El Chaparral Mexican Restaurant - San Antonio — Restaurant in San Antonio

We were in San Antonio for the weekend. I took my family to this restaurant to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Our server started out being friendly and welcoming. We ordered one beer, one strawberry lemonade, one sweet tea and one Arnie Palmer. The server did not appear to be inconvenienced. This was about 8:30 pm on a Saturday night and was not busy at all. Any customers that were in the restaurant, were in the front left section of the restaurant, the tables in the back portion of that area were already "cleared and cleaned" for the end of the night. The initial drinks were brought out in a reasonable time, but wrong for one of them. My daughter's friend ordered the sweet tea was given lemonade. She likes lemonade, so decided to just keep it and not wait for a replacement. The lemonade is very good at your restaurant! We were all ready to order upon his initially asking us if we were. Frankly, my wife was not very hungry, but the server did offer some lighter fare options. That was helpful. After this, was when everything went downhill. It had been at least 15 mins that all of our glasses sat empty at the table. Our server was no where to be seen. He came to the table behind us, brought their drinks and passed us by. We had ordered Queso that was just dropped on the table. There were 4 of us. The server finally came back through to refill drinks....but refilled everyone with lemonade. Which is wrong. One should have been strawberry lemonade, one a sweet tea and another Arnie Palmer. We didn't figure, since we sat so long, that making this correction would help. We still hadn't seen our food yet. Never asked if I needed another beer or would have preferred something else instead, once the beer was gone. We were out of chips, had plenty of Queso. The manager walking by us actually was the one that asked if he could get us more chips. Thank you to him!! Our food came. No refill on the half empty glasses. Seems like a pretty normal thing that servers generally take care of. Food was standard. Nothing bad. Nothing great. It was decent. But our server NEVER came back to ask how it was! NEVER once during the entire meal. We all had stopped eating. Either we were completely done, or too full to eat any more. He appeared and asked if he could clear the plates. No please bring us a to-go box for my wife's entire meal, almost. A to-go container for the Queso. Now he asks if we all want more lemonade. Really? Now? No. The server brings out the to-go box and carry out bag and puts that on the table. We sit there another 10 mins, contemplating about going to see if we can just get our bill up at the desk. This waiting around is beyond ridiculous. He has brought out all the to go containers and we still, have yet to see the bill. We have a table sitting directly behind us that were served their items and he finally appeared with our bill. He disappeared again before allowing me to just hand him the card to pay for it so we could leave. Again, contemplated going up to the front or the manager (that got our chips earlier) to ring up our ticket. The server finally came back and quickly brought us back the ticket to complete this long and painful process. My wife and I have worked in the service industry for many years of our life. We understand how service works. This was terrible service. Lack of attentiveness to the customer. Not to mention NO acknowledgement of the daughter's birthday. Sadly, as a former server, I reflected the poor service in the tip. I am, under normal circumstances, a generous tipper. I know how hard they work. After wrong, slow and poor service.....10% was even too much in my opinion. But that was the minimum...

**Edited to respond to your response.

You would think a hair in my taco was the worst part but it was not. Watching the corn chip pile all were served from getting larger without bags being opened was not (but was close).

The worst was - We were told there was a 30 minute wait for 7 people. No problem, however, as we waited with others we watched many people leave because of the wait. A group came in and did not want to wait. They went to the manager who then sat them immediately.

Because there are no reservations and I overheard / watched this happen I called it out and asked if that was adding to everyone else's wait time. Of course they said no but of course it was.

Shame on the manager / possible owner (older man with gray hair) and to do it so openly. The ones that would not wait were the lucky ones.

My Carlos platter came out 10 minutes after the other six meals, the taco that came with it came five minutes after that with a gray hair in it.

As the Kiwi's say - Coincidence... Yeah right.

**To your response:

I appreciate you (the person responding under the owners name) taking the time in responding however that is absolutely not true and you know it. An innocent mistake is fixable a blatant lie is not.

I assume you have cameras so feel free to review what happened at your entry on 11/27/22 12:20pm - 12:50-

We had a 30 minute wait. In that time 2 families with children TOTAL of 5 walked out due to the waiting time (plus others not table of 5). An older couple with a younger man came in, were told the same thing, he said where is **, saw you folding napkins at a table and went straight over. You looked at the waiting area and our eyes connected. You sat him behind the fish tank at the round table. Two more joined his party... Total of 5.

We would not have fit at that table. You did not short me. You shorted others. I had a hair in my food. Ask your waitress who started 2 days before who brought my half and half drink (not an Arnold palmer as expected but a half sweet half unsweet tea). She asked if I wanted a taco to go as a replacement. I said no thank you just the bill. I paid, I did not ask to comp the price and I did not short her on her tip.

I would have walked out but WAS my mothers favorite place to eat and did not want...

El Chaparral Mexican Restaurant on 1604 and Redland Road. We came in at 2:35 pm the hostess sat us in a comfortable table and bus lady brought the chips and salsa and the server didn’t show up to the table until 2:53 pm, we were going to order out of the lunch special menu and waiter told us that the lunch special ends at 3 pm so he refused to serve us the special and he blamed it on the computer system. I asked him why did you give us a lunch menu for then? “He wasn’t rude but he was not helpful at all” Ended up Ordering Pollo Ranchero, Quesadillas con Carne and Cheese Enchiladas. We ordered the cheese enchiladas with white cheese and specifically told the waiter that they were for a vegan. They brought the plate with cheddar cheese topped with chile con carne and refried beans cooked with pork lard, so we called the waiter to exchange the plate with just 2 plain white cheese enchiladas topped with more white cheese. Plates tasted great except for the vegan plate. The “Service” was not great since we had to deal with 5 different people. 1. The hostess 2. The chip bus lady 3. The waiter that denied the lunch menu service to us 4. Waiter number two that brought the plates and 5. third waiter that brought the enchilada plate. A little bit confusing The atmosphere is superb, service sucked tipped only 15%, no vegan service and fast plate serving. I kind of miss the owner doing his table to table greeting - sad he wasn’t here to take care of us. I will come back and eat here again but be aware they are like very rigid concerning “lunch hours” regardless of whose fault it really was. Good Tex Mex food with great decor they probably have more enchiladas Enchiladas in the menu than anything else, great place to eat enchiladas! By the way…. Look at the restaurant ticket attached to photos - they charged me $ 13.29 for a miserable 2 cheese enchiladas and that was an outrageous overcharge check your bill...