Cilantro Cocina de Mexico — Restaurant in Rehoboth Beach

July 3, 2017 - Terrible service, Poor ownership

First let me first say I do not put many reviews. When I do, I'll leave a positive and have never a negative. After sleeping on a terrible experience last night, I feel compelled to this morning. My hope is not to deter one from going there, but hopefully ownership learns and improves.

Party of 7 adults (including 2 grandmothers) and 5 kids (ages 5-11). We called in advance to see if they can accommodate a reservation for our large party. We were insured over the phone we could and it would not be a problem.

We were sat immediately at out table. No wait. Great plus! Placed an order for drinks for the men in our party. Waiter was to return to pick up drink order for the females who wanted a separate drink and did not return for a much long time. Upon inquiry, the girls' drinks were delivered significantly later. And the waiter was rude to the females. Placed an order for food. Beside a bowl of chips, we did not obtain an appetizer or entree for well over an 1:15hr - 1:30hr, and only upon requesting food for at least the 5 kids.

Waiter agreed stating our kids meal should have come out first but they had not submitted the orders in.

Kids tacos appeared to have dry raw cheese, looked prepared at that moment rushed. Our appetizer (Mexican pizza) was burned.

Unfortunately we had to leave. We paid for our beverages and kids tacos.

What bothers me is not the delay in food, I get that. But the way this was handled. Francesco (manager, bartender and owner's son) never left his spot to attend the matter at out table. When we proceeded to the bar to talk to him, several statements were made which were inappropriate from a small business owner:

"This is a July 4th weekend, we are short staffed" Francesco - if this was true they should not have taken our reservation.

"In other counties it is not uncommon to wait for food for over 1:30hr" Waiter - really?? How does this pertain to us here at this moment!

"I'm as educated as you" Francesco - not sure why Francesco felt compelled to bring education into this. Has nothing to do with the poor service and his handling of the situation. We never once brought education into the conversation.

"I'm being harassed by these guys" Francesco to another waiter - I never cursed, raised my voice, and my friend and I were respectful in communicating our issues. This threw me over the top. Really? You are in a service industry. If adequate service is not provided, you better expect people are going to complain. 7:30 reservation and NO food till past 9. With 5 kids!! Read other reviews here, where the poor service is mentioned.

On that note, good luck Francesco. Maybe you choose to grow your business model by...

Our first visit to this restaurant will also be our last. Poor service, lackluster food.

Our party of two was seated quickly, but that's basically the only redeeming take-away we have from our trip here. We ordered waters to drink. My boyfriend ordered a vegetarian, cheese-stuffed poblano pepper dish, and I ordered a quesadilla stuffed with chicken and spinach. As soon as I ordered, our waitress informed me the kitchen "ran out of spinach" so I immediately chose a carne asada dish instead. Our waitress left, brought back our waters, and then informed my boyfriend that they had also run out of peppers so his dish of choice was also unavailable. He had noticed some specials the restaurant listed on the sandwich board outside and was interested in ordering one of those items instead. There was no information inside regarding those specials nor did the waitress ever mention them, so he had to ask the waitress to explain what the day's offerings were and she seemed pretty uninformed. We had to continuously request refills on our waters (the waitress did not initiate the refills on her own) and we had to request the complimentary serving of chips and salsa instead of those, too, automatically being brought over. Poor service aside, our dishes themselves were amazingly sub-par as well. Grey steak, flavorless rice and beans, runny salsa. We ate less than half of our meals before pushing our plates aside and chalking up the visit as a loss. Even though there was a great deal of food left on our plates, the waitress never asked if anything was wrong with the dishes or if we wanted to take anything to-go. All-in-all we did not have a good experience here and would not recommend it. There are better places along Coastal Highway and even on the boardwalk itself that will afford you a better dining experience with better...

Parking is at a premium around here, it's on the main strip. We parked a few blocks away.

This is a nice sized place close to the boardwalk. They have an outside & inside seating area. We sat at the bar and took advantage of some Happy Hour specials. The service was good, anything we needed we got in a reasonable time. The bar was decent & had maybe 20 or so tequilas to choose from. No real heavy hitters I could see.

I ordered the house marg for $5 special. It was ok, better than most, but still had that tart little bite to it.

Chips & Salsa!!!! Chips...fried perfectly, light, and crispy. I thought they were good. Salsa...a little runny, with chunks of cilantro, onion, and tomato. It was better than average.

I ordered tacos: They did 3 per order so I went with Al Pastor. They honestly didn't have a large selection of meat to choose from anyway. The tacos were stacked with meat, seasoned perfectly, moist, and better than most. They did have pineapple on top, but it looked to be canned pineapple that was charred on the grill. I didn't care for this feature and you know I love pineapple with my pastor. They came on a single tortilla that was about average.

We ordered the nacho special from the Happy Hour board with chicken added for $10. The chicken was excellent, seasoned well, and had a good texture. The nachos had melted cheese, chicken, sour cream, guac, and beans. These things were pretty dang good honestly. I'd do it again.

I tried my friends enchilada. It was shredded beef with cheese (not melted) on top, a tomatillo based sauce that was too tangy for me, and was hard to cut with a metal fork. These were ok at best. My friend only ate half of one before quitting on it. Beans...black beans, mehhhh, no real taste. Rice...sticky, dry,...