Vallarta Express Mexican Eatery — Restaurant in San Diego

The only reason im giving a two star review is because the food was pretty basic as usual for this place. However I am reviewing the customer service I received. Picture this: You know when you have a crave for a certain something and you google X restaurants near me and you end up going for the first place that pops up on Google because if bought ratings? well that what we did…. Worst decision. So my son and I got off work late it was about 9pm on April 4, 2023. My son was hungry for Mexican and we ended up eating at Vallartas in Mira mesa. So We pull in the parking lot ... cool! … the drive through is busy and the dine in empty. So dine in it is…. no greeting cool! they're busy no biggie. We looked at the menu took us maybe 3minutes tops …to decide because my son already knew what he wanted. Stood there waiting to be acknowledged by Martin; the cashier running the drive through. I was ok so do I tell him were ready? Nope he goes back to the window and then back to chitchat with the cooks. Okayyy I know he sees us…. So the other cashier that was on her break comes back and start saying that she knows shes late to come back and Martin starts telling her that he was not going to clean because shes late. She walks towards the restroom yelling “ME VALEEEEE” which means “I dont care”.. I know she sees us standing there waiting to be helped NOPE! Still no acknowledgement we’re standing there for I wanna say close to 10 minutes before I stared at Martin and finally after he finished he's conversation about the cashier having T-rex arms with the guy in the light brown shirt in the back cooking, he says “ I’ll help you on this side” pointing at the drive through window register. Martin begins with “ what do you want to order”, ok demeanor is aggressive and pissy… Ok so I start giving my food order and Martin was rushing to finish my order and tells me my total is 23.55 ok but im not done we want something to drink too. Ok so Martin is inconvenience to add the drinks with the food total which I guess its my fault because he didn’t ask if I was finished ordering or if we wanted something to drink. So I get a grand total of $31.77 with a service charge of .50 cents. Normally I dont question prices or service charges but my receipt didn’t match my food receipt… oh thats right he had to separate the charges because I forgot to mention that Martin saw me pulling out cash but then I changed my mind and paid with my card. Yeah Martin sorry but whatever scheme your pulling wont work with me. I don't mind paying this much money for a carne asada burrito a beef taco and a bean tostada; owners need to pay the employees BUT I sure AF mind when cashiers like Martin put a burrito of attitude and drink of pissines that I sure didn’t ask for in my order. I work hard for my money just anyone else that takes business to places like Vallartas. I work in retail which means if im having a bad day I keep it at home or my car. Customers don’t need to know if I hate my job especially if they are going to spend a shiny dime at my site Vs. The competition. Manager or Owner if you get to read this review and you want your sales to thrive, dont hire people like Martin this will only deter loyal customers to other shops with maybe not the best food but a better customer experience! I definitely wont give it...

the hype for this place was great. i specifically needed a breakfast burrito at 1:30pm. we usually fill up on banh mi's nearby, but after hiking los peñasquitos with our dog and not eating since the night before, i was starting to feel faint. i also wanted something drive thru instead of going indoors anywhere all red faced and sweaty from the trail.

even though it was my first time here or at any vallarta, this used to be one of my husband's go-to post grad spots. a dude he went to ucsd with and who now does our taxes from the bay area says he makes a point to come back for it whenever he's in town as well.

we ordered chips and salsa (husband's favorite), a breakfast burrito with bacon, and surf and turf fries. plus extra green and red sauce (it's orange here instead of red). there was no one ahead of us at the window to order, but a couple more cars did queue up behind us as we waited for our food to come out. it was cool to be the ones starting a line for once, lol.

the person helping us with our order was not quite unfriendly, just apathetic. which i'm told is part of the classic vallarta experience, haha.

breakfast burrito: 7.5/10 - it's just 'breakfast burrito all day' on the menu, no description. you choose between bacon or ham or sausage when you order. it's got eggs, potatoes, cheese, and refried beans. the cross section had an even mix of fillings when i cut it in half, so far so good. i was a little concerned toward the end of the first half because it became all unseasoned potatoes and tortilla. i wondered if they only load everything in the middle of the burrito due to people taking cross section pictures for their lame reviews. luckily the second half had the same generous distribution of eggs, bacon, and beans all throughout.

chips and salsa: 6 or 7/10 personally, probably 8.5/10 for my husband

surf and turf fries: uhm, 6/10? unable to rate? what we got was good! but sadly it was all turf without the surf. we dug around a bit to make sure and yep, the shrimp was missing. we were charged for it, too - receipt says '1x camarón' right below '1x super fries' and '1x steak.' kind of a bummer.

side note about those orange and green sauce packets: i think they're sort of hard to open. i cut the corner of one at home and tried to squeeze it onto the burrito, and it squirted all over the place. just one...

A loyal customer for years and Vallarta Express has now lost my business over them failing to correct their mistake. My family and I have been going to Vallarta Express for close to 10 years. Their breakfast burritos are our favorite and we go there at least twice monthly for them. I currently have Covid and am quarantined and my mom surprised me by dropping off a Vallarta breakfast burrito. Or so she thought. She ordered by phone for pickup, and explained to please clearly label each burrito and bag each separating as she would be dropping off one burrito to someone sick and quarantining. At pickup, both burritos were bagged together and only one of the burritos was labeled. She then again asked them to be bagged separate. My mom dropped off the unlabeled burrito for me and kept the burrito that was clearly labeled “Machaca”. Turns out the burritos were mislabeled. Because I have covid and had already taken a bite of the mislabeled burrito, there was no way my mom and I could switch without giving her my germs. My mom called Vallarta to explain their error and they told her they would refund only one burrito but “could not refund both”. Even though two people got wrong burritos. I then called and asked to speak to a manager and was told there was no manager on duty today and that they could not help me. Neither myself or my mom received apologies. It’s pretty disappointing that Vallarta not only can’t apologize for their mistake, they refuse to right their mistakes. And for this they will be losing loyal customers. In a world with rising costs and inflation, I’ll be happy to no longer give my money and business to a company who clearly doesn’t care about...