Sabores Latinos — Restaurant in San Mateo

This place was deceptive and in retrospect, disgusting; it cannot be rated above the other Mexican food in the area or above 1. It has obviously inflated and fake reviews. The below photos are the “fried chicken” with “Spanish rice” entree.

This place has seemingly tricked Google very badly. For comparison, Yelp at the same time (reasonably) rated the restaurant as a 3. I personally believe it should be lower because of its lying on this platform. The 4 reviews from 6 months ago, all 5 stars, were all seemingly around the same time, without any words/comments or photos.

This restaurant is low quality, not fresh and not delicious. First, it is located WITHIN the Tastee Grill, which is a Mediterranean restaurant. The Mediterranean flavors were well mixed into the Mexican food. The salad that was given with this meal, was lettuce, slices of yellow onion and some old tomatoes in a strange dressing. The side of Yucca fries had 8 thin ones, which were harsh on my mouth and did not taste like yucca. I also wanted to try the pupusas, which were a separate tragedy.

The “fried chicken” meal itself was poorly made, very unhealthy and frankly unappetizing. Looking at the entree below, it is obviously part of the “schnitzel” that is on the Tastee Grill menu. Adding insult to injury, the schnitzel, was dry, tasteless and hard to chew. There are two random deep fried, very unappetizing drumsticks in there, for unclear reasons. I specifically asked for Mexican rice, was assured by the staff on the phone they had it, and received this rice, which cannot be more than oiled rice. I re-experiencing it, and feel sick recalling it all.

The experience and restaurant facility itself was also terrible. I echo the other comments that the wait was interminable. I looked back on the promises made, “10-15mins to pickup”, to the “5 more minutes because of the frying”, to the 5 more minutes of “we’re packaging it up now”, which all add up to about 30-40 minutes of sitting there. In addition, there was a perhaps college-age lady, who, was told loudly on paying, how much of a discount and how much free stuff she had received (something about mushrooms and falafel), and how she should need a bag to take the leftovers… only to not have leftovers. There was no one else in the restaurant, so the conversation was quite loud and obvious.

In summary, this “restaurant within a restaurant” is terrible within the terrible - not just bad food and poor service, but also a trick...

Let’s see, Today I was in the mood to try Colombian dish. My partner and I decided to go and Order two empanadas, and two apreas with cheese. She never sat us down and just said in Spanish “what is it?” As if I need to know. Once I told her that I order she said “fantastic.” From there I sat down and waited. There was another group and they haven’t received anything yet. They looked impatient. After 20 minutes, she told me “it’s coming soon.” So we waited more. Anyways after 40 minutes she brings our the food for the other table. And I politely asked her when the food will be ready. She put her hand up as if she was trying to tell me to silence and replied, “it’s already ready.” And yet another 15 minutes passed by. She was rude. From there I honestly took my partner that I am so impatient and the service is horrible that I told him that we should go somewhere else. Before leaving I heard her telling the cooker that arepas were messed up and bad. From there another it was going to be another forty-five minutes for a two bite food. We left.

An empanada and arepa is a small size, and it was two of those two items. They are disorganized, the atmosphere was terrible, the service is informal, and lastly, it was a waste of my time. They need to prepare and pre-made. In all honesty I don’t know how this restaurant lasted this long, but from this point if they don’t get there act together I will give less...

I love eating here and having my Colombian lunch. They are also really nice and friendly, I always get the lunch of the day and is delicious every time. You have to know how a Colombian lunch supposed to be, in order to...