Tres Caminos Pontoon Beach — Restaurant in Pontoon Beach

This was my first time dining here and I really enjoyed my margarita and sad to say that was the highlight of my experience. My friend and I came for dinner and drinks. We got a large pitcher margarita and were drinking and talking and realized after about 45 mins the tables near us that were once occupied, cleaned, and now occupied with new guests were getting food. So we ask our server and get no explanation. So then we ask for the manager and he comes out but keeps giving us the gesture of one min. Finally he comes over tells us they are short staffed and so on. I explain to him I get that and that I am also a manager in a restaurant and all it takes is communication. My food comes out cold shortly after. So I send it back. My friend still had nothing. A few mins later I get my food. At this time it’s about an hour after we ordered and my food is till cold. Fast forward we get the bill and no compensation. Me being a manager I sit there and am contemplating do I speak back with the manager. Finally I say this is unacceptable so I get him back out there and he never apologizes for my inconvenience just keeps telling me to be understanding of them being short staffed and so on then he cuts me off saying I’ll just take something off and proceeds to take 3.96 off my bill. It wasn’t about trying to be cheap at all. I don’t dine out or carry out if I’m not able to leave a sustainable tip but in this instance there was no compassion at al from management and was a total slap in the face. First impressions are everything this was my first and last time...

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Here's the review:

Everything about this place screams love and authenticity. I am from California, and finding good Mexican or Latin American food has been a challenge over the last 8 years in the Midwest.

Looking at everyone's photos and reviews made me feel this place would be pretty good 👍 So we gave it a try.

We ordered the appetizer platter, grilled shrimp A la carte, the quesadilla with black beans and Mexican rice from the kids menu for a little one, and a fried ice cream with lots of cherries. My daughter usually leaves food behind, but here she eat until she was full. She really enjoyed her food and her eyes were wide with excitement with every bite.

I shared photos so you can see what our night cap adventure was made of.

Everything was fresh and tasted good. Well seasoned, and timely. They were well staffed, and everyone seemed to enjoy working there. The staff stayed in top of things, helped each other out with no ego issues, and seemed to have long-standing connections with the regulars.

Every single chair was filled with someone, and when one table was clear, another party sat down. The staff didn't rush anyone to finish, and outside of the large number of staff and customers, you wouldn't know they were "busy".

Most restaurants bring food out slow with the number of people there tonight, but not here. This seems to be...

Tres Caminos has the best carnitas in the entire St. Louis bi-state area. They are super moist and tender. I consider their carnitas to be their flagship dish.

The carnitas dish is so large, that I usually order it for dinner and take the leftovers home for breakfast and lunch the next day. You get a lot of food for your money here.

Tres Caminos is clean with excellent ambiance, customer service, and food.

I appreciate that they chose to place their second restaurant location here in Pontoon Beach instead of going to Edwardsville where so many other local businesses seem to locate by default.

They are consistently very busy and have proven this is a viable location for good restaurants.

The only thing I would improve about Tres Caminos is that their tamales tend to be heavy on the masa dough used for the exterior of the tamale and light on the...