El Toribio Mexican Restaurant

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OPEN NOW - Closes at 10:00pm

I rarely post reviews on business establishments. However, my experience at El Torbio last night warrants my comments. My family and I decided to try El Torbio based on friends reviews. We arrived around 6:30pm and the restaurant was busy. So busy, that there was no hostess to be seen. After waiting in the entryway of El Torbio for over 15 minutes a small crowd of patrons gathered behind us wanting to be seated too. The hostess finally appeared. She was in a terrible mood allowing her stress to leak into her behavior with customers. She hotly asked my husband, "..how many..." My husband informed her that there were four in our party. He asked if we could wait for a table to sit on the patio. The hostess vehemently said, "No! there are too many people waiting, you sit inside!" My husband then asked if we could at least sit at one of the empty tables that faces the river. Again, the hostess protested and said, No! other people are going to sit there..." My family and I looked around and there were not any patrons ahead of us. The hostess scampered off with four menus and did not indicate for us to follow her. She threw the menus on a table and walked away. I noticed that she stopped and spoke to a waitress and pointed at our table. After sitting for 15 minutes, we noticed other patrons that had been seated after us were served drinks and had food delivered. We had not even had a bowl of chips or salsa put on our table. Nor did a waitress or waiter come to our table. We decided to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and be patient since they were busy. But after another 15 minutes we still had no water, no waiter or waitress. In total we had been sitting at the table over 30 minutes and finally asked a bus boy if there was a waitress or waiter who could assist us. He called over the same waitress the angry hostess spoke too after we were seated. The waitress came over to our table and they begin to speak in Spanish. I would like to qualify that both my husband and I fluently speak and understand Spanish. What the waitress said the bus boy was that the Hostess told her that no one was to serve us. When the waitress walked away we collectively decided to leave the restaurant. I could not understand what we had done to be the receiving end of such terrible behavior and rude customer service. As I was walking out the restaurant the same angry Hostess stopped me and asked why I was leaving. I told her politely that we had not received any service. I walked away to the entryway of the restaurant. She “chased” me down and started to scream at me as to why as I was leaving. Again, I told her because there was no service. The angry hostess then began to shout even louder and said, I quote, “…people like you have to wait for service….” Then she began to shout more and told me and my family to the get the f… out of her restaurant. Mind you, the angry hostess was screaming and cussing at me and in front of all of her customers, which included many families with children. I am not sure what caused this hostess to treat us so badly, but El Torbio is a disappointment to the Owensboro community and I hope if others are in the mood for Mexican Food they steer clear of this restaurant.

Great food, good service. I have difficulty understanding the waiters/waitresses, and I believe they have some difficulty understanding English as well. Even if they get something wrong (rarely happens) they will correct it. Prices are excellent too.