Baja Bean Co — Restaurant in Staunton

This review is in regards to the bar area, not the restaurant area. Never eaten there so I can’t attest to that part. I had heard mixed reviews about Baja Bean in Staunton and have been to lovely chains in other cities. I flew into town to visit my family and my mom, siblings and I went to grab a drink to end the night. My mid-50s mother was denied entry at the door for forgetting her ID (understandable I guess; she went back and got it) and we sat at a table and ordered one drink each. Service was decent, drinks were good. My brother ordered a second drink and finished it and we went to go cash out. I paid for one of his double whisky sours and my sister paid for his second double whisky sour. Nothing out of the ordinary. Here’s the strange part:

We go to cash out our tickets and notice that they seem off. We asked for our itemized receipts, corrected the charges with a pen, and the bartender returned with our updated totals. When we got our updated totals, we were charged two completely different prices for the exact same double whisky sour. When we asked for the tickets to be corrected again, the bartender told us we were drunk and it was the same number (we both had ONE drink). I circled the whisky sours on both tickets where it clearly says one cost $16 and one cost $19.50. The bartender refused to look into the discrepancy and replied with “stiff me if you want to, I don’t care!” Ma’am, we’re simply trying to figure out why the same drink costs two different prices, but ok yeah sure. We walk out without tipping because we were already overcharged and at that point she was just being nasty. As we’re calmly walking out of the bar trying to figure out what the heck just happened, another bartender comes running out behind us saying “they’re banned for life! all of them!” Umm yeah ok, half of us don’t even live here and the other half definitely won’t be returning at this point anyway. It was the weirdest bar experience of my life.

If you’re confused by this, so are we. If you choose to drink here, make sure to check the itemized receipt before paying. Also watch your bank account because my sister ended up with a random $39 pending charge she had to dispute in addition to her actual bill.

tldr; my family of four went in for one drink and ended up getting overcharged and banned for life over a bill they...

My girlfriend and I came a few days ago. Possibly the worst “Mexican food” we’ve ever had. My girlfriend is Mexican, and she said the food “personally offended” her.

The rice is not Mexican rice, it is instant white rice (I’m not kidding, no tomatoes, no color, nothing). Beans were CLEARLY Canned. They looked like British WW2 rations. If you’re gonna have the word BEAN in the restaurant name, you should probably make them yourself! See attached photos.

Walmart tortillas. Not even warmed. If you’re not gonna make your own tortillas you could at least put them on the skillet. Maybe the chef skipped this step for me because I’ve never heard of serving cold tortillas.

My girlfriend bit into her chorizo chimichanga, and immediately said “this isn’t chorizo” without even looking inside. For those of you that have never had chorizo, it is red. When we opened her chimichanga, our meat was grey and ground?! It was more than likely ground breakfast sausage, definitely not chorizo.

I’ve had some bad food, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe the people that run the place got inspired by Mexican culture and cuisine, and wanted to imitate it. I can understand that. But you should probably have enough respect for the culture to LEARN how they make the food.

I’m not kidding, we sent pictures to my gfs family and they were appalled, and started calling us. I don’t know Spanish yet but I don’t need to know it to understand that they were offended and even laughing.

We wouldn’t have been so upset, if our 2 meals and 3 drinks didn’t come out to an insulting $78.

The good: atmosphere is nice. Restaurant is very clean. I really enjoyed the drinks and my gf loved her marg.

“I’ve had better at a...

Lets go back a few years- 2000. Every Friday the Carpentry crew would eat lunch at Bajas- in Williamsburg (now closed). We loved the place and the food. A great end to the workweek. We decided to visit Staunton since we have never been here and discovered there was a BajaBC here! We had to eat in the bar section since we were too early for the dining area to open (which was drafty since there was a gap in the window I was sitting next to.) I had fish tacos and my wife a CCunga. We also got the 'fixings' to make it a proper meal. We thought the prices seemed low, but the 'fixings' were junior size. well, as I took my first bites i could tell this was not going to be good. Mind you I am known to my wife as not a picky eater. I could not eat the rice which tasted bizarre and tough. The fish in the fish taco was a fried fish-stick? And I couldn't identify the flavors of anything on my plate, except the sour cream. Our sweet server prevented me from sending the food back, I even didn't want her to know I didn't eat everything by covering it with my napkin. I was hoping that there was something wrong with me- but later my wife confessed she found the food unacceptable. I really don't have any advice- I'm a small business owner and want us all to succeed. The food really looks good- but maybe review your meals with feedback. Maybe leave a card on the table that asks for your opinion of how the food tasted- specifically. I don't want anyone's jobs to suffer from low reviews- but I have NEVER had bad food at a Mexican style restaurant, until We ate there....