Camino Real Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in North Carolina

My husband and I frequent this restaurant because we love the food. We have a Mexican restaurant within 2 miles of our house but we go out of our way to drive 20 minutes because of the quality of the food and the service is typically average. That being said, last night my husband and I took our neighbors(5 adults and 1 toddler) and had one of the worst restaurant experiences we’ve ever had anywhere. When we arrived, we were seated promptly but were given no menus or silverware(after 20 minutes of not receiving it after having asked twice, we got up and got our own silverware and menus). We ordered drinks and waters which arrived quickly but were never topped off after that. Once we had our chips and salsa and drinks, there was 20 minutes where no one came to check on us. We finally waved a waitress down(since our waiter disappeared quite often) to check on our food. Three tables(a 10 top and 2 three tops, which were seated after us), got there food before us. Our waiter appeared and said it will be out soon. Our food arrived and everything was served except for the two fajita dishes. The runner brought the fajita plates out and that’s when the mayhem started. He set one dish down and then proceeded to reach over the two year old with a hot fajita plate(which is a cast iron plate, not super light when reaching from an awkward angle), trying to hand it to me. The toddlers father stood to better help the runner set everything down and to get out of his way and said to the runner, “hey man just set it down on the table and we’ll move it. Can you just put it down for her?” The runner looked at our neighbor and immediately became abrasive and puffs his chest out to him, saying “I can’t reach cause the damn chairs in the way man.” To which, our neighbor moved the chair to the side, which the runner then shoved over with his body and proceeded to reach over the table to try to hand the dish to me. I was helped to set the dish down by my husband and neighbor(since it was still over the toddler) sitting next to me. Our neighbor then looked and the runner and threw his hands up and said “is that even necessary man? What the hell?” To which the runner stepped forward to our neighbor. Our neighbor asked the runner to back, which he did before going back into the kitchen. Then our waiter came out and immediately said “hey, I heard you were being disrespectful and we don’t take that here so if you have a problem, you can all leave.” We were flabbergasted. He didn’t even ask what actually happened and immediately jumped without knowing what actually transpired. We then got the manager involved(Samuel), he gave us a 10% discount. The customer at the tables around us came to us after the manager left and apologized we had had such a bad dinner and hoped they would rectify the situation. This was the first time we had such a horrible experience and I’m beside myself at how rude and disrespectful the runner and waiter were. While Samuel(manager) did listen to us but I felt the situation was not handled...

Went to Camino Real today at 4:30. Ordered the vegetable fajitas, minus the bell peppers and add Chicken. The meal came out with mushrooms and no chicken. Told the waitress and she took it back to make another one. The new meal comes out with mushrooms again and bell peppers this time. I handed it back to the waitress immediately and told her I would not like anything else. The waitress told the manager (Miguel) that I wanted to talk to him. When he came over to the table he said I was told you wanted to talk to me. I said no, I didn’t ask to talk to a manager. He asked me what my problem was. I told him what happened. Then he said “We have no mushrooms today”. That was his answer. Not I’m sorry, I’ll fix it, but “We have no mushrooms today”. So I picked up the 2 mushrooms that were on the table and showed him. He went back into the kitchen and retrieved my sent back meal, brought it to the table and said there’s no mushrooms in here. Oh My God! He picked the mushrooms out and brought it back to me. I couldn’t believe it!! At this point I’m very upset and tell him to go away. My husband pushes his dinner away and wants to just leave. So we get the check, my husbands dinner that he didn’t eat was on the bill and of course the drinks. I wasn’t going to argue, just wanted to pay and get out. Went to cash register and the manager of all things comes to cash me out. Didn’t said 1 word. I go to both of these restaurants frequently. The other restaurant in Hampstead as well. I Will Not be eating at any of the restaurants again. This ignorant man should NOT be in customer service at all. He should be fired at the least. To add insult to injury, the 2nd or remade dinner they gave me was 1/2 the size (portion) of the 1st meal and cut up really small. The veggie’s were not cut up like that in the first meal. So what they did was reuse all of the vegetables from the 1st meal, cut them really small the added chicken and peppers. The reason the meal was 1/2 the portion size was, they took out all the burnt pieces of food because the sizzling hot...

This review really pains me to write. I have been a loyal regular for quite some time. Camino has been my go to place to ensure I don’t hit the grocery store on an empty stomach. Their food is delicious! The tequila lime shrimp tacos and pork carnitas being my top two favs. The bartenders are usually on their A-Game (Gabby being second to none). However on 7 July, I noticed a significant dip in their teams performance. I was there with my 2 year old son around 5-530. We got seated relatively quickly and we’re offered the customary chips and salsa (which is some of best salsa around I’ll add). However, the entire experience turned south when we were subsequently ignored from then on. It wasn’t until 15 minutes later, my hungry child had had enough. Not once did any passing servers stop to even offer us a water. I get it they were pretty busy, but it should definitely not take 15 minutes for our existence to be acknowledged. I called the manager shortly after, and he just hung up me. If I was told my service was struggling, I would either shut up and listen or least ask why. I love this place and fully intend on coming back, but the team really needs to get their affairs in order before I do so. For context, we went to a place right down the road that was arguably much more busy, and with 5 minutes of sitting down my son had a warm grilled cheese on his tray. Take a lesson from someone studying customer professionally, one negative really means 8 on average. The other 7 just don’t want to say anything. I’m speaking out because I love this place and don’t want to see them go down hill. Quickest way to upset a parent is to ignore their child. You can take all the time in the world to serve me my food so long as my 2 year old is treated like royalty. You guys dropped the ball last night. We can do...