Matt's Rancho Martinez — Restaurant in Union Valley

Definitely not the place for a big party to eat. The waitress scolded my son for his order when he said it wasn’t right when my father in-law said my son didn’t order that. The waitress got hateful with him. My nieces order wasn’t right. My father and mother’s order wasn’t right. My husband order never came out till 15 other people were done eating. I have been here several times and been happy with great service. But tonight was a different story. Then this guy comes out and says we were hateful to the waitress and says he’s the manager then the owner then the partner. My father-law said I have meet the owner your not the owner then the story changed...One we wasn't hateful to anyone she scolded our son first and then stated she’s never wrong. She basically picked on a kid. 5 out of 16 peoples order’s was wrong. Do you honestly think people are happy much less acting like our son didn’t know what he was talking about and being loud and rude about it. I could hear her scolding him and I was at the opposite end of the table. Like I said maybe they can’t handle a party of 16 people. I won’t be back and sure don’t recommend a big party. One of the excuses they had was another big party going on as well. Well what about this one? My husband went to pay for everyone then the so called owner/manager/Partner kept saying sorry for everything like my husband stated You should have handled it differently. No one ever asked us what was wrong to get both sides of the story.. He just came out assuming and automatically took her side. If anything the waitress was hateful and the so called manager/owner/partner.. so I guess the waitress and whoever the guy was have the same demeanor in handling issues at that restaurant.

Hold on a second first off you didn’t deliver the fish tacos your waitress did. Second that’s not what happened. I’m pretty sure I also find it funny how you stated we have been there several times and always been demanding. Before the other night we have only eaten there as a party of 4 people maybe once a month funny how your trying to make us sound like we eat there every week and are unbearable to deal with. Also that kid never cussed at your waitress. The father-in law not to mention my dad was sitting right next to him and that kinda of behavior doesn’t happen much less isn't allowed. Also as for your spin off of us being racist that’s really funny considering all of our backgrounds. So here’s what I’m gonna do I’m not going to continue to go on with you just cause really what’s the point... People will either have good or bad experience. I have had both with y’all. I had good till that night. Or I wouldn’t have personally recommended us eating there. I’m sorry I recommended Matt’s. Cause if everyone reading this review wants truth I’ll give it. The food there is typically good food. Especially if you looking for consistency with your food. The waitresses which every time we have gone seem to be the same staff. They all have been usually nice. Normally the atmosphere is up beat. I guess that’s why I recommended them and I guess that’s why it was such a surprise that Saturday went down like it did. We took our family there cause we thought a lot of them. That...

With a hopeful attitude, my wife and I went to Matt's Rancho Martinez in Poetry. There aren't many restaurants out this way. When we walked in, we were struck by a gaggle of employees chatting at the front. We worked our way through them to follow the hostess to our seats. The restaurant has been open for a couple of weeks so I can assume that all of the tables have been cleaned more than a couple of times. Our table had a pronounced wobble, enough to worry about drinks spilling if we leaned too hard. Maybe somebody could have noticed it and fixed it before the grand opening? Enough of that. The room is great, and the chairs are top quality. Even when it was full, it didn't seem packed, and didn't get loud. Our waitress brought chips. Standard fair, warm, maybe freshly made. They have a special Bob Armstrong Dip queso and regular queso. We got both. Bob's meat flavor had a strange after taste. We stuck with the plain queso. My wife got the beef flautas and I got the a salad (I wanted to try the Jalapeno Vinaigrette dressing) with grilled chicken. At first, I loved the Jalapeno Vinaigrette. It was more than spicy. The salad could have used some kind of citrus to offset the dressing, but I loved the dressing. After a while, I wanted the dressing to have more than just heat though, it needed some flavor. My grilled chicken was not the nice white meat described in the menu, but a bunch of ends and gnarled pieces that you cut off from the good meat you are prepping. They were small overcooked scraps of trash meat. Not good. While we are speaking of prepping - a pet peeve of mine is when the prep cooks do not clean the vegetables properly. My tomatoes still had the part the vine attaches to. A simple twist of the knife by the prep cook gets rid of that. I didn't finish my salad. My wife's Fautas were served on a sauce and cheese. So much for them being crunchy! She only ate 2 1/2 of them. The beef was old and again with the funny flavor. The wrapping was not the usual nice crunchy wrap you get in most texmex places, but it seemed more like an Asian spring roll wrap that was stale. The refried beans were flavorless, taking up half the plate (does anyone make good refried beans? Would it kill anybody to try giving them some flavor, some texture, instead of just some slop you throw onto a plate? I'm a fat Irishman and I can make better refried beans than the vast majority of places I've been.) As usual, the rice was also an after thought. Flavorless and dry. To all the texmex restaurants: If you are going to fill 3/4 of a plate with these two items, would it kill you to make them well? A smart restaurateur will pick up on this and make killer rice and fantastic refried beans and be known as the place that does them right. We were hoping this would be our go-to restaurant in the area, instead, it is our don't go to restaurant. Maybe we will give them another try in a few months. Maybe they are just having the growing pains of...

During these times, I can understand just how difficult it has been to transition to the normal for restaurants (paper menus, etc.). We dined in on a Friday evening, and I ordered the Old Fashioned Grilled Taco dinner. Per the menu i was given, I selected pulled pork. The waitress took my order, and returned to the kitchen. About 15 minutes later, I received my order, however I was served ground beef instead of pulled pork. When I flagged down the waitress to notify her my order was incorrect and that I had ordered pulled pork, she simply said, "We do not serve pork in this restaurant." I told her the pork option was right there on the menu, to which she told me I was mistaken, and probably looking at the wrong item. After she walked away, I pulled up the menu on my phone (the same one that was printed that I ordered from), flagged her down again, and showed the waitress that it did indeed give the option for pulled pork. Her reply was simply, "We do not serve pork in this restaurant. They gave us the Garland menu to print out, which shows pork." I was never offered an apology, or an offer to select something else.

Now, I understand that's it's not unusual for different locations of the same chain to offer different meals and options. HOWEVER, nowhere on the menu (both printed and digital) was a disclaimer mentioning this, or showing that this menu was from a different location. There is only one menu on their website (which is where this menu is printed from). I could not tell you with certainty if my waitress knew they did not serve pork at that location when she took my order, but if she did, I would have obviously preferred to have been informed that they do not serve pork BEFORE I ordered my meal, and definitely before it was served to me.

The ground beef tacos were satisfactory. Not great, not bad. I'm willing to give this location another chance, but perhaps the staff should notify patrons of items not available BEFORE simply bringing them something they did not order and assuming...