El Rodeo — Restaurant in Salem

I would not normally give this a bad rating as I have eaten here many times however, this particular evening, I and 5 others arrived 35 minutes before closing and when walking in the door the man standing behind the register had a noticeable scoul look in his facial expression. I ignored this due to the fact I have never seen him have smiling expressions. Both sides of the dining areas were completely mopped or being mopped at the time and all the chairs were already turned upside down on the tables so, only option for seating was a large booth for 6 people. The waiter took my order. I am picky eater and do not like lettuce, tomatoes or sour cream on my nachos and I order it with the details to not put any of this on there. Just meat, beans, chips and cheese. My order came and it had everything except sour cream on it. The waiter had even confirmed with me his understanding of what I didn't want on my nachos dinner when taking my order. (I always order this meal this way at any Mexican restaurant I go to btw even this restaurant has made it several times before the right way) Since it was so late I chose to express my dislike with facial expressions and proceed to pick shredded lettuce and tomatoes out of my food, I did not want to make the rest of my party wait for a new meal. The waiter tried to tell me I only asked for no sour cream so I corrected him specifically reminded him of what he confirmed. There was no offer to take any amount off my bill for their error and of course their 6 or more people policy auto added his tip to my bill. He would have had less of a tip if it had been up to me only because of his attitude when I expressed he was incorrect on how he took my order. Needless to say I was not happy and will likely not return to El Rodeo. Our whole party of 6 understood it was 1025pm and they close at 11pm and would not have stopped there had it been closer to their closing time. I just feel they could have handled the mistake better and waited a bit longer to start their clean up process as it was very obvious from all the staff that our party of 6 was not what they wanted to handle...

Must have been an off night for them after I read the reviews. Visiting the area recently and many others also recommended we try this place. Definitely blown away by the kitschy decor and did add a bit of festive fun to the meal especially after a margarita. Maragaritas were wonderfully tasty albeit a little light on the tequila. The chips and salsa were ho- hum. The salsas on the bar were also okay and definitely did not rise to the level of great. The steak fajita platter....where do I start? Lots of pretty well-spiced beef of some sort but onions and peppers...very few and hard to find. Accompaniments to the fajitas were sad. Lots of shredded yellow lettuce, a half of a slice of tomato, rice and beans. Rice and beans were visually unappealing and equally as bland in taste. One of us had a combo platter with 3 different items. One was a chili rellano with no chili pepper at all ...not even mixed in. Huh? It was only taco meat topped with melted cheese. The two other items used the same taco meat so we pretty much ended up with a plate of taco meat which was lacking any serious spice or defined taste and everything topped with bland melty cheese. Overall all of the meals lacked any sort of taste resembling freshness, any attempt to make the food appeal to the eye and a blandness that seemed to be a constant theme. Service was almost non-existant after the initial greet. Food took a long time to come out considering the place was about half full. Considering the price of the steak fajitas...skip it as not worth the price. Go for the margaritas and stay with the cheap plates so you won't feel like you just threw an expensively priced meal...

Wow at the service i received from Oscar C!!! I'm not sure why he was so rude to be and so bothered with me. All I asked was to specify what was inside the enchilada and he rolled his eyes at me.

The horchata was clearly powder made and not homemade and it was quite disgusting. I asked him for water and clearly didn't even drink the horchata as I left the cup full on the table. When he brought the check, I asked that he remove it from my ticket and he said "And Why would i do that if I brought it to you?" and I responded "Yes but it wasn't good. Look at it" (as the powder seperated from sitting there). And he AGAIN rolled his eyes and grabbed the ticket rudely from my hand.

He did remove the horchata from my ticket but I did not leave him a tip. I do not do that often or lightly because I once was a server and I KNOW what it takes to be a server and all the hard work it is. I am typically a good tipper even if food isn't good but service is. Service will make or break a dine in experience.

I came from far away to spend time with my friend and we all came out to dinner and he just ruined my experience. If I had been rude, I'd understand completely but honest to God that I wasn't. I asked for things nicely, said please and thank you. His behavior was simply unacceptable.

Frankly, the food wasn't even all that either. It was lacking flavor badly but it wasn't like bad either. If I was reviewing solely based on the food, they'd have at least 3 stars. However, I am a tough food critic so if you're not, you'd probably like it just make sure you don't get Oscar...