Zorro's Cafe & Cantina — Restaurant in Pismo Beach

First of all I want to start by saying I love Zorros. I’m a local. I find it difficult to complain or write negative reviews, sometimes it’s just a fluke if something goes wrong - I understand. I’ve worked in the service industry. But, I have been eating all over pismo area lately and getting very disappointed - so today I decided I wanted to go somewhere I KNOW will be good and won’t disappoint. Unfortunately I had an experience that was subpar. Maybe I wouldn’t normally leave this review but I am saddened by the below average meals lately and also the customer service in town - this review really is a case of disappointing customer service and I hope that it helps bring a customer perspective to light because I truly would love to keep eating and supporting one of my fav local spots.

I knew I wanted to eat the chile verde plate for dinner. I ordered my meal and the server brought back the chile verde enchiladas - to which I questioned if they were the enchiladas? I thought possible she brought me somebody else’s order. She then proceeded to say yes, and I said oh I ordered the chile verde plate but I’ll just remove the tortilla and eat the meat. She checked her order pad and said “oh you ordered the #4. Those are the chile verde enchiladas.” First of all, I know myself and I have never ordered an item off a menu by its number. I will always read out the dish name. Second, I wouldn’t have brought that up if I questioned even for a second that I said “enchiladas” instead of “plate”. Third, I knew going into today exactly what I was going to order. And to be honest, I never order enchiladas. I’ve never even tried them at Zorro’s, and I eat there often. In my heart I knew she probably misheard me, or heard ‘chile verde’ and immediately thought #4 as I was dining with someone who had just ordered off the same # menu rather than the plates specials. She offered to take it back but I just said no worries, it should be fine. I will say that I was not happy with the way she handled this, not apologizing and telling me what I ordered when I knew that it wasn’t - but I didn’t make a big deal out of this. I opened my enchiladas to find just a few pieces of meat covered in cheese, so I decided to order a side bowl of chile verde. Great. I got the dish I wanted, ate my dinner. Chile verde was fantastic as always.

When it came to time to pay, she brought the check and said she removed the enchilada plate. I told her she didn’t have to and thanked her, to which she followed saying it’s all good because it was “a mix up on both of us”.

I don’t think my server was unkind or rude by any means - she was nice. But if I’m honest, from a customer perspective, this is not how a server should respond. From telling me I ordered the enchiladas, to not apologizing once, and then finally insisting it was a mix up with the insinuation that the customer had no idea what they ordered. I can empathize with service industry workers, it can be a tough job, and some people do order one thing and mean something else - I just really felt this was not the case with me today. And I would prefer not to be made to feel this way as I’m sitting down dining...

We're staying in the nearby hotel we went slowly on good reviews my wife had previously looked up a YouTube video with somebody talking about places to go in Pismo and this is one of the places also apparently known for their clam chowder world renowned or something like that so obviously we had a try I got a onion and mushroom burger on sourdough toast we went to pick up the order when you first walk in and it says wave the door but we went right in because we knew we had to order waiting for us they're very packed the clientele was definitely a little older than we usually like just our preference anyways I can see back in the kitchen and it looked very clean and the cooks look like they were know what they're doing on top of their stuff we got our order and got back to the hotel is very excited to start eating my wife got the clam bowl she like that she said it was very good unfortunately later that night she became very ill from eating and we assume from the gelatinous of the soup that this has been reheated many times and the sodium was very high I don't know the reheating and cooling practices but it's very easy for bacteria to grow in both of those stages so obviously they're not doing things correctly definitely not the best clam chowder shouldn't claim that my burger was absolutely boring I was trying to be nice in some way but everything about it was bland onions had zero seasoning the mushrooms zero seasoning the burger was absolutely bland I've been cooking my whole life and so is has my wife and it's basic 101 to season your protein ahead of time because if you add the seasoning after it's only salty where you're adding it it doesn't have time to meld with the meat and really flavor it well that's my biggest pet peeve salt and pepper it's not hard put it on the burger Plus on the bottom of my burger was absolutely soggy so one bread was crunchy and one was soggy I understand it's to go order but we're only walking 5 minutes away maybe let the burger rest a little more so it doesn't become a sloppy mess definitely not worth the time and effort to come to this establishment maybe we just caught the cooks on a bad day definitely do not recommend checking this place out Thank you for taking the time to read my...

My wife and I have been visiting Zorro’s for years and their food never disappoints. We typically visit for breakfast and for some time now I have been working my way through their Special Mexican Breakfasts. Two days ago I was finally able to say I’ve tried each an every item. Every entree was excellent and there were times I repeated an entree just because it was so good. Those include the El Camino Real Enchilada Omelet, the Ridge Chile Relleno and Eggs and the Homemade Tamale and Eggs (Chile and Cheese Tamale). The last holdout on my quest to try them all was the Marco Machaca and Eggs. I was reluctant but I needed to pull the trigger and get it done so I chose the shredded beef and asked that my eggs be fried on top of the meat instead of scrambled in it. Holy cow, this was amazing! It probably takes the win in comparison to all the other entrees and honestly I didn’t think anything could beat the El Camino Real Enchilada Omelet. The down side to highly rating one of your favorite restaurants is the chance they’ll become busier but Zorro’s is deserving of high praise even if it means waiting a bit next time we visit. Their staff if friendly and attentive and their prices...