Las Palapas - Austin Hwy — Restaurant in San Antonio

It is absolutely heartbreaking that I’m having to leave a review like this, especially at a location for a restaurant chain that I have been a fanatic and loyal customer for years (I can show bank statements at how often and how much I spend on Las Palapas a month and through the years). I was beyond excited when this location opened and was even more excited when this location was actually open on Sunday’s (but also surprised me as the restaurant chain is avid for reserving Sunday closures for family and worship).

That said, this review is only intended for this specific location—Austin Highway, and does NOT reflect my experiences at any other location. To date, my favorite locations in San Antonio remain the west avenue/castle hills location, Walzem/windcrest, Callaghan and I-10, and even the Leon Springs/Boerne location. I absolutely recommend all THOSE locations over this one. Trust me.

This location has multiple pain points, but I can tell you the top issues I would absolutely recommend assistance and attention are broken down to 3 main categories for me: Management, customer service, and efficiency.

Management — The current GM, I would highly recommend additional training or review if this gentleman. I have experienced multiple issues at this location between service and food quality, and each time, it is always an absolutely unpleasant experience with this person. The Management at this location DOES NOT exude or stand for the mission or purpose that Las Palapas was founded upon. Unfortunately, as a result of this lacking quality of management, it is very apparent with the constantly under-staffed/turn-over of employees, and overall morale of the location itself. If you have an issue at this location, good luck trying to reason or get your situation rectified at this location.

Customer service — by far, the worst in all the locations I frequent. I, not only, have dealt with 30+ minutes of waiting for someone to just take my order, but have also witnessed on the previous times I visited, other customers experience the same issue, as well as bring the issue to management’s attention. But as I’ve prefaced, under-staffing and employee turn over are 2 continuous and huge factors at this location. Not to mention, the employees who do work this location, unfortunately are clearly overworked or exhausted to try and keep up with customer demand.

Efficiency — In my 2 prior recommendations, it is clear why efficiency is a major struggle at this location. Lack of efficiency is also a very clear struggle when it comes to ordering through the drive-thru window. I would highly recommend someone from corporate step in and take a look before this location truly struggles.

Overall, I would NOT recommend visiting THIS location. I wanted to love this location and tried on multiple occasions to give this location another chance, but at this point, I refuse to visit or recommend this location until true changes are made. Without taking an internal look, this location will continue to struggle, lose good customers and employees and tarnish the brand and value of the Las...

Nice place with live dj music & semi crowded. We all ordered the delicious Avacado chicken light plate and I asked to start off with bean & cheese nachos(which arrived after we completed our meal!). Upon ordering I asked for nachos1st in which waitress responded you want that as the appetizer before meal? I responded yes please. Manager came bye at end of our meal asking did you order nachos to which I replied yes but I wanted them as appetizer. He kindly apologized & said I will remove them from bill & placed them on our table. That was very nice of him!!! We started to pick on them when waitress arrived with another plate of nachos. We said we already got them from manager. She looked like a deer in headlights, took her nachos and left. When she brought Bill the nachos were on there. We let her know manager said he would not charge us. She made a face as if it bothered her & said I will have to go ask him. She returned with new bill minus the nachos.

I made comment to friends I noticed our waitress seemed distracted as if she is in a race to get us out of here. My friend responded. The waitress has a large group of friends here she is socializing with and not paying attention to her tables. I said Ohh no wonder she kept walking bye our table asking in passing (not stopping to hear an answer) do you need anything? In all fairness we asked for lemonade refill & didn't think she heard us because she ran bye as she asked. But another guy showed up with a refill (I guess she did hear us LOL) and 3rd time we asked for another lemonade she gave my friend water! We didn't complain to manager about waitress because she looked young (maybe early 20's). We just shook our heads & gave her benefit of the doubt she would be a better waitress if her friends...

If negative stars existed I would most definitely give this establishment one. Being a part of the blue collar community we eat out a lot. We tend to go to same location if it’s what’s good to eat around the job site. I’ve been coming to this location and we have had horrendous customer service in the drive thru. My issue today was with this lady Ana, which I have to say if you don’t like your line of work find something else to do. But everything in life requires customer service and just being a decent human being. I ask for lemons even when I placed my order , which I’ve known you guys have been famous for not putting lemons in our orders, so we got to checking every time. This lady gave me a whole lemon. Now that’s just what an indecent human being does. I had to deal with her closing drive thru window in my face not letting me speak, asked for management cause she refused to give me cut lemons. She said if I needed a manager to drive around and get out of my car come inside and speak to manager. Well no maam, that’s the whole point of drive thru is too not get out of the car. And if you refuse to give me cut lemons I’ll wait for management to give me a cut lemon. This experience was horrible. That’s rude, and real ugly behavior. The world is hard enough, and we are just trying to eat meal that we are paying a good amount of money for. I’m not asking for any handouts. Just decent human behavior. Ana you will not get far in life with that attitude. I’m sure your parents taught you better and I hope you ain’t teaching your kids this ugly type of behavior . This establishment I will never ever return too. They most definitely don’t deserve one more cent...