El Cielito Lindo Restaurant - El Monte

I’m so happy with the service and they also have friendly staffs.

Place says open til 1am, this place has actually been closed for some time. It is NOT open

This restaurant has been a pillar in the community for decades. If you want authentic Mexican food with some fantastic Mariachi music, this is the place to go. The service is excellent the owners are hands on super friendly. The best Mexican restaurant in El Monte/ so. El Monte....

My experience I thought it was worth sharing with all of you. We decide to make a reservation to celebrate my sister 's birthday, a group of 18 adults and 4 small children on Saturday evening (1/1/2020), we arrive at around 6:00, (They open at 5:30). After waiting for his turn, the waiter comes to my brother who is sitting next to me to take his order right after taking mine. I should mention my brother had arrived 30 min. before my wife, my baby and myself and they had ordered 2 appetizers (Guacamole) and drinks. When the waiter asked my brother for his menu choice, my brother replied he felt a bit satisfied with the appetizer and he wasn 't sure what he was going to order, to this statement the waiter quickly and abruptly said the following: IF YOU DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING, WE STILL HAVE TO CHARGE YOU $30.00 (Exact translation from Spanish), My brother then replied: So even if I don 't feel much appetite, I still have to forcefully order an item even if I 'm not gonna eat it......? That is correct The waiter replied. We looked at each other in awe and proceeded to place an order from the menu (We didn 't want to spoil the birthday celebration with an otherwise well deserved and reciprocal reaction). Our waiter left with the order but we asked another waiter to call the manager to ask him for a clarification. The manager arrived to our table and after conveying the waiter 's threatening speech to him, he then acted in a sort of sarcastic and apologetic manner in regard to the waiter, to then add that The restaurant REQUIRED a minimum consumption of $30.00 per customer There was no need for any more arguments, we understood the policy in a pretty disgusting way, which as you can imagine turned our gustative papillae into bile secreting glands even before our plates were served. My very first time visiting Cielito Lindo started rough, and continued even worse. My plate was served: Ribeye steak with sauteed garlic shrimp, with the overly typical sides Refried beans and Mexican rice . Have you ever grabbed the greasy handle of a steak knife..........? Then you know how that feels, no need for explaining. The steak I have to mention was cooked the way I ordered it, but unfortunately had no taste...!, The rice was very well seasoned and good. The beans were bland and a bit greasy, no good. Shrimp had a faint....... Sort of distant garlicky flavor, resemblant of Mexican style garlic Shrimp , but didn 't hit it. NO GOOD. Chicken fingers from the kids menu was ordered for my 2 Year old......very tough and unacceptably greasy, cooked in an incongruent manner, simple unsuitable for a 2 Year old 's chewing strength, too tough! My wife 's Cielito Lindo fajitas were a total disappointment, judge by yourself based on the pictures I 'm attaching, very greasy! There were mixed reviews provided by the other members of the family, different dishes were ordered, some liked their food, some did not, but every single one of them reported the veggies as simple and no taste, simply not matching any of the dishes. The Mariachi band 's artistic display of talent had no objections from our point of view, very good, I would have loved to see the all girls Mariachi band, reviews provided reveal s higher quality skills than the guys. In my very personal opinion the next time I have a desire to listen to Mariachi music, I will go to a restaurant that serves better quality food while listening to Mariachi music through my earbuds, preferably The Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán . Hummmmm! I am being sarcastic here! But to be honest with you the Mariachi show was very good, unfortunately the unprofessional approach from the manager and poor customer service skills from the waiter turned the whole experience to shreds even before it all started. Our perception from that policy is that You are being charged to watch the Mariachi show , but wouldn 't you consider 18+ people consuming power to be enough to cover for that? Do you plan on visiting? I wish you a better experience than ours.

As a musician I understand not everyone can make it all of the time but it's ridiculous to pass a totally different group of musicians as THE main group and to make matters worse they are missing a vihuela player. This is LA there is endless talent here.