El Zarape Authentic Mexican Cuisine — Restaurant in Wheaton

If I could give this establishment zero stars, I definitely would have done so. I am not one to write these sort of complaints nor do I commonly get agitated enough to go out of my way to warn people, but I must do so in this instance!

Please, stay away from this restaurant!

I ordered the burrito, listed at $10. I ordered three additional ingredients; cheese, sour creme and avocado. The server wrote down my order, not mentioning that the three items would cost extra (although I assumed they would). When my bill was presented to me, I owed $20. My beverage was $2.50 and burrito $10 which means the rest of the bill was from the extra three ingredients. You do the math. When I asked why my bill was so high, I was told by the server that the extra ingredients were added in. She said the extra bit of cheese cost me $3.00! As she was explaining, the owner walked over. Mind you, he had been sitting at a table close to me my entire meal sitting on his laptop. I asked the owner if I could have an itemized receipt. He told me that they do not do that. I further asked him to write down each item that I ordered and the cost of each item. He reluctantly agreed to do so and brought me a bill. The extra ingredients totaled $6, more than half of what the burrito cost! I told the owner that those amounts are way too high and he said "well you aren't going to get them for free". I had to further explain that I did not want them for free, but being charged $3 for cheese was ridiculous. I asked him to show me on the menu where the additional items were priced and he said and I quote "our menu is too big to fit that in". I was floored! I told him that was a terrible excuse and they need to make their menu larger if that's the case (which we all know is not). Needless to say, he wasn't budging so I handed him my card and told him "we will not be back" which he said "have a nice day".

Fast forward to two hours later as I am pondering the fact that I got completely taken advantage of, I call the restaurant to speak with the owner. I start out politely telling him that he needs to make his customers aware of pricing, whether that be through the server or on the menu. He started yelling at me. That's right, YELLING AT ME! On the phone. He said that I can "join the list of his haters". He told me that I am not the sort of customer he wants back in his restaurant. Somewhere in the middle of his yelling he says to me, "I buy food every single day. You know how much it costs me for a pound of cheese? 2.80!" He must have forgotten that one of my original complaints was the fact that I paid $3 for additional cheese. Glad I could pay for more than a pound for the restaurant! When I told him that I will be telling others about this treatment, he told me that I have no power. He was screaming so loud that I am sure that all of his customers could hear him! He ended the conversation by telling me that if I bother him at work again, he will call the police. He then hung up on me! I was shaking. Never have I been treated like that in my entire life. I have absolutely NO idea how he is still in business. He should definitely not be running that restaurant, because I tell you what, it won't be there much longer if he continues to act that way. I was FLOORED! What ever happened to customer service?!

So, in short, I guess the one star will go towards the fact that the food was decent. But never again, will I go there. And I suggest that you do not either. Nobody should ever support a man that treats...

We ordered take out from El Zarape this evening. Our (4) items, along with any applicable sales tax, should have cost roughly $43. Upon our arrival, we were charged a WHOPPING $76. The ‘gentleman’ at the front register claimed at times and denied at times he was the manager. When I asked him to explain the discrepancy, he produced a laminated menu. I immediately noticed half the items we ordered weren’t even on the menu he provided, which means he or someone else just ‘made up’ a price for half our order. He went on to accuse us of forging the menu in the photos below and vehemently denied that they ever had a carry-out menu, only to back-peddle on that assertion by saying the menu must be at least (6) months old. (FACT CHECK: My wife picked up that menu below last month in the restaurant.) We asked for a refund only in the amount of the discrepancy above, and that’s when this employee got beyond rude. His comment to my wife and I verbatim was “You gotta lot of balls pulling up here in a $90k car and demanding any kind of refund”. We will be notifying everyone in the neighborhood about these people (we’re local) and had we checked the Google reviews beforehand, we never would have ordered from here in the first place. They are disrespectful in the extreme and thieves to boot. If you have ANY doubt as to the respect level this place shows it customers, just look at the responses they post to their MANY negative reviews. There’s NO apology for the poor experience, no effort whatsoever to make it right with the customer who had a bad experience. Whoever manages their social media just doubles down on the insults to the customer…at times calling them liars and racists!

UPDATE: Look at response from owner to THIS post. Continues to deny he had ever a Carry Out Menu…even though it’s pictured below. We won’t dignify his comments about my ‘expensive’ car or where I parked with a response beyond them being as dishonest as everything else he’s posted. Decide for yourselves. Caught red handed in a deception at the restaurant with a hard copy of a menu he claims never existed, along with fabricating prices that nearly double what his own menu says and what does he do? Makes comments about my car, my wife, and still pretends the menu pictured below does not exist! The $30 discrepancy is all we asked for AT THE RESTAURANT before we left, and instead the rude comments continued there and online.

We made a ‘Deceptive Practices’ report to the Wheaton PD and they are investigating since making up a price contrary to what’s in the menu is Fraud. There are SO many better restaurants in the area where the staff is courteous and the food is superior. Do yourself a favor…go somewhere, anywhere...

My family went here tonight and when we tried to put our name in with a nice female server but then the owner abruptly said no. We were taken aback and left the restaurant. As soon as I stepped out I was so bothered by his behavior and decided to approach him. When I went in I told him that there was no reason for him to be so rude to us. He simply could have told us that there would be a wait time but it was not okay to be so rude. He proceeded to tell me that he “does not have time to be polite.” He was getting increasingly agitated stating that there are 7 million jobs and he has to work 3 jobs now and that I would never know or could understand because I don’t work in the industry. I tried to respond to him and let him know that I did understand but he continued to interrupt me saying no I don’t know. I knew he wasn’t going to understand that he never needed to be rude. Sadly, what he didn’t know is that I do understand exactly what he is going through because I have very close family that work in the restaurant industry as chefs and work 15 hour days that not only cook but bus tables and even wash dishes due to the current situation. I know these are hard times but there is never a reason that makes it okay to be rude. We came there to support your business but in return we were degraded and violated. You, Sir have no business being in the...