Avoid it!
My comments are about the Deerfield Beach Cielito Lindo's, not to be confused with the Fort Lauderdale one (which is good) or the Pompano Beach one (which is fair).
Service and food at Deerfield Beach Cielito Lindo's has been poor, both times I have eaten there.
The first time, only one thing went wrong, and that was with my margarita. I ordered one of their premium tequila margaritas, frozen. It arrived looking like gray, gloopy dirty dishwater, and tasted about the same. It had no flavor, let alone any alcohol. Our waitress said (annoyed) that that was how frozen margaritas were supposed to taste, that the ice as it melted watered it down. I asked her about the gray color and she said it must just be from their ice. She never did anything to fix it, and I just let it alone.
Weeks later, my friend begged me to go to the Deerfield Cielito's, even though I warned her of my earlier bad experience. But we went, and this time it was so much worse!!
We arrived to the restaurant at 9:35 p.m., and received a friendly greeting at the door. As we were being seated, however, the host said that the kitchen was closing in 5 minutes. I asked my friend what that meant; she's worked in the restaurant biz for years. She said that just meant to hurry and place our order. If they didn't want us there they should have told us they were closed.

Our waitress arrived, and also told us the kitchen was closing in 5 minutes. We ordered quickly and looked around. The lights were turned all the way up and were so bright we wished we had sunglasses, and we saw another couple complaining about the same thing. The manager refused to turn the lights down. A cleaning girl swept the floor of the restaurant, right by our table, as we munched on chips and salsa. Then, our food arrived.
My friend had ordered the Vegetable Stir Fry, and I ordered the 2 Enchiladas. The Vegetable Stir Fry didn't look anything like what my friend had expected, so she called the waitress over. The waitress got very defensive right away, said the meal was what was ordered, and there was nothing she could do. She even grabbed a menu and shoved it in my friend's face to 'show' her she was wrong. But the Vegetable Stir Fry on the menu says the dish contains snow peas, red onion, yellow squash, plus red and green peppers. My friend's plate however was only red and green peppers, with a few slivers of yellow onion. All there was were peppers and onions! When the waitress read the menu for herself, she called the manager over. He came over, and said oh yeah, sorry we are just out of red onion and snow peas. We asked about the yellow squash and he said they were out of that too. My friend asked why, when she was ordering, the waitress didn't warn her that 3 of the 5 vegetables in her entree were not available?
The manager just said he was sorry there was nothing he could do, and my friend asked him to take her plate away and if she could have something else. He said no, the kitchen was closed. It was 9:45. I started to eat my enchiladas, and realized that the cheese in my cheese enchilada wasn't even melted, it was just as if someone had sprinkled shredded cheese in a tortilla, wrapped it up and served it cold. My beef enchilada wasn't much better; the meat inside seemed hours old and was tough, dry and hard to chew. The rice on my plate had obviously been under a heat lamp for hours, the yellow rice was now brown with age, and each grain had hardened into something unedible. We asked for the check. The manager brought it, and asked me if I wanted a box since there was more than 3/4 of my dinner still on my plate. I said no, because unfortunately it wasn't very good. He turned and walked away without even asking why! That's when my friend called him back, and started explaining everything that was wrong. He didn't care. He just barely apologized and said next time we shouldn't come in so close to closing time. (They closed at 10, almost a full half hour after we arrived.)

I paid the $10 for my dinner and left. I could have had a much better meal and service from Taco Bell for half that price.
We went to leave, and the door was locked!! No one could let us out! So we stood there for an additional 5 minutes waiting for the same jerk manager to come and unlock the door so we could escape this awful place. This is by far the worst dining experience I've ever had. The restaurant smelled like garbage, and the staff was totally rude.
Avoid it!    []

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: Something from Taco Bell instead

     ­Anonymous   

Don't Even Consider It
For anyone who enjoys good Mexican food...this is NOT the place for you! The food is bland and flavorless and the service is terrible.    [22 Mar 2006 18:04:47]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 

     ­Anonymous