Carlitos Café y Cantina — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

!!! WORST!!! Experience ever. A group of friends and I made reservations for a bachlorette party this past Friday night. We were seated, ordered, and recieved our food and drinks. Food and drinks were okay, nothing special. Our waiter was also average, did nothing special or spectacular. Took food order, delivered it, and only came a few times to check on our table. We were given our bill and a friend took care of it and paid.

As we were sitting socializing thinking of what's next, the friend who paid and another one stepped away to the bathroom. During this time the waiter came back to our table with a paid receipt and said, "I just want to ask if the service was good?" My friends and I were confused and answered" it was fine", the waiter then proceeds to say, "okay because you guys only left a $10 tip on a $100 bill" and started at each one individually as if expecting an apology. He most likely thought we would change the tip or something because why else return with the actual signed receipt. Additionally, he didn't seem interested in just learning about his service.

Here are my problems with this: Gratituity is earned not asked for and it's optional!! How dare he make us uncomfortable and expect us to change his tip, simply because he didn't like it. Lastly, after my friend who paid returned and we told her what happened. She noted, that's not our table bill, our bill was more than $100 and that she let him an $18 tip to close off our bill.

So a waiter felt the need to be Petty and complain about his tip and not even go to the correct table?!?! It's ridiculous, and I'll never return to this restaurant. This level of service isn't worth returning. My friends and I left very disappointed and to top it off as we were walking out the waiter felt the need to stare at us all and say something under his breath. I understand that working in the restaurant industry is tough, but this behavior is uncalled for and simply rude.

To the waiter: Next time you feel the need to complain to restaurant guests and make them uncomfortable about your tip, at least go to the correct table.

• We were a group of 5 and gratituity was not automatically included or noted to be necessary anywhere in the menu...

Me and my co-workers (about 13 people all together) came to celebrate. The location and athmosphere were nice. The food was okay. The customer service was not okay. First, when we called to make the reservation, we were told on the phone with a very demanding tone to be there right on the dot at the time we reserved for. Second, when we arrived, they brought in guacamole and chips as starter for the table (two of them) without us asking for it, little did we know they were $18 a piece. We asked the server to split the checks individually, the manager came and told us that was not allowed as we had made a reservation for the whole group. This was a huge inconvenient for us. But, we pretty much have no option but to accept it. The service in general wasn't friendly, warm or cordial. The servers were russhy, bossy, and inflexible. One of the servers was picking up the empty dishes going over my head and dropped the dishes on me, last thing I knew I had an used knife and a fork in the back of my seat. No injuries occured. They didnt ask if I was okay, no appology was offered. They brought later a margarita I didn't ask for to make up for the dish fiasco. No drinks were refilled during the time we were there. Finally the bill came for the entire table. They added automatically $85 just in tips!!! No option to choose the tip we wanted to leave. We all had to do the math and figure out what was each person's share of this huge bill, over $500!! They didn't even waited for us to get up from the table to start cleaning it up. I get this is a busy place, but nobody likes to be rushed at a restaurant. One of the members of the group bought a meat ball soup to go, once at home she had to tost it as the meat was totally raw inside. There goes $20+ to the trash can. In general, we are no happy customers, it wasn't a good experience. None of us are...

Watch your bill and the charges!

On Saturday (for Mothers day), my family and I went to Carlitos restaurant for lunch. We sat outside, ordered our food, and when the bill came, I was shocked to see a 20% automatic gratuity added. When I inquired about it, the waiter explained that it's common in Santa Barbara and that waiters expect that type of tip. I asked them to remove the automatic tip so I could leave a tip I felt was appropriate.

My three children were splitting the bill for my Mother's Day meal, so they gave the waiter three credit cards. When he returned with the individual receipts for signing and tipping, the amounts seemed off. Upon adding them up, I realized it was the exact same total as the original bill with the automatic tip included. When I questioned him, he said oops he forgot, it was a mistake. I did not believe it for a second.

This experience was very upsetting. It felt like the waiter assumed we wouldn't notice the automatic tip if the bill was split three ways. Not only does this restaurant automatically add a 20% gratuity, but they also failed to remove it when I asked, making me feel swindled. When I brought it to his attention he got flustered. I asked to speak with the manager and conveniently the manager was not there. I then crossed off the entire tip.

Ready for this I will not be going here again, there are so many other great choices in SB for meals and much better service, that Carlitos does not deserve my business...