Santiago's Tex-Mex and Cantina — Restaurant in Texas

I am part of the four ladies that were there on Friday. Yes, I have been eating at Santiagos since it opened, weekly supporting my local restaurants in the neighborhood! It's not my favorite Mexican food, but I like the fact that it was close and wanted to support Chuy, the owner. I told my dear friends about the place last month and after our facial, we decided to visit for a girls night. As "Marquita Wanslow" emphasized, ( my sweet friend who left review on yelp,) last month, when we came in our tab was well over $150 and we tipped 40%, (that night, it was good service.) This time around, we decided that we would do the $5.50 happy hour margaritas. When the waitress came to our table, we specifically asked her if it was still happy hour because we didn't know!! She said yes and we confirmed we wanted the $6.50 (plus the dollar off.). When we received our drinks, they were very weak so we decided to order shots, no problem, and mix those in with it. We did not complain about them being weak we JUST ORDERED SHOTS! In response to the "owner's response" to my friend Marquita Wanslow, (an 83-year-old lady who you treated so poorly,) we were not trying to get ANYTHING for free and take great offense to this. This was only our second time together in your restaurant as a group. You obviously are creating lies about us to try and save face by saying "we've been in there many times!" We have never asked for some thing for free! However we did want the drinks that we ordered for $5.50 to be reflected on our bill instead of the $10 they were charging us for. It was principal !!!! And when YOU make a mistake, you should fix that mistake and APOLOGIZE!!! We expected to be charged for what we ordered and agreed to. We did not try to "set our own pricing" as you, stated to my dear friend Marquita.

I asked for Chuy, (thinking he would help adjust our bill accordingly as the waitress and manager would not help. L) Chuy sent someone else over. Again, not asking for ANYTHING free, but to have them fix their mistake and to adjust the pricing as to what we specifically ordered. I was very disappointed when they said that they would adjust the price of 3 of them. We had six on the bill!!! Again, principal!!!

When I approached Chuy personally to ask him about our bill, he literally was so rude!!! He told me that his waiters said "we are in there all the time asking for free drinks?????" I knew at that point he had mistaken us for another group of girls because we had only been in there one time before as a group. He then proceeded to yell that “if he had to fix his mistake, we could never come back!” Wow!!! Seriously- I have sent so many customers here AND have done free advertising and to be treated this way, (and to have my sweet friends treated this way,) was so awful!!! It was embarrassing and NOT necessary! This was classless! This could have been an easy fix. Give the customer what they ordered and you DID NOT! You should be ashamed of yourself for being so rude and it is your loss. We will go to "Chuy's Tex Mex" instead of supporting the Chuy the owner This is NOT how you...

Santiagos Mexican Restaurant (Near the Outlet Malls in Round Rock).

UPDATE: one of my neighbors just informed me that she had a business meeting at Santiago’s and spoke with the OWNER of Santiago’s about the post below. She was trying to encourage them to at least apologize for the behavior. The owner’s direct quote makes clear why his manager treats customers the way she does: “I DON’T CARE.” Yep - that’s a quote.

I had read about how good this restaurant is. So we tried it. The salsa is good. The queso and quacamole are about the same as any other Tex Mex restaurant in the area.

Until last night, the entres were sub-par.

Last night, my wife convinced me to try the place again.

As we checked in (with our 18-month old daughter) the hostess told us that if we chose outside, we could not then choose to come back inside to eat. There were dark clouds and a storm expected, but we decided we would take our chances - an 18 month old doesn't really lend to a long evening anyway, and waiting for an inside table was likely to prevent us staying in the first place.

The food was good. So was the service.

I had changed my mind.

As we finished dinner, the storm got really bad. The rain was blowing into the dining area, and while we were the last table affected, it did, eventually, get to us. We had already paid our tab, and moved to the bar to wait out the worst of the storm with sheets of water all around.

The bartenders closed the garage-door type openings to the outside bar with another family still standing there. I thought that was rude (the rain was not coming in at that spot). But figures they were just not being observant.

Then, I tried to go to the restroom and THIS PLACE ACTUALLY HAD US LOCKED OUTSIDE!

I went around the building (getting drenched in the process) to go inside to complain to the manager. I admit that I had a difficult time maintaining my anger when she had the audacity to tell me that she didn't know the patio door was locked. Well, had she DONE HER JOB, she would have known. Had she checked on her patio customers EVEN ONCE, she would have known. Had she cared, she would have known. (As an aside, when I pointed out the closed bar windows, she somehow claimed not to have known that, either). What, exactly, was this manager "managing?!"

Here's the kicker: she never bothered to apologize. She locked my family outside in a torrential downpoor like a mangy dog, and never bothered to tell me that she was sorry - because she wasn't. That was my last dollar to ever grace that restaurant. I hope some of you will feel the same after reading this - but that will...

Edit: I feel like my initial review was harsh in how it was worded, so I am re-writing.

They seem like they have a cool atmosphere for having a drink and chill party. Service was timely, but the quality of the food packaging on to go orders is inadequate. I get that you mentioned the poor quality of the bag, I appreciate the (not stressed enough) heads up that my bag is inevitably going to fall apart.

Despite adhering to your warning, the bag still busted completely apart from the sides and bottom on my way into my home. This is partially caused because of your already admitted terrible quality of to-go bag. But the real issue is that the food containers themselves are inadequate in keeping things sealed. This causes a huge mess to occur, and is then exacerbated by the poor quality of to go bag.

All of this resulted in my buckled in bag leaking all over the upholstery of my car and my clothing. This also caused several items to fall out of the side of the bag and spill onto my sidewalk -- this is despite my carrying it from the bottom of the bag as instructed. Carrying it from the bottom is not going to solve the issues. The process of packing and quality of food containers need to be reconsidered.

Your fajitas weren't bad. I like the amount of onions included and the seasoning was alright. It seems like the beef fajitas were cooked on a flat top grill, and the method used caused a lack of outer char and the beef to still have too much moisture in them.

I had tried your restaurant once before about a year ago, and have since avoided it because I could taste mold in your salsa and vegetables. I was hoping for a different experience...