Que Pasa Tex-Mex Cantina — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

This is a bit of a painful review to write, but here it goes..

The food is top notch. The salsa is fresh and everything tastes great! A man who I assume is the owner is very friendly, often greeting people as they come in. Sometimes there is a man singing and playing guitar, which is pretty cool! The prices are also great. Especially the early bird ones!

Thankfully the food is delicious because the service is laughably, dependably AWFUL. It's gotten to the point where my girlfriend and I try to guess whose order will be messed up before we go in. Truly, every time we have been here something is incorrect. The wrong shell on a taco, the wrong meat in a burrito, the wrong sauce on an enchilada, or any combination of these. Two of the times this has happened to us, the waitress (a different lady each time) tried to tell us that WE were mistaken, not her. We felt that was kind of rude. The servers tend to always seem a little bit annoyed in general. If we were making weird, custom orders I would understand, but there are really only three customizable aspects to a taco (meat, sauce, shell).

When the inevitably incorrectly-made order comes out, it's promptly removed from the table and taken back to the kitchen. Most places, when they make a mistake, at least let you keep the food so you don't have to sit there while the rest of your party has to decide whether to eat their meals in front of you or allow their food to get cold while yours is remade. It's just a taco. Just leave it with the customer while you make the correct one. At least they can pick at it or bring it home for someone instead of now having their wait time doubled like it was their fault.

No one is unfriendly, just not accommodating. All of the times I have been here, the servers outnumber the actual filled tables in the restaurant and mill about and socialize while chip baskets and water glasses go unfilled. You need to flag them down to get attention, and it's kind of awkward. One time we waited maybe ten minutes for chips. It finally happened and the waitress apologized for the wait and said they just got done. They were cold, so that seemed doubtful.

You don't really feel like a guest here. You don't get the feeling they are glad you came in. Especially when there is a problem with your order. We went in recently with a friend of ours and he also remarked on the bad service. We assured him the food would be great though. It was, as always.

Long story short: stop in here if you would like delicious Mexican food and aren't A: in a hurry or B: going to be upset when someone in your party has to wait twice as long as everyone else because their meal needs to be remade and they aren't allowed to pick at the incorrect item that was brought out. The servers here just need a little bit more etiquette.

As a side note, there is a large projector screen hanging at all times in the restaurant that is for some reason PERMANENTLY tuned to Fox News. It's hard to enjoy Mexican food while an eight foot tall Donald Trump yells on a stage about how he's going to deport the people that made it for you, so that's a...

DO NOT COME HERE DURING THE LUNCH HOUR if your are by yourself. Knowing there would be a lunch crowd I opted to sit at the bar, which was nearly empty. For 20 minutes I did not have anyone greet me, provide me with a menu, ask me for a drink, ask have I been helped? receive eye contact NOTHING. After finally running down someone who was passing through the bar I asked if I could put a order in she said yeah what do you want? Already turned off, I say my order and she puts the order in without asking if it's for here, or to go? No drink, no chips, salsa, NADA. Sooooo I finally tag down the manager and ask for a alcoholic beverage and inform him that I'm not sure if my waiter knows my order is for here, but I'd like to confirm and also add a glass of water. Both drinks are provided, and he proceeds with his management duties. Soon after my food comes out TO GO. How uninviting is this? I did not ask for it to go, nor did I ask for bad service today. So I said I'd like my order for here, she hands me my food and says ok. So I get it, eat out of the to go containers, fine... Already irritated I don't even have silverware, I was not asked if I needed anything, water, nothing. I ask her for extra sour cream which I did not receive and also noticed I was missing an additional topping, once I pointed this out she brought out the plate of beans and that was the end of my service. I asked another bartender (one who also avoided eye contact the entire visit) to close my tab, he asked the original young lady who put in the order and she placed my card down and left. Extremely dissatisfied in my experience I left very upset and will not be visiting Que Pasa anytime soon. Red Mesa on 4th street will have my business going forward. If the lunch crowd is too much for your servers to handle and customer service is not a priority don't take advantage of people's time and money for a...

I am giving 3 stars because when you actually get served the food is halfway decent. This is my usual Friday lunch spot faithfully every week. Today I stop in to Celebrate Cinco De Mayo at a spot that I might add is not at all in the direction of my house but again my Friday "go to" parking as usual was a bit difficult as always. However to me it was worth the effort after hiking in from my parking spot it was obvious that they were busy its Cinco De Mayo afterall. Lucky for me there were 3 open tables outside. I approached the hostess and let her know there was 1 in my party and it possible I would like to sit outside. She looked and said "there are no spots available" I asked about the open tables she stated they are reserved mknd you nothing marked on any lf them and as we are debating them other pedestrians take a seat at an open seat. The hostess says it will be 20 minutes i tell her that is fine I can wait. I step aside and the people who parked next to me and hiked in walk up to another open table outside and she brings them menus. I grab another hostess and ask why the table was given to them but i was told 20 minutes and that those tables were "reserved" she was obviously upset with the other hostess and when the original hostess returned there was an exchange between them and both walked away. Listen Que Pasa I get I am just 1 person and its Cinco De Mayo but what you dont get it that I eat here every week faithfully even during Covid. But I get the 4 top tonight was worth more to you. I will never visit this establishment again. This is not how you do business if you expect to be around through these...