This review is specifically about the La Carreta in Weber City, Va., and should not be seen as a reflection on the chain as a whole. And perhaps I should say at the outset that my words have to do with service, not the food. I wrote a very positive earlier review for yelp, but I deleted it some time ago, given that I subsequently had an experience there that altered all of my perceptions of this particular La Carreta.
I ate at this restaurant for years. I liked the food, and I liked the wait staff. We had many good conversations, and I am a terrific tipper because I waited tables while in college and know how important tips are. All the employees were immigrants from Mexico or young descendants of Mexican immigrants, and I very much appreciate immigrants who come to this country with enough drive to flourish in native-dominated industries.
My admiration changed with a single incident. I did not make a public show of it, so perhaps the personnel don't remember it, but it made a huge impression upon me. I have not eaten in this restaurant since.
La Carreta at that time had discount tickets that regular customers could buy for $6. It allowed a small discount on meals purchased and, when the ticket had been fully punched (after 10 or a dozen meals, I think), one free meal in the case of a ticket holder ordering two meals for consumption on site (which meant that my guest's meal was supposed to be free).
When I had completed the latest ticket and went to the register to pay, the employee (a young man, obviously the son or grandson of immigrants who identified himself as the manager) refused to take the card. He said nothing, simply tapping the glass counter at a card placed under it, to show that the selections that qualified for the free meal were very limited). That card was different from my own, so I asked to see my card again. I noted that there were no limitations of that sort on the card I had bought. No response. So then the waitress, clearly an immigrant, got involved, and said that my card simply represented a "typo." But leaving out essential information is not a typo. And given that I had had a similar card earlier, which entitled a guest to a free meal, I knew that I was being subjected to constraints that had not existed when I bought the card.
Complicating all of this was the fact that both I and my guest are longtime vegetarians, and next to nothing vegetarian is covered by the newer card. And of course we knew nothing about the new rules when we ordered. They certainly had not existed with the previous card or with this one when I bought it.
I was a bit overwhelmed by a cultural difference that I had never felt before in this restaurant. And I do not feel it in the immigrant-run restaurant that I now go to for Mexican food. So it's not a general discontent, just a criticism of this restaurant specifically. I strongly urge the owners to require that the supposed manager (for that day, anyway) and waitress be required to take a community college course on American business ethics as a condition of their employment at this restaurant.
You may say, "Oh, but I'm not a vegetarian, so what does this matter to me?" And all I can say in that case is that it would matter to me if the meat eaters had a similar experience had they encountered the same situation without knowing the very limited menu options available to them that were not specified on the discount ticket that they purchased.
I'd pass this restaurant by. The idea that even a newbie, much less a longtime customer in good standing like me, could be treated this way is appalling. read more
