Las Cazuelitas West

Doesn't Recommend

GilbertGirl

Joined 4 years ago

Worst restaurant experience of our lives. Las Cazuelitas West does not deserve one star, but there is no option to leave zero. Undoubtedly the worst restaurant experience we can recall anywhere. Really, really terrible. Can't even call it a dining experience, since we did not get the chance to eat.

The restaurant decor is comparable to a large Waffle House with a few Mexican-themed decorations. The booths have the table numbers applied with big stickers (beware table 9). The room is harshly lit and tacky, but we figured, what the heck, we'd read some great reviews about the food. Not sure where those reviewers were used to eating, but this was truly an atrocity.

Two of us went there for lunch on 1/29/11. Yes, the place was busy, but more than anything, it was disorganized. Nobody seemed to know who was supposed to do what.

The person who seated us took our beverage order, but then it took more than 15 minutes for the chips and salsa to arrive, and that was only after we flagged down a runner. The chips were average, the mild salsa was bland (too much like tomato sauce), and the hot salsa was marginally better. No silverware, no plates, no water. And no sign of a server to take our food order. I finally made eye contact with a waitress who repeated our food order correctly, then vanished.

We ordered two tamale combos -- nothing complicated. And then we waited. And waited. We tried several times to get the attention of our server (or any server), but nobody could agree upon who our server actually was, so we got no service at all. When we finally got the attention of a man who appeared to be a manager, he offered to TAKE our order. We explained that we had been waiting over 40 minutes for our food. He left, and several minutes later, still no food, and no server in sight. We had now been waiting 50 minutes for our food, and had lost our appetites.

We left sufficient cash to cover our soft drinks and gave our $10 Restaurant_dot_com gift certificate to the customers across from us. We had observed them trying to get their check for almost 20 minutes, so felt they deserved a little break. We certainly have no intention of returning for any reason.

We left hungry, but happily went straight to the Tucson Tamale Company (2545 E Broadway Blvd). That will be a separate, GLOWING review.

Stay far, far away from Las Cazuelitas West. This was decidedly the worst restaurant experience of our lives.