El Nopal Restaurante y Taqueria — Restaurant in Vineland

My family and I had dinner here tonight and the best way to describe it was terrible service and they nickel and dime you do everything. To start, we asked for water which is complimentary at ever other restaurant I’ve ever been to, but here we were charged $7.50 for 5 bottle waters that we were not told about in advance. Then, my grandmother was asking questions about the menu since she had never been before, and our server seemed visibly irritated and in the middle of my grandmother talking she walked away to speak with another table. Then, we all ordered multiple gorditas and were reminded by our server that they were appetizers and not entrees, but we each ordered a couple with a side of rice, other appetizers, horchata, etc. We can only assume that our table was neglected and we were given attitude because it didn’t seem worth our servers time since we got appetizers apparently (even though for 5 people we spent $98). Along with this, my mom ordered queso fundido and when she asked for chips, she was charged $5 for 12 chips (we counted) which is absurd. Every other mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to gives complimentary chips, ESPECIALLY when you order an appetizer that requires them. They do give you 3 soft tortillas with the appetizer, but even that is not enough for the whole queso dish. The gorditas themselves were tasty, but not worth the pricing of everything else, the service. etc. We also noticed that our server was very attentive and pleasant to the table behind us that got there after us. She went to their table multiple times and walked by us 4 times before asking if we needed anything else. Being treated visibly different than other customers leaves a sour taste in my mouth always. When we asked for boxes and a couple containers for the sauces leftover, I was told they didn’t have any. Our server ended up bringing one small sauce container and said that was the last one (which I find hard to believe since they do to-go orders). My parents have been here a couple of times and were even here earlier in the week and ordered to-go which was fine, but eating in is not worth it. I’ve never been treated so poorly somewhere that I have spent a pretty penny, will not be back.

Update: As everyone can see, even after having a terrible experience this restaurant still takes no accountability. Sure, the appetizer might come with 5 tortillas normally, but we were only given 3. Also, I have never been to a restaurant, especially one in Vineland that charges for water or that will not give a to go container for sauce unless you order to go. If so, that should be told beforehand. It is never a good feeling to go somewhere for the first time and be charged for things you did not expect. Also, every Mexican restaurant I have been to serves chips regardless of what you order. That was not explained to us, especially since we spent $100 here. Even with forgetting our fourth order of rice (which was not a big deal to us initially had it not been for everything else), the owner still cannot take any responsibility for our...

The decoration is great. I was looking forward to go to this place since I love mexican food. BUT when I get there I noticed it was cash only so I had to run to the bank, came back the service was horrible, food was not so great and prices were shady. When ordering I picked 3 different meals because they were out of everything. Food took forever to come out, I think they only had 1 cook but it was only us at the restaurant. Finally get tacos with shrimp which honestly was very plain just shrimp and the taco torta. Very bland and my bf meat was pink, bearly cooked. Never did he ask me what I wanted to drink, brought me water and asked my bf what he wanted to drink. We get the bill and i noticed it was $40 which was great for a dinner of two. But I noticed he charged me for additional food I did not get, and like 3 refills. I pointed it out and he said he would fix it and i handed him a $50. He comes back and my bill now is $50. Our meal prices went up from $12 on the menu to $15, $3 for water that I did not order, literally water like who charges for that? And $3 per soda refill that he never warned us that they charge refills. Which I'm not complaining about the price is the pronciple. Initially, he was still going to get my $50 anyway because I was going to tell him to keep the change as tip which would've been $10 for horrible food and service. But how do you overcharge someone, fix the bill( which was up the prices from the menu) and come back and now the bill is higher than the initial bill? I understand the business is new and you have to get the money you put out for the business. But reputation is everything for a business! And shadyness does...

Don't come here unless you like being neglected by the server/owner in favor of customers who come in after you, paying for basic givens at restaurants like water and chips, and being berated for choosing to eat appetizers as a meal even though everyone of our party bought multiple appetizers (which alone added up to an entree per person). Nobody should bring their hard earned money to restaurants who treat their patrons with such a lack of generosity and stinginess.

Edit: You say the waitress but it was YOU, the owner, who debated with us over the cost of things and nickel and dimed us over containers and water bottles. You had ample opportunity to communicate what was to be paid for whether it be directly to us (both my mother in law and grandmother speak fluent Spanish so there was no language barrier), or on your menu with a note that water is only bottled due to your water being unfit for consumption, which as a consumer causes concern. Most people order water at a restaurant and don't expect to pay, so if you were trying to look out for our "health" you should have communicated we have to pay for water. Either way you have no defense for not communicating that chips only come with meals even though we ordered more than enough to deserve some chips on our table and certainly not the attitude. Don't worry about seeing us here again, or any family or friends who we would have recommended coming here like we would have had we had been treated...