Chela's Latin Cuisine — Restaurant in Tucson

So this is my 5th time there and I love this place. The foods great I’d say it’s the best most authentic Mexican food down town and it’s wayyyyy better than la chingada. So here’s the downfall. It’s been several times that I go in and the manager scolds whom ever is working right in front of people. The place is pretty quiet and he never yells at the employees but the way he talks down to them as if they are kids, is super uncomfortable. I would expect a manager, especially of a place that just opened to be more discrete and patient. I get this place hasn’t been open long so he probably has a lot on his plate but I can literally write an experience of every time I’ve been in and how his attitude changes the vibe. Today me and my boyfriend came in and he scolded the girl at the bar about how she didn’t accept someone’s online id. First of all most places downtown don’t so I don’t see how that was so insane for her to assume, but the way he reacted to her was just disappointing. I was sitting completely across the bar and after that my whole attention wasn’t on the good food drinks or vibe but the way I saw him act and how the girl was treated for an honest mistake. My advice to him especially going into a restaurant that just opened is this. HAVE patience. You guys haven’t been open long so of course new hires aren’t going to know everything. And as far as how you take care of it go wherever there’s no customers and educate the employee in private. People go there for the food drinks and vibe not the employee drama. I think the employees would have so much more respect and would want to actually do better and be motivated if they were talked to differently. I met the owner several times. When she’s there everything changes. The attitude of the employees and the way she manages is night and day. You can tell she wants everything to be on point which is very appreciated, but the way she handles a mistake is completely different. She’s so welcoming. Happy employees are good employees. I hope he can read this and really reflect and apologize not only to his employees but also realizes that he should deal with his “ Discipline” in a different manner. Or pretend he never read this and put the speakers up so not everyone is listening to the way he talks down to his employees. Do better and learn from the owner who obviously takes pride in her spot. Foods a 10, vibe 10, customer service needs a lot of work from their manager. I would really love to enjoy having food there again without having to pay attention to...

Wanted to like this place, but unfortunately very disappointing. Met friends who arrived before me. They ordered blueberry mojitos and already had drinks when we arrived. We order blueberry mojitos and when we received ours we realized the 2 original ones were def not blueberry. Our drinks also took 20 mins. food took a long time. Salsa was good, but guac was very small and bland. There were 3 vegan options which I appreciated. My sister and I split 2 vegan dishes. One was basically cauliflower w sauce in a bowl. The flavor was good but should’ve come as tacos or with rice and beans. The other dish was ok. My friend got the mole and said it was dry. My other friend ordered fajitas but when the server came with her dish last she brought tacos. My friend said she ordered fajitas and the server said yes these are fajitas (they were clearly tacos). Another server came out w fajitas and they realized their mistake. My friend already started eating the tacos. They did not offer her the fajitas and just switched the item on the bill. The restaurant turns into a club at 10. They started moving furniture and getting ready for the night around 9. Gave it a weird vibe as you’re trying to enjoy your meal and staff is moving furniture It was very awkward as we were the last table in the middle of the dance floor and all other tables and chairs were put away (it was around 9:40). We were ready to leave but were still waiting for the check. Service was very slow. There should definitely be some time were they are fully closed for this transition. We got our bills and noticed we were charged $5 for upgrading our chips and salsa to guac. The menu said the up charge was $2 I told the sever and she said they were still tweaking the menu and took off a dollar which was still $2 more than the menu said. Up until this point we just blamed this all on it being a new restaurant, but when we got to our car and compared the rest of the bill to the menu we realized we were overcharged for several things. Mojitos on menu were $12, charged $14, sides were listed as $2 and we were charged $4. My sister and I shared a bill and in total we were overcharged $8 which wouldn’t be as big of a deal if there was better service, food, and vibe. I understand upping prices, but they have been open less than a month, the very recently printed menus should reflect the correct prices. I would not go again and was very...

I’m not sure what the other reviewers are talking about. This place was a disaster! For starters, they were understaffed, which might explain why we waited 20+ minutes before we saw a waiter (we had to call him over). It took another 20 minutes before we even got water. We put in drink orders, which took about 40 minutes and were completely undrinkable—one went beyond acid to astringent, another tasted like a grownup Shirley Temple (not in a good way). The bartender/manager was really unpleasant when he asked how our drinks were and we winced. He made another round of something equally bad for a few folks. When I asked for a beer later, it took another 20 minutes. Oddly, even though the place is called chelas, there was no list of beers in the menu. For appetizers, the guacamole was fine but it came with the tiniest basket of chips and unnecessary cheese on top. One of our folks was lactose intolerant so we had to order another. The mini street corn skewers didn’t taste like much other than salt and we couldn’t eat them because no one gave us plates. When we asked for some, the ones that they brought were smaller than my hand and didn’t catch half of the crumbs. The cheese crisp looked almost like it had been microwaved (no browning or crispiness, just white melty mush). It took an hour after ordering for us to get our main courses. Someone in the kitchen must have lost their sense of taste because there was so much salt in everything that the food itself was nearly inedible. Our waiter was really sweet but he was beyond overwhelmed. All of us left the restaurant feeling bloated, disappointed, and frustrated. I understand that restaurants have off nights but this was...