Food was mediocre, service went from disappointing to irritating. *Please excuse the length, I have to explain why this was a bad experience.*
Expecting an easy outing with options for all; Arrived at 7:50pm with three of my grandparents and my father. Immediately encountered the host/cashier who said "you can sit here" and walked away without another word. Waited minutes before realizing she wasn't coming back, and that we had to order at the counter. My fault for not knowing.
"Café", they mean it. Got the same greeting as if we had walked into a Starbucks and sat down. Don't expect a friendly introduction or greeting.
Dad and I both had to repeatedly ask the cashier for a bottle opener despite standing there looking at her with unopened bottles on the counter. Lol, awkward.
At this point, I was a bit embarrassed for inviting my family here, but after settling our drinks I was overall content--until I ordered my food.
Wanted to try their Vegan Combo (1 butternut, poblano, corn taco; 1 potato, spinach, poblano enchilada) and asked for a crunchy/hard taco. Cashier didn't think they could do that, and went back to ask the manager. I assumed it was a price-point issue: why else wouldn't they when they're obviously capable? It's a Latin-American restaurant.
Surprisingly, she returned with "yeah he can't make that" and when I pressed for a reason why, she didn't have a response. Just kinda shook her head and rolled her eyes back towards the door she just came from. /Imploring/ her, I asked "Really? You can't make me a crunchy vegan taco? Why?" She replied, "Well, they make them ahead of time in the morning with toothpicks." ???
Compromising, I asked if I could have a potato/poblano taco without cheese. I was amazed to learn that they would not make me one without topping it with cheese. They cannot "veganize" any of their four vegetarian crunchy tacos and cannot explain why.
I ordered butternut squash enchiladas and a small salad, rather dejectedly, and sat down. (Btw, citrus dressing was too sweet & enchiladas had insignificant amount of pumpkin seeds.)
Waiting for the food, overheard the manager tell another customer something like, "that's the most important thing, making the customer happy." So, I took the opportunity to ask him why he was completely unable to make me any crunchy vegan tacos.
His response baffled me. He looked at me blankly, squeezed his eyes shut for like 10 seconds, (as if he were wishing I'd disappear,) & tilted his face back towards the ceiling, before rolling different excuses off the top of his head, verbatim:
* "they're pre-made in the morning"
* "squash is already cooked so we can't cook it twice in the deep fryer." (BEANS MUST BE PRE-COOKED, TOO, SIR. LOL?)
* "we aren't set-up to fry empty shells, we only have a deep fryer"
* "we can't fill a fresh shell and fry it for you"
I gave up, said "thanks for your explanation although I still don't understand", to which he gave me a stale face.. That's when it went from disappointing to irritating.
My dad enjoyed his crunchy bean taco, at least, which seemed to be vegan except the mountain of cold, crumbly queso fresco on top. Huh. :C
I'm forgiving--I've worked in food service for years, and, for me, a smile goes a long way--but I walked out of here disappointed and irritated. The manager could not give me a logical explanation for being unable to fulfill what should be an easy request.
tl;dr If you want some cafeteria-style food with minimal human-contact, Cafe Capricho is an OK option, unless you're a vegan who dares to order something as bizarre as a hard taco. read more