Poncho's Mexican Food and Cantina — Restaurant in Phoenix

My two past experiences have not been good. I have been coming here for years as well as my family. I have lived in South Phoenix my whole life and I even worked here in high school as a bus boy. Heck I even moved the owner's wife into her home a couple of years back when I used to be a mover. (Didn't meet the husband) I have always loved Ponchos until my last two visits. She was a very sweet lady and after moving her into her home she gave all of the movers a gift card to dine. My wife and I went that weekend and the waitresses were not friendly. At least the two that helped us. They seemed to act inconvenienced just for showing up to dine. When we asked for more chips and salsa or even water it doesnt seem to be a top priority. It takes forever to get them back to your table. The next morning we both woke up sick. We didn't go back until recently due to our past experience. (Which is a couple of years later) We wanted to give it another shot because of how long we have been coming here. We went to check in and asked the hostess for a table in the bar. She oddly rolled her eyes when we asked and told us there isn't anything at the moment. I am assuming the eye roll was because there were no tables available at the time and the couple ahead of us wanted a table there too. I think she didn't want the hassle of seating us where we requested when there wasn't a table available and there were tables in other rooms to sit. We prefer the bar since the seating is a little more private. After waiting 10 minutes she said that they have pub tables available which was perfectly fine for us and we took the offer. I was a little upset that she made us wait 10 minutes before offering. We sat down and we weren't served our chips and salsa for about another 8 to 10 minutes which is unacceptable due to me knowing the job since I was a bus boy in the past. I remember Marty being very particular on this subject since chips and salsa is a big deal for this restaurant. We finaly got a waitress who "Suprisingly" wasn't friendly. I feel that it may not be the best idea to dine later at night since the employees may have going home on their mind. We ordered our drinks and it took longer than expected to get them and was brought by a totally different waitress who was a little nicer which was a relief. We took our order with her and asked for more chips, salsa and water since we ate them due to the long wait. She said she will bring them right away and it took so long that I had to bother the bus boy to grab us some. The food tasted well as usual and I have no complaints on taste. We never got a refill and didn't bother asking because we were just ready to finish our food and leave due to the poor service. The next morning guess what, I wake up sick AGAIN. My wife got sick as well but she didnt get sick until later that night. I am very disappointed in Ponchos because in my eyes it has changed for the worst drastically. If I am paying more than 50 dollars for two people then I expect good service. I expect good service if I am paying 10 dollars for two people which I do get at my local McDonald's. I am very sad because this WAS one of my favorite places to eat and I can't ever recommend this place to anyone anymore. I'm am glad that people still enjoy it due to the reviews but we certainly did not. I wish you the...

As someone who grew up down the street for Ponchos it was my favorite place to eat as a child. From walking there with my brothers to getting tacos to celebrating graduations and birthdays there in the restaurant. Ponchos was always the place to go. The last few times I've gone have been really disappointing. Yesterday's visit was probably the last time I'd ever step foot in the restaurant just due to the bad service. We were seating with no napkins, no utensils, and were left without drinks for over 15 minutes. My son whom had some salsa was crying for water and everytime the server passed us she ignored our empty glasses. This was true for all of the surrounding tables. After our food was served we asked for forks but they never came. We ended up having to go up to the bar tender to get some. I waited and waited for her to come to bring napkins and staws, that never happened either. When we were done she finally came and I asked for the check and 2 boxes. 15 minutes later I ended up flagging another waitress as at this point I was trying to get out. Just waiting on things to happen alone caused me to have an extra 30 minutes to the dinner. The check came and I out my card down. Another 10 minutes went by. Like seriously... I've been a waitress that doesn't happen to me. I went up to the front and had the manager run my card so I could leave. This isn't the first time this has happened at Ponchos. It's happened the last few times I've gone. I've waitresses for 5 years and I would never let people wait that long for things or not touch down with them for refills or silverware. Ponchos really might be falling off the map which really sucks because I used to love it there. I chose to go there for my Birthday dinner and I'm so disappointed on how...

Came to take my family out to lunch expecting good food as I've known them to be but instead got served spoiled rice. To be honest 4 of us out of 5 had rice with our food, 3 of us didn't smell it, we were hungry and ate the food but my sister smelled something funky on her plate and it was the rice that smelled spoiled smelled sour. I asked them if all the rice came from the same pan an she said yes, so I asked her to smell the rice but she didn't want, she insisted that my sister put her mouth on the fork so she didn't wanna smell the rice, which was stupid not like she had meth mouth or something. She lied through her teeth about how it didn't smell and was pointing out how we only complained about the ONE serving of rice and not the others which I said what does it matter you said it all came from the same pan so it was all spoiled then. The poorly trained supervisor just made it out to be that we didn't wanna pay the full price because we did ask to take it off the bill, which my sister barely ate half before the incident anyway and I could afford the bill not like $12 was a lot but still. The supervisor or whatever she was just wanted to argue and be ignorant, you know the kind of worker who is only there for a check. Anywho no more poncho's for us guess we'll stick to the other Mexican restaurant down the road. I seen the help wanted sign up hopefully they find some one who knows how to do proper food rotations and quality control before they really get someone sick. Thanks to the server who was attentive and nice tho. Hopefully the owner takes pride in their restaurant enough to address and fix these issues or maybe not as I see other...