I would give this place a negative 5 star count if it were possible, there is no way on earth they even deserve one star!
This place really is that bad! I should have read the reviews first! The management is RUDE! RUDE! RUDE! Someone needs to point out to the manager that a huge ego is only warranted when your worthy, this guy needs to put his tail between his legs and go far away! An absolute joke! Taco Bell does a better job on both food and customer service! Run don't walk as far away from this trash as you can! The photos posted say it all, food slopped together by a kitchen staff that could care less!
Someone else mentioned Chronic Cantina, at least they employed a courteous staff and the management really cared about the customers. But unfortunately not really the right place for them at the mall, had they been a stand alone in another location I believe they would be going strong.
Ouch! This place needs help. Can't even get the chips and salsa right. They only had a bland dark salsa and a very spicy grn one. Their food was ok. When someone orders a steak meal, u should always ask how would u like it prepared. When my steak salad arrived, meat was very chewy. Customer service needs improvement. Tables in the restaurant really need to be reorganized. There is a big empty space that needs something. Maybe a new Interior Designer?
Review Source:THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE OWNER(S). Â YOU MUST READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE IN THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS!
Our party of 17 (yes we had 17 people ready to spend money in your establishment) came in last night to celebrate a birthday. Â Shortly after entering, most headed to the dance floor area while I proceeded to the bar to order drinks. Â After standing patiently for about 10 minutes (not a problem as you were busy and there were only 3 bartenders), the bartender (a clean-shaven male in his late 30's-early 40's) came up and asked what I would like. Â I asked for a Bud and, when he opened a fridge and pulled out a "bottle", I said "I would like that on tap, please". Â He rolled his eyes, put the bottle back inside the fridge, then turned around and headed to other customers waiting at the bar. Â He took their order, poured their drinks and moved on to another customer. Â I then said "Hey, what about me?" Â He said "Calm down". Â I said; "what do you mean calm down? Â What happened to my beer? Â He said "CALM DOWN" again and I said "Fuck you" (because I do not like to be told to calm down when I am not even doing anything". Â He immediately grabbed a little flashlight and "flashed" the bouncer to get his attention. Â The bouncer came to me and asked me to leave. Â I tried to explain my case to him and he told me there is no explaining needed, that once you are told to leave, you must leave. Â I truly did not do anything that warranted me getting kicked out. Â REVIEW YOUR CAMERAS and you will see the truth. Â Well, guess what happened next. Â The 17 people that came with me, and planned on drinking until closing, heard I was kicked out and we ALL left. Â You lost 17 customers because of your bad attitude bartender. Â
You MUST get better management in your restaurant or it will FAIL. Â If you think a bunch of 21 year olds coming on the weekends will help you survive, YOU ARE WRONG! Â It is customers like me and the 16 others I was with that would be back during the week that will keep your doors open. Â We are the ones with money, not the teeny-boppers that come to dance on Saturday nights. Â We will NOT be back and I suspect you will be out of business within a year if you do not change the attitude in there.
Not a bad spot. Prior to going here, i read all the negative reviews. Despite the poor reviews, I decided to chance it. We decided to sit at the bar when we arrived. Beer was $5 per glass and margaritas were $7 (not too bad).  The food was pretty good. Portions were a little on the small side, but the beef enchilada and fish taco tasted great. We enjoyed the chips and salsa. The bartender informed us that the salsa came with three varieties  ranging from very mild to hot habanero. He offered to bring us out all three so we could taste them all. As we sat at the bar, we noticed that for some reason, the bartenders kind of did everything at this place. I saw our bartender, carrying and moving chairs all around the restaurant, opening curtains and windows and helping out at the front door. All this took away from him being behind the bar. It was curious that this was happening being that there seemed to be an adequate number of  bus boys and other staff that could've done it.  It seemed he was very overworked and therefore, the speed of our service suffered a bit. There were a couple of times when my drink was empty for a good while before i was able to get his attention for a new drink.
Overall, it was not a bad experience. We got there around 7:30pm on a Saturday, and noted that it was pretty deserted. Business picked up a little around 9pm and i think that played into the slow down in service.
I would definitely give this place another shot. I'd like to try their happy hour which sounded like it offered some good deals.
This place has everything going against it. A location that has failed once already, an interior decorator that picked everything up on clearance from the local home depot, and a chef who has clearly never had Mexican food before.
The other reviews speak for themselves, the only thing I'll add is that our waitress was pleasant and quick with the water and salsa. Sadly though she didn't seem genuinely surprised when I said my wife's food was not very good.
All in all, it's a good location for something, but sadly restaurants like this this rest on the 'I'm not a chain mentality' that encourage the masses to go next door. That's coupled with a poorly thought out menu and a really lackluster execution. I mean come on yellow cheese? That's just lazy.
This was clearly my fault for going here. I really need to read reviews before going to new places. It seriously deserves no stars. I gave it one star for our waitress, I think in training. She was a very sweet young lady. I wish her the best of luck at her new job. Because place will die soon.
To start, I don't think there was any tequila in my Margarita. The chips and salsa was good but there was no salt on the chip and the was no salt on any of the tables. I had the beef taco and chicken enchilada combo. The taco was burnt and when I picked it up, it crumbled. It also burned my mouth. The chicken enchilada tasted like the chicken was a week old and it was cold in the middle. The rice was flavorless and the refried beans were like soup.
If management read these reviews at all. Fire the Chef before it's too late. I won't be back.
SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! I wish I read the reviews here first! We came here for the bottomless mimosa and sangria brunch. It took 20 minutes to get chips and salsa. Another 20 to get our sangria, because they were still making it. If you know how sangria is made, you know the fruit needs to steep in the wine for AT LEAST a few hours. The chips they claimed to make here were obviously store bought and the salsa had ZERO taste. We ordered the pancake breakfast for our kid, and she tried to charge us extra for bacon (which the breakfast is supposed to come with). No big deal. We corrected her and that was it. But we had to chase her down just
To get his order! And she never asked if we were ordering food! The service was awful and when we could track her down it took at least 10 minutes to come back with what we asked for. The pancake breakfast consisted of a bisquik pancake, microwaved eggs, and rubbery, flavorless bacon. Seriously... How do you fuck up BACON?!? But honestly though, if you're a Santa Clarita bro, this the place for you! Otherwise... Stay clear. There are plenty of other places to waste your money. Like walking over to Lazy Dog and throwing it in their fire pit. I definitely will not be coming back here. This place is worse then when it was called Chronic Cantina! Also, the table next to us seemed to be friends of the waitress. So while sat and waited for 2 hours for ANY type of service, the other table (and the only other people in the restaurant) had at least 4 rounds of drinks. On the bright side, I look forward to seeing what takes up this restaurant space next!
If you want to get sick, eat here.
Service was slow despite the place being almost empty. The food, however, came out quickly- too quickly. Just seconds after we received our drinks we had our food.
My wife got ceviche which had almost no flavor and whatever fish based ingredient they used had a rubbery texture. I ordered tacos which had zero flavor. I wanted to send it back and leave but my wife insisted that we try to make the best of it and never return.
I wish I didn't listen to her. We made the best of it, regretfully. We both got sick after eating there and spent the better part of the next day on the throne.
If it was possible to give a negative star rating on Yelp, El Caballero Valencia would get it.
I predict this place won't last long enough to get their permanent sign. I am really disappointed in my Yelp App because for some reasont his place didn't come up and if it had I could have avoided this experience altogether.
Anyway, my BF and I were out for a meal and I saw this place was open and they had a brunch sign out front, so I thought we'd give it a shot. I am always looking for a new GOOD local Mexican place. Especially one that is not a chain!
We walked in and the place was virtually deserted. There was a couple at the bar and one table with a large family finishing up. The fact that we waited several minutes for anyone to acknowledge we were there at all should have been a bad sign. A girl rushed in the front door wearing pink sweats and a cami (very unprofessional) and carrying an armful of groceries.
The service was terrible. Our waitress was slow (and had no good excuse. We were one of two tables). At one point she walked up to our table (presumably to take our order), but was making eye contact with the bartender the whole time. When she got to our table (as in standing directly in front of us, facing our table), she literally turned around and walked straight back into the kitchen. WTF?
Their brunch menu is sad. We ordered the huevos rancheros and a breakfast burrito. My BF complained the huevos were too greasy and didn't have much flavor. My breakfast burrito was just egg, bacon, cheese and potatoes. Â And by potatoes I mean frozen french fries. Basically, I could get a better breakfast burrito from Del Taco and for cheaper. Is it really that much of an imposition to fry up some fresh potatoes? To add some avocado? Or to basically do anything to make this thing worth the $6.95?
They aren't going to last. Management, if you want to have any hope of lasting through the end of July, you need to change your menu (and by "change" I mean actually put some effort into) and educate your servers.
The best thing this place has going for it is the bar area/outside patio. The rest of the place makes absolutely no sense. Â We sat at the bar for dinner and drinks. Â The food was not very good, margaritas are nothing special and none of the employees smile or create a fun and inviting atmosphere. Clearly, management is lacking here.
Review Source:Disgusting.
The food has absolutely NO flavor!. At all.
I went with a party of four and we waited over an hour for our food. Yet the place was sooo empty.. The waiter kept assuring us.. "It's almost out, i swear" and when the food finally arrived.. It was total disappointment. Worst restaurant experience I've ever had.
Dont eat here.
If you are looking for bland, flavorless, re-heated, dry food, this is the place for you!
The crusty salsa chunks on my menu should have been a clue for what was to follow... nevertheless, the husband and I came here for dinner, walked in to find a lively, crowded, bar area (a good sign we thought).
We were immediately seated, which was good. Chips and salsa brought to the table, no flavor in the salsa... very watery and warm. Waitress came to take drink order, no drink menu had been given. Drink menu was brought. We ordered a blended peach margarita and a mango margarita. We were told it would be about 30 minutes for the blended margarita because the bar staff was backed up, no thank you, switched to on the rocks. No margaritas arrived... were told there was glass in the ice so they had to burn the ice to get rid of the ice. The eventually arrived and were decent.
We ordered nachos as appetizer, they were OK. Nothing special, kind of dry.
Our entrees arrived. A chile relleno and chicken enchilada for me, carnitas for my husband. When I saw the food I immediately knew that it had been reheated, that it was old and most likely frozen. The refried beans were flaky and the rice had absolutely no flavor all I could taste was the only fresh thing on my plate, the cilantro that was used for garnish. The chile relleno and enchilada were both smeared with a mole sauce and the chicken in my enchilada was burned... literally black on one side. My husbands carnitas were burned as well, completely charred and crispy, carnitas are not supposed to be crispy, they are meant to be moist and have a little sheen to them, these were dry as a bone.
Take my word for it, I have eaten so much fresh and yummy Mexican food for half the price and even the "worst" Mexican food I thought I had before was 10 x better than what we got at El Caballero.
The staff is young and seems unexperienced, they appeared to have a lot their friends stopping by to visit, so you could imagine the distraction from actually giving quality service. When we got the bill the Margaritas were charged at regular price, we had to remind the server about her own special! She changed it no problem.
Music was way way way too loud, don't get me wrong I love my music, but this was like club music loud... you want to be able to converse with the people at your table no?
Lastly we were there for about an hour and a half and during that time, we were served by at least 6 different people... Â
Don't think we will be back here for food. Clearly, the kitchen staff knows little about Mexican cuisine/fresh food and unless the owner/manager invests in some professional development/training for hostess and servers, I do not see this place sticking around for too long.
Despite everything, we still enjoyed ourselves which means the place has some definite potential!
The margarita had no alcohol in it, and I had to send it back twice to blend it. The quesadilla has almost no cheese. The nacho chips are super salty and the chicken is dry. The food is poor quality. The staff is unresponsive. Manager came by our table twice to light a candle, didn't say hello or hows your dinner, nothing. Wasnt talking to the other patrons either. Couldnt find the waitress for our check. Not a great experience.
Review Source:Wish I could say better. Â We were here for Happy Hour and had tried Chronic Cantina-it was better than this place. Â Taquitos were fried to the point where the chicken was hard and flavorless. Â Tried Sopes-no flavor there either. Â Send them back and waitress took them off bill. Â We ate at the bar and she was as sweet as could be, but if we wanted anything, we had to ask for it. Â My husband tried the taco and it was similar to a street taco-just green sauce and beef, but the beef was overcooked, hard, and tasteless. Â We enjoyed the salsa and chips, and the guacamole that came with the taquitos was good. Â The manager came by to speak with the waitress, but never introduced himself. Â When we first arrived, an employee (the host?) was sitting on a bench texting on his phone. Â We stopped by him, and he walked away, so we seated ourselves at the bar. Â Upon leaving, a man looked surprised we were leaving so soon, but did not ask how our food was, or make an effort to get us to stay. Â Hopefully the next restaurant (the 3rd in less than 2 years?!) will be better, or maybe a manager will actually read these reviews and make some changes-would love to see that happen! Â I tried to find a website to provide some supportive criticism to no avail.
Review Source:Epic Fail!
We were hoping that this place wouldn't follow in the same steps as the previous restaurant that occupied this space (Chronic Cantina). Â In a way, our hopes weren't quite dashed - it's even worse! Â
Let me preface this with one thing - the staff was very good and attentive. Â No complaints there. Â The food and drinks? Â Downright awful. Â We started out with what we thought were margaritas. Â Essentially, they were just ice, water and some margarita mix. Â I think they forgot the major ingrediant called TEQUILA. Â Chips and salsa delivered with the drinks. Â The chips were covered in salt and the salsa was delivered in a little cup that was only half filled. Â The little amount of salsa we received was so watered down that when you tried to get some on a chip, it ran right off. Â I ordered the Rancho Burrito with Chicken. Â Wait, did I say chicken? Â Not a bit of chicken in this burrito. Â Basically, I got an oversized tortilla absolutely stuffed with refried beans and topped with salsa. My wife ordered the Shrimp Gorditas. Â The shrimp on there we so small you practically needed a mircroscope to see them. Â Maybe that's why they call them shrimp? Â ;)
The burrito got sent back since it was bland and not as described. Â
If you choose to go there, bring some good reading glasses. Â The print on the menu is practically unreadable. Â Then again, I highly doubt they will be open much longer based on the reviews I've read to date. Â
Good Luck, El Caballero. Â I think you will be riding off in to the sunset very soon!
Went for early dinner and sat right down in Dining Area, not the bar area. Wait staff was FANTASTIC, very friendly and attentive. Chips and 3 salsa varieties were really good, tasted very fresh. The main dishes were another story. Had Taco and Flauta combo. Taco shells are made fresh, but mine was totally burnt, the filling was tasty. The Flautas were pretty greasy, but again, filling was tasty. Beans did seem canned possibly, and the rice was just average. Wife had the carnitas and they had absolutely zero flavor. She had to drench them in salsa. I'll attribute it all to growing pains. May go back if they're still around in a few months.
Review Source:Where do I start? I hoped that the re-opened old Chronic Cantina might avoid the same horrible errors the previous version made. But not so....unfortunately. Â I was in one night with a friend. We sat in the area near the bar at a booth. The server brought my friend water straight away but never asked or brought me anything. WTF? I felt invisible. Then I had to approach the bar where three servers were gathered talking and watching the Tv's that surround the place. I asked for a glass of water and within a short time it appeared. As I sat with my friend, who does not drink, we ordered a Queso Fundido and Mexican Pizza. The Queso had chorizo in it which is not bad if the chorizo was drained first. The grease of the chorizo formed a lake of grease on the top of the cheese. The flavor was good but we were only given three corn tortillas which is odd since there were two of us. The melted cheese also had nothing to heat it so within about ten minutes, it was like a brick. Â Then the Mexican Pizza came. Whoever came up with this is a genius. It was on a flatbread or pizza dough that was super thin (which I like) and was really flavorful. Queso Fresco, Chorizo, and various spices and I was impressed. Â We then ordered fish tacos and all I can say...... not close to being good. Not much flavor and no spice to talk of and what's the deal with the tortillas being fried? The chips were Okay, not enough salt in my mind and the salsa was too mild for me but still good.
As we ate, I ordered a margarita on the rocks which was allright. Not Sabor, La Cocina or Betitos in Canyon Country quality, but okay. Â As my friend and I talked, we noticed, since the place was not super busy, two tatooed guys sitting at the bar in wife beater type shirts. Servers and people kept approaching them as if they were someone special. Â Intrigued, my friend asked who they were. The server said, "Oh, that's the owners".
Now, I am not saying the food was awful, but there are so many good Mexican places to eat. I wish them well but I got the feeling this is more of a bar than a restaurant and that's Okay if that's the case. But I will tell you, as a person in my 40's, I wouldn't hang out here at night. As time went on and it started to get crowded, I noticed the bar crowd seemed young, tatooed, and loud and it wasn't to my taste. I know the rent has to be expensive in the mall and I hope they make it.
First venture into the restaurant biz. Â No experience is a road map for disaster. Â I would predict they will go under within 6 months or less. Â
We arrived right at dinner time.  The bar was crowded and the hostess, who had no training asked us if we would like a table.  We took a brief look at the menu and were escorted to a table between the two kitchen doors.  No, I don't  think so.  We were then able to select the table of our choice.  Sat in the main dining area next to the bar.  Our waitress came to greet us.  She asked us if we would like a drink.  We ordered and my wife's beverage came out wrong.  She didn't attempt to explain anything and looked blank when I asked her a few simple questions.  I was expecting the waitress to bring some life to the menu.  Not a chance.  We ordered.  Taking a closer look at the menu it was big bold print and writing.  Something that took about 5 minutes to design.  A High School art are project would have been a better design choice.  My wife ordered Chile Relleno and I ordered nachos.  She sent hers back because it was deep fried in luke warm oil, very greasy.  She did not reorder.  The nachos were huge.  A portion size for 4.  They had a good taste, but the chips were heavily salted.  We ate about 1/3 and decided to go elsewhere.
The manager came over to make things right. Â He was nice and raved about the surf n turf. Â I was wondering why the waitress didn't explain the special and the menu. Â I almost forgot. Â She had no clue what she was doing. Â The manager went on to explain how the place was opened very quickly and that the owners had no experience. Â
One of the owners was in the restaurant with some friends, employees and his son. Â The little boy was running back and forth. Â The friends and owner were drinking, laughing. Â It was a party.... Â Â Disaster.....A train wreck is coming. Â They should place a sign in front "for lease".... Â it sucked
As I sit on the toilet writing this, trying to free the El Caballero food that so eagerly wants to make its way out in the most violent way possible, I sit here and think if it is possible to build a time machine out of toilet paper, a toothbrush and anything else within reach right now, to go back before the time of me eating at El Caballero.
I went in there with a group of friends expecting authentic Mexican food at a decent price. FAIL! Â I decided to order one of their "burritos", since a single taco was 9 dollars. Apparently its deep fried in 24 kt gold and doused in a gallon of gas before serving. The "burrito" looked good but I guess you can only smother so much lipstick on a pig. The first bite was horrible, flavorless, dry, it was likei knew I was eating and chewing on something but i couldn't taste it for the life of me. Would it kill you to season your meat and cook it right? Jesus Christ! How do people own restaurants and serve shit food, I don't get it. Your in the business of making good food and not getting people sick in the process. If your going to charge 11 bucks for "homemade" guac, don't send a white guy to the table with a fork, smashing avacados and throwing in ingredients while elbowing everyone. So I guess my points are, if your going to charge a lot for your food then it can't suck and hire a fucking guy that knows how to.make authentic Mexican food, shouldn't be too hard these days, Jesus.....how did you fuck that one up. Have great service but don't have your servers coming around bugging us, trying to sell us on churros and whatever else every time he walks by. My last complaint and then I will recede back into the depths of the shitter still wishing for a time machine. This restaurant has the look to be a true authentic Mexican.restaurant but when you walk in its country music, rhianna and whoever else. Wtf. I'm white but when I walk into a Mexican place I want to here some ranchero blasting and margs being blended up. Not Brittany spears and low calorie zimas being popped. Just saying though. People can smell fake a mile away.
It's rather obvious to me that whoever is writing good reviews for this restaurant either works for or owns this sorry excuse for a mexican dining establishment. I'll start with my order... a 3 item combo. I wouldn't have minded the $15 price tag had the food been any good whatsoever. The hard taco shells look and taste criminally like pre-packaged shells and not actual fried tortillas. The shredded beef was so very dry and lifeless and didn't even fill up most of my shell, leaving me disappointed already while still only on my first item!
Next I dug into my "fish taco" which sounded great as advertised on a soft corn tortilla with cabbage, tomatoes and some sort of sauce... what was on my plate however still makes me chuckle even into this morning. In their infinite wisdom or as an April Fool's joke my "fish taco" arrived as such: tasteless white fish inside of bland pre-packaged HARD taco shell topped with lettuce and tomato. What happened to the cabbage and sauce? Why would I want my fish taco in a hard taco shell? So many questions! I couldn't have dreamed of a taco so bland and dry so I drowned it in some so-so salsa and moved on.
Lastly I finished with the flauta which I will admit which bordered on being tasty but not enough to overcome the previous travesties. I mean, in a town rife with tasty mexican food I give this place another month or two before they have to shut down. I found myself craving Del Taco multiple times during the meal. My friend ordered the Ensalada de Asada.... his complaints included, " My asada has literally-not figuratively- literally zero seasoning. No salt, no pepper, no Lawry's, nothing. And my salad doesn't have any dressing on it other than maybe a little bit of oil?" Yes, he questioned everything about his flavorless salad last night.
Mmmm. Sounds tasty, right?
Let's talk about guacamole, shall we? Our server was obviously pretty green and he tried hard but it cracked me up when he purported himself as some sort of newly minted guac-master. He tried pushing the "tableside guac" multiple times till we acquiesced. What followed was a fairly lackluster but edible guac. I make far better guac and don't charge $11 for "tableside guac" just because we get to watch someone mash avocados with a fork AT our table making us dodge our server's elbows. Â I can't speak for the rest of my group but I know I will definitely not be eating here again. If you want better tacos, try Del Taco or La Cocina or Las Delicias or pretty much anywhere. If you want a lesson in how to NOT cook your meats then try El Caballero. I can only hope that they opened this place as a bar and not a restaurant and plan on making their money with alcohol and not through horrible food experiences.
Now if you'll excuse me, the caballero is calling and I don't think it's going to be pretty. But hey, at least my flauta was good!
Met a group of friends for a birthday dinner. I ordered a Cadillac Margarita when the waitress brought to my table I asked where the side of Grand Marnier was ( traditionally served on the side in a shot glass) she said it was in it. I doubt it...the drink had no flavor.
Speaking of no flavor....someone recommended the chicken fajitas as being their signature dish. When it arrived ( several people at the table ordered the same thing but mine wasn't sizzling hot but lukewarm) it also was dry & bland.
Lastly I must comment on the crowd. If you drive a jacked up truck, have full sleeve tattoos & your GF's all have bottle-bleached hair this is the place for you...if you want top quality Mexican food and an exquisite ambience Sabor still is it
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