07/03/09

Food marginal, integrity questionable

by jamr70

It there was a way to score this lower, I would have...saw this restaurant from the road and stopped by a couple of times with ok results (not stupendous considering the number of good Mexican restaurants in the area). However, we never had to wait and this was a plus, especially on weekend nights with two young children in tow. This third time will be my last! Slight yellow flag was raised when the (as we found out later) owner, while taking our order, seemed confused about why we would be ordering from the kid's menu (cheese quesadilla and chicken burrito) versus the adult dinner portion for our 2 and 6 year olds. Food again was ok, but not especially good, again a fair tradeoff for not waiting on a Friday night when other restaurants had wait lists in full force. The dealbreaker occurred after the meal when we produced the "Citipass" coupon (1 of two in each book) to deduct "up to $7 off" the meal. We've never had difficulty with merchants honoring these coupons until now. At first, the owner stated that the coupon exempted "steak, shrimp and fajita dinners", arguing that carnitas were considered "steak". When I informed her that I knew that carnitas were pork, she tried a new tack.. In another section of the coupon, it stated that it "Excluded alcohol". We ordered enough food so that the $7 would easily be deducted from my wife's chile relleno dinner if not elsewhere. The owner argued that since we purchased alcohol, that immediately precluded us from using the coupon. Having seen exclusion applied elsewhere and having an entirely different meaning, I questioned her on this. She responded that I was obviously "drunk". Apparently, ordering two margaritas (one each for my wife and myself) and eating an entire carnita dinner equated to the two of us being a pair of "lushes". That was the last straw. Seeing how we were going nowhere with this, we informed her that we would not be returning. I'm sure we were not the only customers who attempted or will attempt to use the Citipass coupon, so this was posted to avert others from "misunderstanding" how the coupone may be used. We would likely have returned to this restaurant, food quality notwithstanding simply for the convenience factor, but now Perico's has lost not just our business but perhaps that of others who we will be warning to stay away from this questionable establishment.

• Pros: No wait
• Cons: Questionable ethics