By ERIN GATHERCOAL

Features Editor

If I had to describe Don Pollo in two words, those words would be “confusing” and “frustrating.” Why, you may ask?

Consider the full name of the restaurant, which is a mouthful if I may say so: Don Pollo – Great Southern Cooking and Authentic Mexican Cuisine. Scratching your head, yet? It gets better, so to speak.

The menu consists of Mexican, Southern and Italian cuisine, as well as seafood, barbeque, and burgers. Since I was expecting to eat Mexican food, I ordered a combination that featured a quesadilla, a taco, rice and beans. 

My friend and I wanted a cheese dip, which the menu offers as plain or with jalapenos, but our waitress told us that they only had the dip with jalapenos. Since neither of us like jalapenos, we decided on a spinach dip, which was spinach mixed into a cheese dip – the same cheese dip made with jalapenos. We found it both very odd and inconsiderate that our waitress didn’t mention that the dip was made with jalapenos. 

After receiving our food, which was okay to say the least, that was when it got really crazy. We had seven different people, not including our actual waitress, come up to us and ask how everything was. You’re probably thinking, “Wow, what great service.” Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. They came so often, it got to the point that neither my friend nor I could get out a few words before we were interrupted. Yes, interrupted. They didn’t even wait for us to finish our sentence before asking us how the experience was. 

Overall, the experience at Don Pollo was incredibly disappointing. I was expecting a great experience, considering the place was a renovation of El Camp, a very popular place at Piedmont. This was not the case, though. 

You may be thinking, “It was probably a busy night, and that’s why things were crazy.” Truth be told, it wasn’t busy. We were seated immediately without a wait, and it was only busy in there because there were so many staff members scurrying around.

Unfortunately, El Camp is gone and Don Pollo is here, leaving us with a very confusing menu and many interrupted conversations. Save your money, and if you want good Mexican food, go to El Patron or El Jinete. They give you the food you want at good prices with excellent service.