate this place.

Update: we made the reservation a week in advance. We only called to inform we that we were about to arrive to have the table ready, if you didn’t understand what we said then that’s on you. When we walked in there were only two tables being occupied. Yet, everyone who came after us was being served before us. Stop trying to excuse your unacceptable service. We don’t recommend this place to anyone. We were here for a birthday celebration and it was completely ruined.

Highly recommend going to the Las Palmas in Mundelein. It’s two minutes away and it actually has authentic Mexican food, great service, vibes,...