first I am big fan of local family owned businesses, and believe in supporting them, when they provide good food or product at a fair price, and good customer service.
sadly, el gallo loco, was sooo disappointing in sooo many ways.
1) after reading the reviews, called and lady answered,
started to talk and she hung up on me. called back and the same thing happened again, she hung up on me again.
because of good reviews, drove there to enjoy some "authentic mexican food".
2) walked into the restaurant that is combination restaurant/grocery store.
the back, where the menu is on the wall, (no table-side service), the entire menu is in spanish, but with u.s. dollar prices listed for each item.
since I only spoke english, come to find out that "only one lady spoke some, very little english".
after some awkward attempts at communicating,
I understood there was an entree offered, comes with beans and rice, and choice of 2 meats (choose from the variety of items in metal warming trays, behind the plexi-glass in front of me, choices were 5 or 6 that were pork based, 1 beef, and 1 asiago steak, 1 zucchini based, and 1 potato based. but "no chicken" offered, none.
("never" been to any mexican restaurant that did not offer at least 1 kind of chicken dish, usually more than 1 kind of chicken dish) so got the entree, got extra portion of rice to substitute out for the refined beans,
got the zuchini, and the beef (since, there was "no chicken", and don't eat/like pork), cost $12.99
3) the food review. sat down to enjoy my plate of food at a table.
the rice was very bland, no flavor at all, the zuchini was overcooked and too mushy, the beef was extremely dry (like was old, or been cooked way too long) and beef had no flavor.
asked for glass of water, and the lady took me to a sliding glass door cooler, and handed me a bottled water. ok, maybe all the water glasses were dirty.
4) the customer service. this was very weird and bad service. here's what happened, went to use bathroom 2nd time, came back from using the bathroom, and to my shock, my plate with 1/2 of my food left was gone, and so was my 1/2 bottle of water. all completely gone. they had cleaned off my table and dumped my food. what makes me sooo angry, is they saw me go to the bathroom, knew was still there, cause you pay for the food after you eat and get ready to leave. (good restaurants, never clean off your table, that still has food on it, when they know you just went to the bathroom. good restaurants, always wait to make sure the customer or customers have finished eating, and left their restaurant, "before cleaning off your table")
so went to the cashier, she rang up and charged me for the entree for $12.99, and handed me ticket/receipt for
total $17.95. why is it $17.95, the entree was $12.99, why charged extra $4.95? came to find out they charged me $2.99 for a regular "wal-mart size" bottle of water, the rest was tax. there is "no complimentary glass of water".
(the bottle of water cost them 50 cents at the most, probably less, much less, cause you buy the bottled water in packages of 40 bottles each per pack. I know what it costs them, cause I buy bottled water, same size of bottled water) they are charging $2.99 for bottle of water that costs them, say 50 cents. that means they are MAKING $2.49 PROFIT ON EACH AND EVERY BOTTLE OF "WALMART SIZE" BOTTLED WATER THEY SELL.
absolutely ridiculous, to be over-charging for bottle of water, and taking advantage of people".
5) final overview. I ended up paying total of $17.95,
for "authentic mexican food" that had no flavor, can get better tasting food for lot less money at "taco bell".
(NEVER been to any sit-down at table restaurant that did not ever offer "free complimentary glass of water")
all "authentic mexican food" family restaurants that have been to in tulsa, oklahoma area, have made the effort and gone to the trouble to learned to speak enough "english", so as to be able to communicate with their "english speaking" customers.
(if you are going to move to oklahoma, and going to live and work here, it is your responsibility to be able to communicate with those living here. if that means, you don't know how to speak "english" then you find ways to teach yourself to speak "english", to be able to communicate.
sadly, "el gallo loco", family-owned business, does not
offer good food, does not offer good value, and has horrible customer service.
I will never go back to eat at "el gallo loco" restaurant again.
sorry for the very long review, but wanted to be thorough, since the reviews are 4, 5, and 6 years old reviews.
possibly save you from having the same frustrating, horrible experience like I had, and possibly save you from wasting $17.95
customer beware, and stay far away from this supposedly "authentic mexican food" restaurant. read more