La Cantina by Los Mex — Restaurant in Spartanburg

My fiancé and I have been here several times. We recommend it to our friends and thought tonight was a good time to go with everyone. Little did we know that tonight would be the last we step foot in the establishment.

We were served by JaRon R.. It was the worst service I have ever experienced. Jaron first shows up to take drink orders from our friends who got there early. He complements one of there tattoos and gets the drinks. We all arrive soon after and sit down. Nothing out of ordinary has happened yet.

JaRon returns to the table to take the rest of the drink orders and he asked the first person what they wanted. He immediately dropped his pen and paper. It takes him a minute to grab it. It was like he was disoriented. He leaves after taking our drink orders. We don’t think anything of it, because accidents happen. A few minutes later he returns to get our main orders. He takes them and with a “ugh huh”. It gets to my order and I order an alcoholic beverage, queso dip, and the entree. He looks at my ID and he was struggling to count to make sure I was of age. He leaves again and we realize that JaRon is on drugs. He had dialed pupils and his communication made it known.

Before continuing, I’d like to mention that I never got my alcoholic drink AND we had to tell another waiter that we didn’t receive the queso. I didn’t remind him because of the rest of the experience.

Periodically when we were eating JaRon would come by the table to check up on us, but he began focusing only on one person. The person will be named Friend A. Since he looked at my ID, he knew my age and assumed we were college students (Which is crazy because the only reason he knew our age in the first place because he looked at my ID when I ordered my drink that he never brought). He began to ask Friend A what school we go to and if we knew of any parties that are around the area, because he claimed he just moved here. She responds with a no and says that if there are parties it’s at a place near campus. He then ask for advice on how to know when parties with college girls present and if Friend A goes to them. She responds with no again. He then leaves and goes to sit down. Friend A gets up to go to the bathroom and a friend gets up soon after to make sure nothing happens and she sees JaRon get up immediately after seeing Friend A walking in her direction. After he sees the other friend he turns around to sit back down. They return from the bathroom and JaRon comes back to the table making small talk to Friend A that he is also a college student taking online music courses. She asks him about what he is taking and he can’t respond to a single question. She asked if he took music history and he responds with “yea something like that”. He then asking for her Instagram and number multiple times and Friend A gives him the Instagram. He tries one more time to get the number after. Friend A declines.

At this point our night has been ruined due to us having to be worried about our waiter. We get our checks and go to the front to pay. His service was slow for there only being 3 tables with people, so we went to the front. We give him the tickets with our amounts on them AND HE STILL MESSES UP. He charged my bill to someone else in the group and me with theirs. I notice on the receipt that my bill was different and immediately tell him and he freezes not knowing what to do. He doesn’t call anyone over to help or do anything but stand there. I just tell him I’d Venmo the extra money to the other friend and we leave.

It’s is insane to believe that you would hire someone who is obviously okay with making a group of people uncomfortable in a professional setting. Additionally, he made more work for his coworkers because he was under the influence and more worried about flirting with our friend and asking about parties with college girls than his actual job. It was extremely disrespectful and...

Be warned! Creepy staff member that made a female friend uncomfortable!! This was my first and last time attending this restaurant. I was recommended by some friends who had loved the food in the past. We were a party of 5- with 1 male friend that is engaged to another female friend of mine. As we sat down, it was clear that our waiter, JaRon R., was on an unknown substance- he had dilated pupils, random incoherent mumbling at times, inability to take orders or remember orders, and fumbling with items. He would answer with "okay" (without writing down anything at times) and not bring multiple items until repeatedly asked, primarily to our only male friend that ordered.

But the worst part of the night was a friend who was getting constantly asked for her number and personal information. It began as menial conversation on her tattoos to constantly asking for her instagram and phone number-stating he just moved here recently to stating he was an online member of the college we attend- of which he ONLY mentioned AFTER this friend stated which college we attend. He was also unable to recall any classes he is taking or has taken. Progressively throughout the night, it resulted in him standing directly in front of her for nearly 5 minutes at a time (nearly 5 times over the course of an hour)- asking her various questions and finishing off with- can I have your instagram and number. After the multitude of asking and him pulling out his phone, she gave him her instagram. But after he mentioned her instagram is "only puppy pictures", he asked for her number again (5th+ time).

At this point we truly become nervous considering he was getting direct and persistent. She politely declined to give her number.

And to top off the night, he did not give our checks at our table in a timely manner (nearly 10-15 minutes after finishing eating and with our to-go orders) so we headed to the front. Mind you, this is near closing time where we were 1 of 3 groups total in the entire restaurant. He then proceeds to charge me the wrong bill and does not offer a fix or ask another coworker. We ended up having to sort that individually amongst ourselves. And nearly immediately after my friend left the establishment, he private messaged her on instagram. I was also informed after we left that he attempted to follow my friend to the restroom until he realized she was not alone- and TURNED back. I highly recommend you skip this place if you have female friends until this coworker leaves or his employment gets re-evaluated. There were multiple times during the night where we as a collective did not feel our friend was safe alone.

If you see JaRon R., please do NOT give him any personal information or let your female friends be alone around him. I truly want to reiterate, this server was not only unable to perform basic duties due to being most likely under the influence but also acting unsavory and creepy...

I usually love this restaurant! It's food is always so good, environment was nice, and is a great place for dinner with friends. The biggest issue that will prevent me from coming here again is the Service. We were 1 of 3 tables present tonight, and we had a table of 5 me and my fiancé and our 3 female friends. Barely anyone was dining in besides people at the bar, and of course the 2 other tables. Our waiter, JaRon R., was strange the entire night, had severely dialated pupils, and was extremely unprofessional. He forgot some of our drink orders yet remebered we were around college age and asked my one friend "B" if she knew of any college parties around here and if she was going to them. She declined both questions. He quickly headed back to the cashiers desk. Soon after this she headed to the restroom, he saw her, quickly got out of his chair to walk to her, saw me, and then just as quickly turned around and sat down watching us walk into the restroom. He later came back and was forcing awkward coversation with her making the rest of the table awkward as well, and asked for her instagram, and then her number, but she only gave him the instagram and refused the number. We begin to pack up, go to pay, and he correctly separated the bills. UNTIL we went to pay individually and accidentally combined 80$ worth of meals together, he didnt know how to undo it, and we had to cash app our friend "D" because she had already paid for it with out realising what happened. The whole situation was strange. Throughout dinner we would have full on conversations and he would show up just to ask instrusive questions to "B" while we are all having conversations, yet continuosly forget our orders, and relied on a different waiter to bring our food, drinks, and missing items that he would forget about. I'm just surprised at how unprofessional someone can be with such a small number of people to wait on, and have the gall to ask for advice on where to find parties with college girls and if our friend was going. A WALKING RED FLAG OF A WAITER, ON TOP OF HIM OBVIOUSLY BEING HIGH ON SOMETHING THE ENTIRE TIME, AND FUMBLING EVERY LITTLE THING THROUGHOUT OUR MEAL. Beyond appalled because of this interaction. No person with this amount of unprofessionalism should be working in the industry, nor talking to complete strangers in this manor. Ruined this restaurant for our entire group. Im genuinely sad that this interaction left such a sour taste in our mouths that we refuse...