Epic Tacos: Cleveland Restaurant Guide

“The elote deviled eggs are delicious. My wife loved the elote corn that came with it. The carne barilla tacos are my favorite. Our server seemed less than enthused to serve us. My wife wanted to order a drink mid dinner while the server sat at the bar on her phone and it took a while for her to check to see how our food was or see if we needed anything. we waited almost 20 min to pay our bill after the bill was dropped off while our server just walked by repeatedly. I work as a server and have for 20+ years and we got sub par service.”

“What a wild ride from start to finish. I’ll break this down into the most notable parts. The restaurant overall – Atmosphere-wise, it’s a solid place. The decor and paintings throughout were really cool, and the music was good—aside from when the speakers suddenly blasted loud static for a few seconds, like someone was ripping out an aux cord. Overall, a nice vibe. The menu was also a pleasant surprise. There were tons of unique taco options I’ve never seen before. That said, I’ll touch on the execution later. It’s on the pricier side, but that’s expected for Cleveland. Initial service – Our server was great. She seated us quickly, helped us get free queso by signing up for the rewards program, and explained everything clearly. She was clearly juggling multiple tasks but still gave us solid service. Ordering, drinks, and food – Our table of five ordered four margaritas, chips and queso, and five taco flights. The queso came out first—very good—but the chips were cold and tasted old. Not ideal, but we moved on. Then we waited about 30 minutes for the margaritas. When they finally arrived, our server apologized and said the delay was because they needed to “get more alcohol from the back.” That’s where things started to feel off. Even if you need a new bottle, how does that take 30 minutes to make four margaritas? During that time, the bar area looked empty and we couldn’t see who was making drinks. Right after the margaritas arrived, the food came. As mentioned earlier, the execution was lacking. While the tacos had good flavor, all five of us received cold food. The only warm item on the entire table was the queso. We were hungry and on our way to a concert, so we ate everything anyway. We did mention the food temperature to our server, and she apologized. No discount was offered, but since we finished the meal, that part was understandable. The bills – This is where it went downhill. Three of us ordered the 32oz house margarita labeled “epic” size. Our checks instead charged us for the 32oz “epic rita,” which supposedly includes an extra shot. Quick tip: don’t name both a size and a specialty drink “epic.” It creates confusion. We pointed it out to our server, who wasn’t sure how to fix it and brought the manager, Brianna (unsure of spelling). She showed zero urgency or apology. After speaking with the bartender for several minutes, she came back claiming the bartender had added an extra shot, which is why it was charged that way. That’s not how it works—you can’t charge someone for something they didn’t order because of your mistake. She went back to the bar again for even longer, then returned saying the best she could do was offer each of us a shot or a $20 gift card. That made no sense. First you say the extra shot was already included, now you’re offering another one? We simply asked for the incorrect charge to be voided and replaced with what we actually ordered. She walked to the front computer and tapped away for another 5–10 minutes with no updates. We eventually got up and went to the front ourselves. Suddenly, the corrected bills started printing. The whole situation felt like they were stalling, hoping we’d give up and just pay the higher amount. Either that, or it was pure incompetence. To make matters worse, I accidentally paid the original incorrect bill because I handed over my card in a rush before checking. I’m now waiting to see if they properly voided it and if the refund actually hits my account.”

“The food was cold, the margaritas took forever, those things didnt bother me much. The tacos all seemed amazing looking at the menu but didnt execute. I also enjoyed the decor. When we got the bill we were charged for a 28.00 epic margarita even though we ordered the 20.00 one. Mistakes happen, I work in the service industry. We asked the server to get the manager since she didnt know what to do when we pointed this out. The manager tried to tell us thats not what we ordered, pointed at the other one even as we kept pointing at the one we ordered.She wasn't present during our order. She said the bartender put in an extra shot so its that price, again not what we ordered. She then offered 3 shots or a 20 dollar gift card. Since we dont live in the area we said we would rather get charged for the drink we ordered. Also, for supposedly being such a strong drink none of us felt a buzz after drinking and actually think they put less in than they claim. It was a shocking response from a manager to not just fix that mistake easily. Maybe even apologize for the mistake, own up to thr fact that it was indeed a mistake. Extremely unprofessional. You cant charge someone more than what they ordered whether it be the server that rang it in wrong or if the bartender made it a different way. We didnt know what was going on at the end when she had one of our cards due to her lack of communication to us, and was taking longer than usual for her to do a discount, we ended up walking up to where she was and it was just awful all around. I have never felt so uncomfortable at a restaurant due to a staff member. I dont know if its lack of training or caring but it really put a damper on a reunion with friends. I know the service industry well being a server and having managing experience and I think thats why her response and behavior was so surprising. The manager,who was the real issue of the whole experience, told us her name is Brianna- not sure of the spelling. She did a disservice to the restaurant as a whole, to us, and to our server with her response and actions to a very simple fix.”