El Chaparral Mexican Restaurant

Reviews 4

MA

Matt Fitz

We were in San Antonio for the weekend. I took my family to this restaurant to celebrate my daughters birthday. Our server started out being friendly and welcoming. We ordered one beer, one strawberry lemonade, one sweet tea and one Arnie Palmer. The server did not appear to be inconvenienced. This was about 8:30 pm on a Saturday night and was not busy at all. Any customers that were in the restaurant, were in the front left section of the restaurant, the tables in the back portion of that area were already "cleared and cleaned" for the end of the night. The initial drinks were brought out in a reasonable time, but wrong for one of them. My daughters friend ordered the sweet tea was given lemonade. She likes lemonade, so decided to just keep it and not wait for a replacement. The lemonade is very good at your restaurant! We were all ready to order upon his initially asking us if we were. Frankly, my wife was not very hungry, but the server did offer some lighter fare options. That was helpful. After this, was when everything went downhill. It had been at least 15 mins that all of our glasses sat empty at the table. Our server was no where to be seen. He came to the table behind us, brought their drinks and passed us by. We had ordered Queso that was just dropped on the table. There were 4 of us. The server finally came back through to refill drinks....but refilled everyone with lemonade. Which is wrong. One should have been strawberry lemonade, one a sweet tea and another Arnie Palmer. We didnt figure, since we sat so long, that making this correction would help. We still hadnt seen our food yet. Never asked if I needed another beer or would have preferred something else instead, once the beer was gone. We were out of chips, had plenty of Queso. The manager walking by us actually was the one that asked if he could get us more chips. Thank you to him!! Our food came. No refill on the half empty glasses. Seems like a pretty normal thing that servers generally take care of. Food was standard. Nothing bad. Nothing great. It was decent. But our server NEVER came back to ask how it was! NEVER once during the entire meal. We all had stopped eating. Either we were completely done, or too full to eat any more. He appeared and asked if he could clear the plates. No please bring us a to-go box for my wifes entire meal, almost. A to-go container for the Queso. Now he asks if we all want more lemonade. Really? Now? No. The server brings out the to-go box and carry out bag and puts that on the table. We sit there another 10 mins, contemplating about going to see if we can just get our bill up at the desk. This waiting around is beyond ridiculous. He has brought out all the to go containers and we still, have yet to see the bill. We have a table sitting directly behind us that were served their items and he finally appeared with our bill. He disappeared again before allowing me to just hand him the card to pay for it so we could leave. Again, contemplated going up to the front or the manager (that got our chips earlier) to ring up our ticket. The server finally came back and quickly brought us back the ticket to complete this long and painful process. My wife and I have worked in the service industry for many years of our life. We understand how service works. This was terrible service. Lack of attentiveness to the customer. Not to mention NO acknowledgement of the daughters birthday. Sadly, as a former server, I reflected the poor service in the tip. I am, under normal circumstances, a generous tipper. I know how hard they work. After wrong, slow and poor service.....10% was even too much in my opinion. But that was the minimum that I left.

BA

Band Dad

Weve been here a many times, mostly right after they opened. We live close by. We grew to enjoy the tableside guacamole, but it got more and more difficult to get a server to prepare it. The last time we sat in the bar to watch basketball. There were only two sat tables in the bar and one person seated at the bar. There restaurant was half empty, it was 9:00 PM. The bar tender was our server. When I asked about the guacamole, she said that she was so busy, it would be 20 minutes before she could even go get the cart. She said the al a carte was fresh. That turned out to be a lie. My friend described it best as, inedible. I told him about the small bowl of Borracho bean soup they use to bring. It looked like only some some do it. Of course ours, did not. We ordered a round of drinks, ordered our food. Our food was delivered by a runner. We never saw the bartender again. We never got to order another round. My ice tea was never refilled. I had the hostess find her to get our check. She dropped of the check and disappeared for another 15 minutes. Finally, she ran the credit card, dropped it off. Disappeared again. When I told a co-worker about our experience, he said he had had the same experience at the Helotes location, two days prior. He was sitting at the bar and couldnt find anyone to get him a refill either. We use to go once every couple of weeks, now we go a couple times a year. Same bad service, every time. The one thing I havent ever seen at El Chaparral is a manager on duty. No one monitors the floor. No one making sure that customers needs are met. Its more like an honor system and no one is in charge. If you get a new or bad server, no one with El Chaparral knows or seems to care.

JO

joshua Aguilar

The Roaches were free! My family and I had dinner the other day and found a roach in our food. After bringing it to the attention of the servers, both pretended as if nothing happened. Once brought to the attention of the manager (I was looking right at him when the server notified him) he walked to the back and did not come out until I requested to speak to him. I was more irritated that no one bothered to address it. We spent over $120.00 that night and given a desert for our troubles. The cardinal rule of service was broken by serving bugs and not even discounting the meal. Reading the comments below, I feel it’s safe to say “it was an off day”. Never the less, not even discounting a meal, which was ruined, with bugs is a neither not good service nor good for business. I also left my name and number with the receipt in to see if someone would call back, and had no response. Will not recommend nor be back

AL

Alex B

Tried El Chaparral for the first time today. Im new to the area, so Ive been trying all the local Mexican food, trying to find "my place". El Chaparral is near home, so I had high hopes. The atmosphere is pretty cool, and the hostess was friendly. Our server was friendly, but wasnt able to answer basic questions about the food and failed to ever bring the drinks we ordered. The food was, at best, disappointing. El Chaparral charges a bit more than the typical mexican restaurant in the area, but their food is mostly bland. Not bad, just very flavorless. Their queso is the worst Ive had at a restaurant. It looked and tasted like melted Velveeta. The rest of the food wasnt terrible, but smaller portions than I expected for the price and, again, pretty bland.