Native Tongues Taqueria - Victoria Park — Restaurant in Calgary

Went in to celebrate my birthday with a gf on a Friday night. We didn’t have resos so we were put on the waiting list, not a huge problem, we were breezy. After waiting 45 minutes or so, we were sat and enjoyed tacos (food is never the issue, they were excellent as usual) and two drinks. We were looking to order another round of drinks and it appeared a manager was sent to our table to take our drink order instead of our initial server. She had advised us that she was cutting us off. We were both confused because we both weren’t drunk and we were just in the middle of enjoying a night of catching up and good conversation. This manager remained adamant that we were not permitted to order any more alcohol and was being extremely condescending and rude which made us even more frustrated. The more we asked for a better explanation to why we were being cut off, the more dismissive and rude she was. Never have I ever experienced such poor customer service from a reputable establishment. I was shocked and still am shocked and quite honestly so confused. Being one to have carried a Pro Serve certificate for many years of my experience in the service industry, I am aware of the protocols involved when it comes to dealing with intoxicated patrons. We were far from being intoxicated and were not bothering anyone surrounding us to validate this manager to make this decision. She left our table and returned with our bill shortly after pretty much indicating we were no longer welcomed. The patrons at the table beside us were equally as confused as us stating that we weren’t a bother at all. We left there disappointed and would request that upper management please speak to your shift leads about a better way of handling things or appointing someone more qualified for the position. We asked for her name and she refused to provide it to us and so did two other servers. Thank you for a crummy...

Unfortunately had to edit an old review and now tell the owners you need to change your management stuff and how they train the workers and treat customers now. Came in last Saturday close to 8pm. Place wasn’t even half packed. A friend and I asked to sit at one of the two tables open on patio where there’s seats for 4. Zero line up and clearly wasn’t a busy night at all. First the hostess declined to seat us at one of the tables as told per management girl there. We asked a good reason why and then she brought the manager girl over with glasses to explain she cannot sit us out there because then she would have to allow everyone in pairs to sit out there. We asked who’s that and all she had to say was it’s a slippery slope doing so. Horrible explanation and declining customers to sit on the patio with open tables and a not even half full restaurant in hand. After we had asked nicely to sit there and why we couldn’t, she finally said fine whatever in a really rude tone and went to the table and starting piling up extra glasses and forks and banging things around making a loud scene purposely looking upset in front of other tables out there. We didn’t feel like sitting in such an uncomfortable and unwanted situation so we decided to leave and went to the other location off elbow drive where they were nothing but kind the entire time and went above and beyond and where we would much rather spend our $200 plus dollars for only two of us any day of the week. Workers/management staff like that maybe need to look in mirror on how to treat customers and bring back long time guests or maybe be in an industry where they don’t deal with the public. Won’t be coming back to this location for a very long time and it’s a shame because we live downtown for one and we’ve been long time customers at this native tongues for two. Such a shame. Hope you can do better for others...

I was hesitant to write this review but I think it’s important the managers and staff get this feedback. In short, we are long term customers who had an experience that was discriminatory at minimum and in its least charitable interpretation, frankly racist.

The evening of October 25th (yesterday) my friends and I came in and were met by a hostile and judgmental front of staff who insinuated we could not be seated at all given the number of people in our group. We had to ask if we could seated separately to be offered seating in the restaurant; ‘don’t you all be jumping around’ was the response. It was around Halloween and 2 of our party were wearing costumes but otherwise our group was dressed normally and none in our party were loud or inappropriate. The waitress took orders for all in our group but singled out one of our friends and said her drink would be delivered after dinner ‘because it was up to her discretion’. When our group asked for more information it emerged ‘it’s because of her eyes’. In the end, after serving food they refused to bring the aforementioned drink.

Despite talking to the manager (a different friend did this), no further information about why beverages were being selectively withheld was offered. My friend was embarrassed and quiet throughout these interactions. For full context my friend was the sole person of Asian descent in our party of 9.

We hope the staff and managers will reflect about the future ‘discretion’ they use with their customers given that your use of same lost you quite a few. Perhaps changes to training may help reduce future...