There weren't many people there when we arrived, although you could tell the restaurant was preparing for a crowd. We were seated in a room that was virtually empty. We ordered, and our drinks were delivered promptly (mango margarita for Sherry, strawberry margarita for me; delicious) along with my dinner salad (Mexican Caesar, always good).
The room began to fill up. Sherry and I were relaxing, just sitting and talking, not having to be anywhere. But as time went on, we realized that the other people in the room, who had been seated after us, were being served their food!Our waiter had not been around for a while, so I flagged down a manager and told him about our situation. He apologized and said he would check on our food for us. He also asked if we'd like another round of drinks, and I said yes.
A few minutes later, a waitress stopped by to take our drink orders. I said I'd like a regular margarita, and Sherry said she didn't want anything. We waited and waited; still no food. Eventually the waitress returned, but instead of bringing me a regular margarita, she brought the mango and strawberry margaritas we'd ordered originally! And literally two steps behind her was yet another waitress with the exact same two drinks! There had definitely been some miscommunication between the bar, the manager and me. We sent the drinks back. My regular margarita showed up shortly thereafter.
Then, finally, a waitress arrived with our food. (Whatever happened to our original waiter?) The order must have gotten lost somewhere; it had just been too long. She placed the tray of food on a fold-out stand by our table. I stopped myself from saying to Sherry, "Watch, now she'll drop it," just as the waitress lost control of the tray. Sherry and I sat frozen as the waitress tried to catch it. She managed to keep the whole thing from falling, but a good portion of the meal landed on the floor. Some other customers got up to help her (which I should have done too, but, honestly, I was frozen in disbelief at this point). What we didn't initially realize was that the waitress had severely burned herself; I had ordered fajitas, and they were served on a sizzling hot metal dish. She had grabbed the dish without thinking when the food began to fall.
With the help of the other customers and another waitress, she managed to get control of the tray and head back to the kitchen. I'd call our situation comical at this point if the waitress hadn't gotten burned. We finished off a second big basket of tortilla chips still waiting for our food.
Eventually, our original waiter returned with our order. Nothing was spilled, and it was finally time to dig in. While we were eating, the manager stopped by apologizing profusely, and told us that the meal would be free of charge. We thanked him and asked how the burned waitress was doing. He said that she had run back to the kitchen crying, but that she was okay. (Had she been crying because of the burn, or because of the two uncaring customers that had just sat there motionless during her crisis? Either way, we felt bad. And later, she came to our table to apologize. We said, "Don't be silly! At least you're okay!")
So that's how we got a free meal at El Torito. But the real reason I'm glad we didn't have to pay was because our food wasn't that good (Sherry had a shrimp burrito, I had the chicken/shrimp/beef fajitas). Anyway, we've still got money on our gift card. Maybe next time we'll just go for drinks.
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