El Puente — Restaurant in Springfield

My first visit and will not return. My mother comes here weekly on Thursdays for lunch with friends so when she suggested going after church on Sunday I said sure. Had my 2 small children with me. It was very busy when we walked in and no host at the cash register, which was right inside the door. Stood there with a number of other people who'd arrived around the same time for more than 5 minutes before someone finally appeared to be cashier. They got busy being cashier and talking to servers about tables but never said a word to the waiting patrons. Several more people came in, and some of them turned around and left within minutes. Another waiting patron asked if they had to put their name in, which the answer was yes, so we put our name in at the same time. This was probably 10 minutes after we arrived. After waiting a while longer, we heard another waiting guest say "We have to put our name in? We've been here 10 minutes already." We got seated after about 25 min total. And then no one ever came to take a drink order. After 15 minutes of being seated we had to flag down a server speedwalking by who took our drink and food order at the same time. Took them at least 5 minutes to just bring drinks. 20 minutes later we still didn't have our food and my toddler was getting cranky, so I left my mother and my 5 year old to continue waiting and to eat while I took my youngest to the car. When they finally came out with my food in a box, my mother said it took them another 10 minutes to bring the food after I left, with no apology for the wait. I...

I don't normally write bad reviews but our experience was so bad here, I felt I had to.

We accidentally ordered from this location instead of the Nixa location and instead of cancelling our order, we decided to do the right thing and drive to pick it up. I wish we'd just have bailed on the food.

When I arrived, I found our takeout order in a bag, sitting on a counter by the checkout which was also by the front door, unattended. After paying, the worker handed me the bag and said "I guess they put everything in there." While making sure there were 3 dinner size containers, the cheese dip we ordered and salsa and chips, I noticed the cheese was barely the size for 1 person. I asked if that was the large that I ordered and they said yes, that it's only 8 ozs. So I said, I can't believe that's the biggest size you have (because that's what I was told on the phone when ordering) and they told me it wasn't. So I had to pay an additional $6 to get the larger size and wait for them to fix that.

Then we get home to find that they didn't put the sides in with one of the dinner meals, and all of the food was very cold. We also only had 1 bag of chips and about 6oz of salsa for 3 people to share.

Now maybe we're spoiled but at the Nixa location we get 2 bags of chips and 1 - 8oz salsa per dinner meal every time. So to say we were let down is an understatement. I will never make this mistake again, we will always be going to the...

When I walked into El Puente I instantly felt calm and could smell the fresh tortilla chips. I waited for only a moment before a kind waiter led us to our table. Once we got to our table our waiter instantly asked us what drinks we wanted and then left. A few moments later they brought us chips and salsa and our drinks. The chips and salsa is unlimited which makes me very happy. The room and environment was very nice and doesn't get to loud. They gave us some time to look over our menu and then came back and asked us what we would like it eat. I ate a chicken chimichanga with no beans. They smiled and took our menus, they were very polite always. All of the waiters were kind enough to help us if we needed something and they are quick to refill your drinks or get more chips. Eventually I got my food and in the many years of getting that exact meal, they have never messed it up. Every time I ate it I was happy, because it's so good. The side of mexican rice, guac, pico, and lettuce really add to the dish. I was extremely happy with the service and the meal as well. 10/10...