The Jalapeno Tree — Restaurant in Palestine

If I could give ZERO stars I would. Today Monday Feb. 19th I stopped by to this place with my husband and my little girl. The waitress came up and immediately served us with appetizers aka chips red and white sauce. I am VERY DISGUSTED 🤢 by what my husband experienced. He was eating some chips just right when he was going to dip another to that "white sauce" he noticed a huge BLACK HAIR MIXED AND COVERED IN SAUCE. THAT HAIR LOOKED LIKE PUBIC HAIR! I was very upset and disgusted by it I immediately stood up to speak to the supervisor. She apologized after she saw what I was holding in my hand along with the chip my husband left dipped. I did tell her how disgusting this is and that the staff cooking or "handling" customers foods need to start wearing hair nets! The fact my husband almost ate that made me want to throw up. They still had the nerve for all the employees talk amongst themselves with smirks on their faces after we experienced something disgusting. Just looking at the rest of the food grossed me out my husband immediately said, "Lets go somewhere else." I did not hesitate to get up in fact he didn't have to tell me twice. Right after we got up the female manager comes up apologizing again, I just stopped her in her tracks and said, "For the first time we come hear to experience this we will NEVER EVER come back again. We walked off feeling grossed out. On the way out two employees standing there talking and llaughing at what happened because I heard and so did my husband. He was very disturbed apart from feeling grossed out that these employees would actually laugh and make fun at two new customers instead of making things right. We went off to a much better place and explained what happened, yea im glad we did not eat there the stories I, we heard were very disgusting. WE WILL NEVER COME BACK AGAIN SND THIS WILL GET REPORTED! 😡 THANKS TO THE REST OF THE STAFF FOR MAKING FUN OF THE SITUATION! VERY UNPROFESSIONAL! And to people who dine here... inspect your food before you eat it. You might swallow a roach...

I really don’t know why I keep going to this place, but, unfortunately there are NOT many restaurant options in Palestine TX and this is “supposedly one of the best”. I’m NOT a fan of mex or texmex food at all, BUT I’m in Texas and ppl love this kind of not good nor healthy food, and I’m NOT in Houston anymore, so, I don’t have many options. The very 1st time I was there, service and food was ok, no Coke-Cola is a HUMONGOUS MISTAKE only Pepsi 🤢 then the meets are absolutely horrible, they cooked them so much that taste like rubber, they add so much spicy stuff that is almost no steak flavor and if you order a steak or fajitas, they are so thin, that it would impossible not over cooked them all and taste like rubber. Actually they look like the printed meat/steaks they produce nowadays in printers, that they use colorants and steak flavors but it’s synthetic. I can NOT prove it, but for sure, I am an expert on steaks and meat cuts and flavors colors textures and kinds, and the steak I had, it didn’t even taste like it. So, the time before last I simply order cheese with chips & they taste good, so, I was kind of happy I could order something that it was good, and I was there today and I ordered just that, and DANG they changed the recipe or something because it was so watery and it didn’t taste not even closed to the cheese that I ate there almost 15 days ago, not the same think texture neither the same flavor 😤😡. There are sweet kids working there, but they don’t have any idea of the food they serve and the chefs or cooks change recipes or something and it is one more reason I am NOT a fan of that food at all. There is not a single Mex or texmex restaurant that’s good in Palestine TX...

We ordered take out on 3/10/25 at about to 6:15pm.

When someone goes and spends $60 on food at least attempt to listen and get the order right. And if it's not right I get it's not your fault completely because you can have poor communication via the phone, but at least apologize instead of being rude about it.

When they call to let the manager know the order was wrong "well what do you want me to do about it, give you a refund?" with a rude tone isn't how to provide quality customer service. I wasn't calling to try to get a refund I was just trying to let the manager know so that other customers wouldn't experience the same situation.

Also telling me that you're the one that took the order and that's not what I ordered basically calling me a liar that's not a good way to start either! I get it's a restaurant and you're probably used to dealing with jerks all the time but at least treat people accordingly. I could completely understand if I called and was a complete B about it starting off, but I was nice the entire time until you started off being rude. The night shift manager needs training on how to handle these situations, hopefully she doesn't treat all the customers that way! Also the food was cold and stale. At least the young girl at the take out window was professional and nice. Maybe she can give some pointers to your night manager!!!

This is why restaurants fail in this town, because of lack of training and bad customer service. People who are too tired to cook at home so they go out, want good service and good food not...