El Rodeo — Restaurant in Roanoke

I've been to the restraunt plenty of times during lunch. The past few times the service has just went down hill. I took my family and a friend for my birthday dinner and they really let me down. My friend beat me there and got our group a booth. We ordered drinks and looked over the menu (mine was dirty). When it was finally time to order we had an extreamly hard time communicating with the waitress what we wanted to order. I ordered an appetizer just to get things started and we all went ahead and ordered our food. We had to ask for more chips. We had to ask for refills. We wait and our order comes to the table in multiple trips. The add ons were forgotten on my friends meal. I was missing part of my meal and they gave me a bowl of guacamole on the side when I asked for none (we told the waitress multipul times because she couldn't understand what I was asking). After all of our meals arrive and we start eating here comes the appetizer that should have showed up way before the regular meal. We ask for the bowl of cheese that my friend ordered with her meal and never received, and then had to ask again 10 minutes later because she girl forgot again. My son would not eat his meal and I can't say I blame him. Everything was so over cooked that I couldn't make him eat it (fries, chicken strips, and mozzarella sticks) they were so over done there was no cheese left on the inside of his cheese sticks. The entire time we were there our waitress did not check in with us, this being the reason we had to keep asking for everything. Never even had the chance to order dessert or get another margarita. I asked to speak to a manager and the waiter I spoke with looked clueless and I had to ask again, he directed me to a gentleman who, when I asked if he was the manager also looked lost. When I explained the situation (I only got half it out) he asked where I was sitting and I pointed it out and returned to my seat. A moment later the waitress showed up and asked if we needed to go boxes. The gentleman came to the table behind her and said he would take care of us. We wait in line to check out and the gentleman told me my total then realized who I was. My 90 dollar bill was dropped 10 dollars. Barely covering the meal my son was never able to touch. We couldn't bring it up to the waitress because she was no where to be found once the meals came out. The side we were sitting on was not overly busy and they had plenty of staff on the floor. I would have been happy if one of the other servers would have checked in on us but they all just walked right by including our server when she finally came back to the dining room. This was a very disappointing experience. I am the type of person that rarely complains but this just really bothered me. I would have been ok if there was better communication. But to be completely ignored is disrespectful and down right bad for business. I mean you expect a tip for the service you give and the price I paid for the food but come on now let's get real. I would have let the over cooked food slide (I never even got ro tell the "manager" of that issue). Customer service is what this comes down to.... very poor customer service. Customer service and team work is very important in sales of any kind, this was just not...

So unorganized. They need to have people working the front. I called to place an order they answered and put me on hold for 23 minutes. I assumed he forgot he put me on hold bc I could hear him laughing with his co workers & talking to them. So I called back & he answered and put me on hold again. I waited 15 minutes before hanging up. I go over there to place an order expecting them to be busy (mind you if I wasn’t pregnant and craving this I’d have given up after the first call) but they weren’t busy. More employees than customers. But I stood at the front for almost 10 minutes before someone took my order. I was the only one in line and there was a group of workers talking to each other at a table and I know they saw me. I guess they figured it wasn’t their job. Finally a lady told the guy to go ring me up and he literally rolled his eyes, took me to the register, and then said hold on & never came back. The lady walked by and saw me waiting there and she checked me out. He was the same person on the phone I recognized his voice. I’m not a Karen, I was never rude. I’m never rude to people handling my food period. He just didn’t seem to want to work. I’ve worked in this industry usually they have a host who answers the phones or they have a host plus someone who handles call ins. They have neither. It’d be different if they didn’t have enough staff to assign these jobs but they clearly do. It’s just unorganized. If I wasn’t craving this dish I’d have walked out. I felt like I was burdening them. I’ll definitely go to a different Mexican restaurant next time. Which is a shame because the food is good. The service just sucks. That seems to be a common complaint in their reviews - not just...

Upon sitting down at my assigned booth, our drink orders were taken immediately and delivered promptly. Our menus were then placed in from of each of us, and everything went downhill from there. Our menus had the most awful stench of mildew and soured dishwater, close to the stench of raw sewage. I immediately requested a replacement menu, and was brought what the waitress said was a different menu, however I highly suspect that it was the exact same disgusting menu as before. I was literally nauseous from the overwhelming stench and had to excuse myself from my dinner party and go outside for fresh air. The waitress acknowledged the rack that a filthy rag was used to clean the venues, but showed any lack of concern or genuine regret. My dinner party could no longer endure the horrible wretched smell and told the waitress that we were all departing immediately. My only thought was that if the first thing a custo.Dr is confronted with is a disgusting menu of the dishes offered at this restaurant, and these menues were one day away from having maggots on them.... What was the cleanliness of the kitchen, or the cooks apron, or the pots and pans currently in use. I feel litterly sick to my stomach each rime I drive past this establishment, and although the parking lot is typically packed, be warned that this restaurant is unsanitary, unsatisfactory and will NEVER receive any business from my friends, family or co-workers!...