I've dined at San Gabriel once before, about a year ago, and enjoy my experience. This time, however, things had changed for the worse. We arrived for dinner at 7:00 on a Friday night. We were told there would be a 5 minute wait, which was fine. After about 10 minutes we were shown to our table, an overflow room outside the main dining area. The room was ok, I guess, but lacking in the charm and atmosphere of the main dining area. Once there, we waited, and waited and waited. There was no service. After about 15 minutes someone came to pour water. Over the next 20 minutes two different waitresses arrived, each asking to take an order. We ordered guacomole for an appetizer. It took another 20 minutes before we finally had to flag someone down to see if they forgot our order. Finally someone came to make the guacomole tableside. For something that was to be enjoyable to watch, they ran through the exercise as if they should have been in the kitchen area. There was no showmanship at all Just combine ingredients, mash and throw on the table. The chips were poor, tasted stale. We ordered margaritas which were very poor. The waitress was nice, and offered to bring new ones, but each time they tasted terrible. We ordered and waited forever. At one point, after 30 minutes had gone by after ordering, with no sign at all of any service, I had to go into the main dining area to talk to the manager. He listended, but didn't seem to really care. He just said, ""thanks for telling me, I hope it isn't like this next time you come here"". We waited some more and our food finally arrived. If it was good, I wouldn't have taken the time to post a review, chalking it up to a bad night. But the food was not good at all. I ordered the Mahi mahi and it tasted as if it has been caught a week ago. The other meals were not enjoyed either. All in all, the service was the worst I had seen, the chips were stale, the margaritas were terrible and the food was bad.
Pros: Good guacomole.
Cons: Terrible service, chips, margaritas, food
more