El Canelo Restaurant — Restaurant in Oakland

We went on a Friday night. It took the hostess 10 minutes to even come up and greet us. She looked at us and said “There is a wait for everything.” When we asked about how long the wait was, she said, “I have no idea.” This should have been a red flag...but we were hungry and this is the only Mexican restaurant in the Deep Creek Lake area (besides Taco Bell haha), so we decided to wait.

When we sat down, our server came over rather quickly and took our drink order. She came back to deliver the drinks and took our food order....we did not see her again until the end of the meal. In the meantime, we had to flag down other server to get refills...to get chips and salsa...etc. Our food took almost an hour to come. We ordered the Fajitas Texanas and a chicken taco and a chicken enchilada. We kept hearing, “We are sorry, but its a Friday night.” There are literally 12 tables in this restaurant and they had at least 5 servers on the floor. If you have waited tables before, you would know that this is NOT busy....not at all. When we asked for a manager, we were told that there isn’t one.

The food itself was not bad, but not wonderful. For the time it took, I expected more. The steak was tough and rubbery and the rest of it was just okay.

When we needed our check, we had to go flag down someone again since our server seemed to have disappeared again. We ended up finding one of the servers that was the most helpful and tipped her.

If you are DESPERATE for Mexican food this will do in a pinch, but I would avoid it otherwise....especially if you have a large party. Overall, this was a very disappointing experience and we will not be...

My husband liked his food; the shredded beef burrito was okay to me. My jumbo burrito was completely cold; although the meat was tasty. The service was dismal. Friendly, but inattentive.

I'll stick with Don Patron.

RESPONSE TO THE OWNER: You are correct that I had the burrito special; I was referring to the size when I mentioned jumbo. I will also stick by my assessment of it being completely cold regardless of the small amount of fresh items included. Speaking of the "special", wasn't it ALSO supposed to come with a special sauce? As you can see from my pictures, that wasn't included. WE also had to ask for the chips and salsa. The salsa was actually good. I appreciate you marking out the amount of time we spent in your restaurant; however, you failed to address the fact that after I flagged down our waiter to return the special burrito, he NEVER returned to our table; I completely turned to the bar to look for him and was looked at by not 1, but 2 other waitress' who neither came over or directed him to, either. I'm guessing he finally checked my husband out; because as you've seen from the camera, I went to the restroom while my husband WAITED for our check at the register. I hope this insight helps. Btw, seeing as how you stated that you rarely get negative reviews, this would've been a perfect opportunity to invite us back. Guess not. P.S, this was our 3rd time to the restaurant in...

Unpleasant dining experience! Food was of a mediocre quality and hence overpriced for what we got. Waitresses were selective with who they would like to serve and inattentive.

After waiting in line for 20 minutes, we were led to the back side of the restaurant and seated close to the bar. (It is not an actual bar but a place where waiters and waitresses put together silverware and you can order drinks.) Even though we were front of the line, the waitress skipped us and went to take orders from someone who came way later than us. I had to go out of my way to have my order taken care of. The food was just ... meh... Don't expect to get a large variety of Mexican dishes, not even plantains. Also, the restaurant is super loud, from customers to servers. I had to speak up a lot...