El Torito

Sunday brunch at El Torito is a time to spend with family, have some good "home made" tortilla's, and comment on the "stupidification" of America. See what happens when you place two High School or Community College students in a position that requires them to think.

I am writing this letter in regards to the two hostesses working today at El Torito.
Our party of four arrived at your Brea location at approximately 11:30 AM, and we were told that the wait would be thirty minutes. After approximately thirty minutes, the hostess told us that we were next on the list. While we were waiting to be called, two parties showed up and were seated immediately. I do not know how we could have been next but still have other parties seated before us.
Shortly thereafter our name was called and we made our way to the hostess stand. This time another party was seated after our name was called, and the hostess gave no explanation as to why they were seated before us. We stood there waiting without being further acknowledged.

The hostesses then began trying to figure out where to seat us. Having worked in a restaurant, I could not figure out why the hostess would have called our parties name without knowing where to seat us. She then turned to me an asked if it is ok if we can wait five more minutes so that she can seat a party of eight before seating us. Since this was presented as a question, I responded that "no, it would not be ok, I would like to be seated now since my name was called".
The hostess responded with "fine", hastily grabbed four menu's, and briskly walked us to our table. The four of us were present when she asked how many children would be in our party. I don't know what El Torito considers a child but when four adults from a party of four are present at a table that seats four, one would assume that there are zero children present. This might be more of an indication of the hostesses intelligence as opposed to El Torito's classification of a child. I kindly told the hostess that we have no children and she rolled her eyes and left.

From this experience it is fairly obvious that the two hostesses working this morning did not know how to do their jobs, nor were they properly trained in customer service.
1) When my party is told that they are next, if three other parties are sat before us, we should at least get an explanation as to what is going on.
2) When our name is called, we should not have to wait for the hostess to find out what table to take us to. This should be done before our name is called.
3) When our name is called, we should not be asked if we can wait another five minutes in order to seat another party that is not even present at the hostess stand.

I have been a patron of El Torito restaurants for many years, this was my first experience at the Brea location and I will make sure it is my last. Your company should re-evaluate its training and hiring practices.

The El Torito manager personally called me. He apologized for the incident, and told me that they always appreciate customer feedback. I also received coupons for four free dinners!

EL TORITO EL TORITO SUNDAY BRUNCH El TORITO BREA