Last Friday night we went out to dinner to our favourite Mexican restaurant, which is 40 mins across town. On arrival everything looked the same… with a minor exception of a ‘Staff Wanted’ sign at the front door. Mr K was positively salivating at the idea of his favourite chorizo Coyote Balls entree after a week travelling around FNQ and being offered seafood everywhere! And for a change, the place wasn’t too packed for a Friday night.  However, our dining experience turned out to be less than stellar and way below our expectations which are largely based on our previous experiences.

Now I was going to come home and post a big ‘Favourite Mexican Restaurant Gone to Shite’ rant. But instead of slandering them all over the interwebs, I decided to email them with what I hoped would be taken as constructive criticism…

Fave Mexican Restaurant Web Site Enquiry
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I am just writing to give you some feedback.  We come from Back O’ Bourke (just out past the Black Stump) to your restaurant every couple of months. We have arranged several large dinner parties with you in the past, including my Biggeth birthday dinner party there in January last year for some 28 people.  We love your food and your service so much we drive past five other Mexican restaurants to get to your establishment!

However, we went for dinner there tonight and found everything to be less than the high standard we normally expect from our favourite family restaurant.  We were seated by a young man who said he’d ‘be right back’, but who then promptly forgot about us.  We waited for over 15 mins without anyone coming to take even a drink order. I tried twice to flag down one waitress, who twice walked right past me; and a second waitress who said ‘Just a sec’ and came back 5 minutes later.  When we did finally get to order, my husband attempted to order a number 8/9 combination dinner – 2 chicken tacos and 1 beef tacos and we were told that substitutions were not possible. To which my husband found himself laughing in incredulity… both meals are available as 3 chicken or beef tacos – it’s not a stretch to switch one chicken taco for a beef one.

When our meals did come, my enchiladas were dry and overcooked, to nearly burnt… and even the rice appeared burnt and tasteless. I have to say we were quite disappointed with our dinner, which at roughly $100 isn’t the cheapest meal in town.  We have always enjoyed our FaveMexican experiences over the years and have never been let down in the past.  Driving 40 mins across town for a bad dining experience is not ideal in our book.  We just thought you should know and I hope next time we come, things are back to normal.
Regards
Borys

And then, I got this response…

Hi Borys,
Thanks for taking the time to email me.
I wish to sencerely appologise for your dinning experience with us last night. I have had talks with all staff mentioned to ensure this never happens again as I take these matters very seriously.
In regards to the combo meals, I understand the frustration in something that seems so easy but our no subs policy is to ensure all combo meals are the same every time. If we allowed one change then we have to allow all changes and this would make the meals all but impossible to cook with any real efficency.
I once again would like to say ” I’m sorry” and very much would like to see you all again.
Please send me a postal address as I would like to send you a $100 dollar gift certificate
Cheers,
Owner/Manager
Fave Mexican Restaurant.

A positive response from a restaurant keen to keep regular customers happy.  Make sure to follow up:

Dear Owner/Manager,
Thank you very much for your reply.  I don’t wish to denigrate the staff, who by all accounts mostly seem very young, but we have always had such wonderful dining experiences with you guys that last night was quite the disappointment.  Here are the details your requested:
(Insert address)
Again, thank you for listening to our concerns and we look forward to when we can make it across town again.
Borys

And today in the snail mail I received the promised $100 dinner voucher.  Proving once again that we shouldn’t just walk out of a place unhappy with the service or the products that we have spent our hard earned cash on and moan about it to our friends But that we really should take the time to express our concerns in an appropriate forum and in an appropriate manner in the hope of being taken seriously.  I am glad that (for once) my desire to rant about an unfortunate experience was curbed into something that had a more positive outcome!