El Güero Canelo Restaurant — Restaurant in Tucson

Today my husband and I went for lunch at the "El Guero Canelo" restaurant on 22nd St , Tucson , Az. Unfortunately we had a negative experience from the beginning to the end . When we entered the restaurant the restaurant was not busy with only one or two tables having seated customers . There were five or six staff members between the kitchen food prep and the cash register . Those people looked at us and just continued there conversations. A couple of minutes later, one of the young women looked our direction and said "I'll be with you in a minute" and she continued her conversation. As paying customers we were not treated as any kind of a priority. We definitely felt like we were an annoying imposition to the restaurant staff. The staff left us standing in front of the cash register way too long. When we were finally invited to order our food , we ordered beef tacos , 2 sodas and a small prepackaged bag of "El Guero Canelo" corn tortilla chips with a ridiculous price tag of nearly $4.00 ! After visiting the restaurant's nice "salsa bar" we proceeded to open the bag of corn tortilla chips . The chips were old , stale and tough "very hard". I took the chips back to the counter and told the staff they were not good . To say that the staff was dismissive of me would be an understatement . Not one of them offered to replace the stale chips until I directly asked for a replacement ! Finally a man came to the front cash register to deal with me and my rwspectful complaint . I asked him if they had fresh tortilla chips available because the chips we had purchased were not fresh , not good . He reluctantly allow me to replace our bag of chips. Unfortunately the replacement bag of chips were also not fresh...

Place keeps going down hill "Daniel aka Thee Guero Canelo" gets James beard award and forgets where he comes from Need to do a better job of your employees around closing. Placed an order at 9:40 it's now 10:18 employees laughing and standing around waiting for last customers to leave I knew something was wrong went up to ask about my order why it was taking so long 3 other parties got their food and everyone blaming it on the next person as to why it wasn't made or it was made already etc I'd post a picture of the receipt of time of purchase but was taken from me when I went to ask about what the problem was. They then have the nerve to ask after I've already paid if I still want the food that they are going have to cook everything fresh and it's gonna take some time so I'm still gonna have to wait. At this point it's late and everyone in party just wants to eat I said make my food please only to get eyes rolling and an unenthusiastic breath of "well okay" to update this order they call me for me food and now the order is wrong the lady who gave me my food was extremely understanding of my frustration and said she'll try to have it corrected and replace the missing items ASAP she's sweet believe her name was "Carmen" give her a raise or a higher position she understands customer service I understand thing ma happen but the majority of the staff seem like they could careless they took my money and never offered a refund or any type of reconciliation or compensation after the first or...

El Guero Canelo means the strawberry blonde in Spanish and it's named after the owner's awesome red hair. Started as a humble Mexican food truck, this place is a serious five star Mexican fast food restaurant. Typical weekday lunch crowd is repair men, DMAFB pilots, fire fighters, police officers, etc. In other words, it's a working man's joint. There's plenty for ladies too, but the atmosphere is not really what you come here for. It's the meat. So unless your significant other is from Sonora, Mexico and hankering for some home cooking, or really, really into grilled beef, I wouldn't recommend this for date night.

The Sonoran style hotdog, bacon wrapped with toppings is a must try for first timers. However most repeat customers just come for the carne asada. Carne asada is a Spanish term for marinated, grilled, chopped steak or the world's best meat. Best grilled beef in town, hands down. And you can't forget the condiment bar. Two amazing salsas, a very nice spicy pico de Gallo, and a really smooth avacdo puree (at least that is what I assume it is, it honestly tastes like unicorn tears.) Additionally, they have pickled onions, grilled onions, grilled habaneros, and more.

Bottom line: this place is to die for. When I left Tucson, this is the one restaurant I miss the most. Keeps me...