The Worst Meal of My Life
Unbelievable.

Father's Day, 2004, we walk in for a late lunch, 2:00 pm. No one greets us; we stand awkwardly in the reception area. Five minutes pass; a old gentleman appears from the restaurant floor..."Oh sit anywhere you like", he says, while running the register and making no eye contact.

We choose a table. We sit. We wait. Five, ten, fifteen minutes. My companion shifts around in the booth, trying to make eye contact with someone who might wait on us. But who? Another couple walks in, followed by another. They are about 5 tables from us, yet both are served water and handed menus; we we are not. The same old gentleman who motioned us to the floor 20 minutes earlier comes to our table and says, "So sorry , he was confused." He? Who is he? We assume it is the waiter who served the water to the other customers who entered behind us. Have we become an unservable minority? We're a middle aged anglo couple as are the folks who entered after us and many of the other partrons. "Okay", my campanion says, maybe it's not discrimination."

We try to stay cool; we are hungry. Finally a waitress approaches. We order beverages, Coke and root beer. We get Coke and Diet Coke. We mention it. She denies it. We insist. She holds up my glass of Diet Coke and stares at. We remain cool and order dinner. Big mistake. For me, a chile relleno and rice; my companion orders the chicken fajita salad.

Waitress mentions there is a Father's Day banquet in the back room and we will have to wait about 20 minutes to be served. We rise to leave; she says, "but if you go somewhere else you would have to drive there, taking as much time as it would take to get your lunch to you." Okay, logical, but why was she so fast and easy mentioning this? She brings a teeny custard type cup of cold 12 greasy chips and ...I swear... a cruet of oil and vinegar. No salsa? Chips and vinaigrette? Is this a new craze we don't know about? The next time she scurries by, I ask for salsa. "Oh didn't I bring it already"? She returns, uninterested, with a tiny finger bowl of watery salsa made mostly of chile powder, lemon juice and minced jalapeno and onion. Horrible.

The food arrives 20 minutes later. It is a disaster. My relleno coating is thin, flat, greasy, and smothered in a mole sauce (?) very heavy on the cinnamon, the chile itself is paper thin, the cheese, watery...the entire concoction completely out of touch with a proper relleno, the sauce cloying. My rice is hard, greasy, and full of barely recognizable 'peas' that are wrinkled and hard, with one tiny slice of a hard greasy carrot, and tasting like yesterday's fried rice at a cheap roadside stand.

My companion's fajita salad. My God. The tostada shell in which it is served smells and tastes like last month's lard, the chicken is terribly salty, hard dark-meat and over-cooked and consisting of the back end of the chicken, seasoned with grease and salt. He takes a few bites and grimaces, as I had done with the 'relleno." He decides to eat just the salad greens. Next surprise? Right in the middle of the salad is a huge 3 inch by 3 inch Iceberg lettuce core. True story. The entire core...Here's where we decided to leave and the first time in my 40 years of dining out that I left a crummy tip of 10% and felt silly leaving that much..

The kicker? Arturos has been there for about 30 years or more...why?

The saving grace: We got out of the door and both started laughing so hard about the horrible food and non-existant service; we could barely contain ourselves. We named it our lettuce-butt and chicken-butt meal, and will not return.

I shall write a letter to the owner in the morning.    [21 Jun 2004 00:35:56]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 

     ­Laurel   tomatoplants at pacbell dot net

Great Food
Great food and great people there; can't beat it.    [07 Jun 2005 21:04:54]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 

     ­Anonymous   

Been Going Here for 11 Years
I love Arturo's - mainly for their wet burritos - and i love their chips and salsa, even though they serve them both in really small cups. Other than the size of the chips and salsa bowls, I love it. The service is slow, but the food is worth it. Try their wet burrito...it's amazing. I swear!    [29 Jul 2005 06:24:48]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: wet burrito

     ­Melissa Koebli   MissiM0use at aol dot com

Eh
The only reason I keep going back to Arturo's is because their wet burritos and chips and salsa are so good. Other than that, the service lately has been horrible. I wish they could get their act together there because I used to love going there when I was a kid... now I just keep having complaints everytime I go there.    [25 Dec 2005 08:03:22]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: wet burrito

     ­Melissa