El Maguey Mexican Restaurant - Salem

Deana Holley

This past Saturday 5/14 late afternoon entering the restaurant with a baseball team waiting to be seated. I tried to put our name in several times to be put on a list if they were taking names. The manager/maybe owner took his hands to wave me on (like dismissing me or language barrier) several times, ugh. A waitress that I witnessed several times try to take care of every table on her own, noticed us and apologized then seated us. 20min later finally the same waitress noticed we haven't been waited on yet. During this time waiting I noticed again the owner or manager yelling at this waitress that she needed to pay for several people's drinks/food from people leaving while waiting on their food. People were tired of waiting on service and food so bailed. This is not the waitress's fault. Yes, it crossed our minds to leave too but I was worried for this waitress. All restaurants have a bad day and the way the world is right now being short-staffed is everywhere. We need to have more patience but last year we had perfect food and service in the outside seating on the roof. With a whole baseball team coming into the restaurant I believe they panicked. Everything was concentrated on that. Then I noticed this baseball team haven't received their drinks nor food 40min in. I know the food is good here and came a long way away to eat here. Our food was cold when we received it but didn't complain to our waitress or the food runner we saw starting to help. Our Biggest complaint here is to keep your great staff that you have on hand and don't yell at them or tell them they have to pay for food/drinks when customers decided to leave from waiting too long. Microwave worked great to heat it back up at home. After reading the other reviews it is not the owner that was rude to us maybe management staff. Who knows! I appreciate reading the owner replying to most of the reviews that Raquel gives generic replys with no true resolution to the customer's problem. We paid way too much for quality of food and no waiter/waitress needs to be treated like that. Maybe when things are going so bad. It wouldn't hurt to shut the doors and call it A-day to regroup.

Sherrill Lott

Party of 4. 1 got tough fatty steak. 2 got chicken street tacos. Chicken was in large chunks, not shredded enough to actually bite and was very dry.3. ordered a meal that was supposed to have tortillas which was not served. Probably not eat there again...When paying they pass a hand held thingie to each person paying for a ticket to sign. Not sanitized before passing to next person. I did not feel this was sanitary.

bert williams

Steak was like leather. Fajita was burnt and still burning on the hot skillet. Fried burrito was good and margaritas was awesome. Did get a refund on steak. Waitress was awesome .3 star only because of her being so nice and respectful.

Lindsey Tabor

We love El Maguey mostly because the best server in Washington Co is there- Ethan. ❤️ He always gives amazing service. He remembers our regular orders and is always extremely polite. We appreciate him. The food is always good and we love when it’s warm out and we can eat on the terrace. If you go- ask for Ethan. He’s the absolute best.