El Mero Mero — Restaurant in Schaumburg Township

The first time we came here it was a pleasant experience. The food was great, and our waiter was very nice and attentive. So, I decided to take my parents for an early Mother’s Day dinner on Mother’s Day. The patio had about 5 tables. Indoor bar side had maybe 2 or 3 tables. When we got there, we waited about 10 minutes for someone to acknowledge us, which I was not too picky about because it seems that they did not have a host during this shift. Totally understandable. We sat in the patio (party of 5 adults and 1 4-year-old). The waitress, Laura came by, and I gave her my son’s order, along with our drink order and appetizers. She insisted on taking everyone’s order because she claimed that she would put the orders in as the night went on.

From 4:45 – 6:00pm we had only received our drinks, and not once did she come by to check on us nor to see if we wanted another round while we waited. Nothing. On the contrary, she had another table in the patio whom she visited frequently. To the point of even serving them water consistently. I am not the type to pull the race card, however being Latina myself, I know that there are unprofessional servers who pre-judge their customers. Lets just say that the other table was not a minority. At 6PM, I got up and advised one of the waiters that I wanted to cancel the order and just wanted the check. As a result, she came out with the food. Mind you, as a former waitress, you are supposed to be attentive to your customers and at least, if the kitchen is behind, advise accordingly and offer another round (obviously not on the house). We got our food and appetizers all at once, and when I asked her if we could have another round, she said that she needed 5 minutes to come back and take the order. Which to me, having a sour taste in my mouth already, took as she did not have time to attend to our table, but very willing to smile and be attentive to the other table.

I canceled the round of drinks. My family ate and at the time of the bill, I saw that she added the tip ($40.00) tip. After contemplating if I should say something, not so much to get the tip taken off, but rather to inform the manager of the service we received, I decided that it was only right. Especially since the waitress showed no remorse or attention even after we received the food. Even while I spoke with the manager, the waitress stated that we can keep our tip. I told the owner that she could keep it but that this was absolutely the worst experience I have ever had. He took down my information and said he would contact me to discuss it further. To this day, no call from the manager/owner; and I don’t expect one. Truly...

Overall the experience here was extremely disappointing and makes me question every 5 star review with 2-3 photos(most likely friends or family helping out) which there’s nothing wrong with that but it completely throws you off when you step in the door. There is only 1 server! The inside is as dark as a dungeon and uncomfortable as can be, there were two tables inside and 3-4 outside that were taken. When we walked in there was no one anywhere nearby to greet us and we had to wait there for 10 minutes to a point when I looked at my fiance and said I give them 5 more minutes or were leaving. Eventually a lady came over and told us that we could’ve walked over to any table and she would bring us a menu, not only was there no signs telling us to wait or seat ourselves but when we sat down the lady didn’t even bring us a menu! I had to get up walk inside while every other customer watched me go to the front and grab our own menus, we waited at the table for 15 minutes and didn’t get water or a menu. Finally we got the menu and I’ve been looking at the other tables and every single table had bone dry glasses with no refills in any near future. The food came out and looked good but not great, and was as lackluster as the experience here so far. We finished the food as quick as we could and as soon as we saw the lady after much time again of waiting we asked for the check and she came back out timely so the only thing done right was collecting our payment. We sat outside which was a beautiful patio but there was these very nice decorations which I have no problem with but the obnoxious flapping noise they all make when the wind kicks up and they’re placed literally right next to the alley way which is like a wind tunnel. A comedy of errors here and obviously nothing has changed given the bad reviews are the same from months ago. Update: now they’ve finally replied to my comment after 3 days and are asking I reach out to them again… instead of simply giving an email address or phone number. By no means would I be reaching out again, normally the owner or whoever takes care of reviews should be replying with their contact information and not asking me to...

I came in today for dinner with my friend, but received the most unprofessional customer service. I also been coming here for years & never would have thought this type of altercation would happen. I had ordered tacos that said no cilantro, received them with cilantro so i asked our server, which i never got her name to switch out my tacos & she said “no I cannot, the menu shows what goes in our food” i then insisted her to do so while showing her the menu that my tacos (norteños) have no cilantro, pico de gallo yes but i requested no pico due to my stomach being sensitive which she also made a sarcastic comment about too. She then brings me a new sprite that i had requested too, she brings it making a comment in spanish saying old lady but in spanish, of course i get offended & said don’t disrespect me when im young she then says “ah perdón señorita virgen” meaning “oh sorry virgin mary”. I defend myself of course & she then grabs plates out of anger to try & hurt me with them that my friend even flinched when she did so. She said she was going to speak to the manager but he/she never came out to speak to me. We then get told by this same unprofessional server to leave & to not come back. I call the police because i felt scared that she was actually going to hurt me, but of course police don’t help unless you are killed. He was also very unprofessional making sarcastic comments about my situation. I’m now banned from this restaurant when i’m the one who was treated this way. No manager spoke to me nor police were any help. I’d give the servers name but never got it, hope she won’t disrespect the...