El Camion

On arriving the door was closed with the closed sign showing, even though it was 12.15pm, this was indeed a sign that we should have turned around & chose another restaurant. The decor is very kitsch & basic & there was no real atmosphere to the place. We waited 10mins for our wine & when it arrived the bottle was warm. My husband wanted the crayfish starter & was told “no we don't have crayfish” no apologies, we both then ordered the calamari & waited 45 mins for it to arrive. (Bearing in mind at this point, we were the only diners in there!) When it arrived in its plastic basket, I couldn't believe my eyes, it resembled a mountain of greasy baked batter. We honestly couldn't even stab it with our forks. The waitress came over to see what was wrong & even she was shaking her head. She took it away & we waited another 10mins for the replacement. Although cooked properly this time, the batter had no seasoning to it & tasted like wallpaper paste…it was vile & we both left it. For main, we chose enchiladas & although tasty, it was only just warm & the cheese covering the whole plate was like it had been on there a week & had formed a kind of skin. It hadn't been baked or grilled…it's hard to explain.
We couldn't wait to leave & felt angry that we chose this place when it's surrounded by some of the most fantastic restaurants. To round up the experience the card machine was having problems & after 3 attempts the waitress gave back the card & said we would have to pay cash. My husband then had to traipse all the way to Carnaby Street to where he knew there was a ATM, when I asked the waitress if she knew of a closer one she said “no”
Service is added on to the bill & stupidly after all this we paid it. There was no gesture given. The management obviously have a don't care attitude.
I don't believe this place will survive until the end of the year & if it is really owned by Terence Conran's son, well then it certainly doesn't run in the family & he would do well to take some advice on board, from someone who knows the trade!

I would have to agree with Toby. I was a member of this particular group who visited the newly opened El Camino and was certainly surprised by the lack of customer service and blatent disreguard for our feedback.

My chosen meal, whilst being relatively nice, was far too small for its price and consisted of what I can only assume was Asda's basic lettuce and a bit of chicken. The tacco had very little substance and considering it cost £8 there are lot more places in Soho I would soon rather visit.

Despite our polite and friendly manner when giving our thoughts to the Manager, he clearly did not want to understand our point of view. We did not receive any compensation nor did he sympathise in anyway, therefore we certinaly won't be going back and will be going out of our way to deter anyone from doing so.

If you are looking for good quality at a reasonable price, I would definitely NOT recommend visiting El Camino – there are about 100 better restaurants in Soho worthy of your hard earned cash.

We were excited to see a Mexican open in Soho as the closest ‘authentic’ place is Wahaca in Covent Garden. We decided to go for a colleague's leaving do but were very disappointed with the experience.

First off the restaurant doesn't take bookings but we were told it would be fine as they weren't usually that busy. On arriving with a party of nine there wasn't enough space. After some persuasion visible disgruntlement, a waitress asked a couple to move for us and pushed some tables together.

The main problem with El Camino is that there is a complete mismatch in the pricing of its food. Some of us ordered the tacos (approx £8 a go) and others went for nachos. The nachos came and were great (one plus point) with loads of tortilla chips salsa, chicken etc. But the tacos were a big disappointment being a similar price but only enough for a starter. Though they tasted fairly nice everyone agreed they were far too small. One of us also ordered a burrito which was entirely devoid of any kind of garnish and very bland.

The other big problem was the customer service we received, if you could call it this. On asking whether there were any other garnishes, guacamole or sauce for the burrito, we were told in no uncertain terms that only if we paid for them. On complaining that the portions were very small for what we were paying, we were met with nonchalance, being told that's just how it comes. We had to persuade them to get the manager to come out and even he was similarly blasé about our complaints, offering little apology. He even told us he planned to put the prices up for the larger meals rather than reduce them for the massively overpriced tacos.

For what was meant to be a happy occasion, seeing our colleague to pastures new, el Camino certainly wasn't the place to go.