El Maguey — Restaurant in O’Fallon

So to start - we really do / did love this place. Was one of our regular spots to go to for date night. Generally the service is great, food always consistent, and clean - super fast authentic food. But...one huge personnel issue.

First - us. Normal folks, always yes Sir / yes Ma'am, please and thank you - how we were raised. Wife speaks fluent Spanish after living and working for twenty years in Mexico which usually generates some great conversation with the servers. For two people usually a $100 ticket or so and always, always tip 20%+. An app, entrees, and a few drinks. Probably been in 20+ times over the past years. We both worked in restaurants growing up and know how hard the hours and work can be. We get it. We are not overbearing, high maintenance or dominating of their time. Again - we both worked restaurants for a lot of years and get it.

With most of the servers we have always had great experiences except one of them. I am not 100% but seems to be the only female working there as a server. At least most times we go in and for sure last night. We have had this lady four times as a server. She is consistently rude, short, and always bothered by any request - her responses are always - curt. So much so that we simply stopped going there for about a year+. Sad that we were missing one of our favorite spots we decided that we were not going to let this one person ruin it for us. We simply would ask for another persons section to ensure that we just didn't deal with her. After our hiatus we did return and saw one of our favorite servers - shorter gentleman (head server?) that always is kind and takes care of us and asked him for his section. The ole place and experience we missed we were able to experience again.

Great - so we decided last night again to try it and she was there so we asked the gentleman that greeted us if the table he pointed us to was in his section to ensure that she would not be waiting on us without calling her out in any way. In the end he was very kind and allowed us to sit a bit away from the crowd and her section. Let me say during the meal, Sa'ul (and forgive my misspelling) was great and took wonderful care of us.

Except that personnel issue - our appetizer we ordered 'she' ended up bringing to our table and as she sat it down - we cleared a spot for her to do so since it is usually hot and after she set it down we tried to ask her a question - well she is consistent I will say that - very rudely with a wave of her hand walked away as we were speaking said 'he'll be back with you at some point' and never looked back. Without even being in her section she managed to take what could of been a great experience and put her little rude spin on it. Too busy to even answer a question or even listen to our question. We both again were amazed at how rudely she responded and carried herself. She wasn't slammed or busy as she then stood in the doorway for five minutes.

Like we said - we know the business is tough, full of long hours and many times unruly guests which can be demanding - we are neither. She is just rude and lady if you are that unhappy in your profession perhaps you should find another line of work - your attitude is costing customers.

I thought long and hard about this review and to even put it up here. We love the place, we love the food, and we love most of the servers. But, we won't be back again. You lady ruined it for us and lost the company what was a loyal customer. YOU did that simply by being you.

Thanks for the memories to the folks that did take care of us and the chef and cooks that always take great care with what they do. But management - please take a look at this server you have on your floor - she is consistently....well what appears to be her normal self and last night it cost you a customer for life.

To the world at large - go enjoy the place, enjoy the food but if a lady comes to wait on your table - ask for another server. You will be...

Very poor meal and customer service. Very unpleasant experience.

This review is for the restaurant located on Highway K; some other branches of this restaurant chain seem to get better reviews:

I visited this restaurant with two relatives in July 2015 and had a very unpleasant experience.

To put my review in context: I have travelled the world and eaten in a variety of restaurants in Europe, Africa and Asia as well as having lived in Missouri for a number of years. I'm not a food snob - rather someone on a budget who wanted a good, simple meal. One of the other guests has lived in Mexico, waited in Mexican restaurants and has a Mexican spouse and is therefore in a position to pass comment on authenticity of the food.

She enjoyed her fajita (and for this I give the one star); however, the meal that the other two had left much to be desired.

We ordered the same vegetarian dinner plate with a quesadilla, burrito and enchilada. When served, the smell of what seemed like spaghetti sauce from a jar was evident. Both of the other guests remarked on this too. The guest with a Mexican spouse commented that the food was not authentic. Authentic or not - I could have accepted even that if the food had been reasonably good. It was not. The quesadilla looked like an omelette and smelled as if it had been fried in butter or had an artifical butter smell. I had one bite and could not continue. The buritto was bland. The whole meal seemed to be prepared and presented without care. It's not an exaggeration to say that we felt insulted to be served such a meal.

We were unable to eat these two meals (despite being hungry!) and asked for them to be taken off of our bill. The waiter was as helpful as he could be, offering to get us something else instead, explaining that as the manager was not at the restaurant, he could not remove the items from our bill. We declined the offer of another meal, paid the full bill (which we were very unhappy about) and returned later to discuss with the manager. The manager was not available then either when we returned and we were told that he could not be telephoned. As we were all only visiting the area for a brief family reunion and had to leave shortly, returning again was not an option.

We ended up paying for a very poor meal. Very unhappy with the management for poor systems in place to deal with customer complaints in the absence of management. We left this restaurant feeling that the food didn't matter - neither did...

First, I work in customer service each and every day and ask for reviews for my business from each of my customer so I can be better with every aspect of serving them. Tonight I went in after work to order from El Maguey to go. I thoroughly explained my order which included a 16 oz cheese dip and enough salsa and chips for 3 people, and ordered a margarita while I waited. I had to wait 10 minutes for my margarita and then another 20 minutes to discover my food waiting on a table behind me. No one decided to tell me my order was done. They explained they didn’t want to bother me while I was having the margarita even though I had finished it 10-12 minutes prior. I retrieved my order from the table, paid, and left. (I tipped the younger gentleman $10 before I left, cash) I got home and my wife explained we didn’t have cheese dip and one small bag of chips and one small container of salsa. I drove all the way back to explain the situation. They said oh ok no problem. They retrieved a bag of chips and cheese dip and they began discussing the ticket. They determined that I wasn’t charged for the cheese dip. I told them that it wasn’t my fault and I told them my order to begin with. They also explained that I wasn’t charged for the margarita as well. After I looked at my account and told them what I was charged I proved to them that indeed I was charged for the margarita and even though they didn’t charge me for the cheese dip I didn’t feel as if I should pay for the cheese dip. I don’t mind doing so but from a business stand point you should take care of your customer to earn future business and build a relationship with them. They did NOT do this. They kept my tip and I had to pay $14.95 for the cheese dip… 🤯. I probably see 10 customers in this area a month and have a following with my business so I am glad to showcase your customer experience at your Highway K location. If you can’t do better than this it’s not going to be long and it will be a ghost town. The young 15 year old that you have taking orders needs to refrain from getting an attitude and be polite and professional. If he would have done that it might have been a different atmosphere during this resolution. I will ensure that you all NEVER get our families business again at ANY location. Maybe you need to take notes from El Tio Pepe because they stay packed and you guys didn’t have much business on a Friday but I...