Carlos & Murphy's — Restaurant in Winnipeg

This place is in serious need of help !! We went there as a table of 5 for a 630 reservation. My wife and I arrived early and there was a table of 8 ready for us directly by the bar inside . While we waited for the rest of our party to arrive we had to endure a few obnoxious patrons sitting at the bar , making it already uncomfortable.We ordered drinks and my wife had a Long Island Ice Tea . It came in a short stubby glass with no garnish , no ice , not even a straw !!! Very poor bartending abilities! When our birthday girl arrived she was told there was no reservation for her by 3 different people , fortunately she persisted and they figured it out and seated her with us. After that the evening progressively got worse. We asked to be moved to the patio outside which they did accommodate.I am all about atmosphere but I felt like I was sitting in a slum bar on Main Street . The people seating us as we were walking outside seemed upset with us that we wanted to move but control your music levels and obnoxious bar patrons!!!!! Not one Mexican thing about this place !!!

Now we order the food !! We ordered nachos with pulled pork with pineapple and bacon . When they arrived there was a chunk of meat in the middle and no pineapple.and shattered chips. When we complained ,the owner said they were normal ….How is that normal??!!! Needless to say we sent them back and when they came out they had placed the cold pineapple chunks out of the can on top of the nachos !! Absolutely disgusting and still being told by the owner it was normal !! The other order of nachos were even worse !! Broken chips that I attempted to eat with a fork and a thick layer of canned refried beans slapped on top with raw jalapeños!!??That was not jalapeño jack cheese on the nachos , it was mozzarella with raw jalapeños on top !! Neither the birthday girl or my wife ate any of it as it was just not visually appealing nor was there any effort at all putting the food together but seems typical in many of these so called great places to eat here is in Winnipeg. How is it you can call those nachos ?? Every chip looked like it was crushed while putting them on the plate . The chicken wings looked like they were just tossed in an oven or fryer no seasoning nothing and just a bunch of gross cold sauce on luke warm wings. The owner tried to make it right but instead kept making it worse by saying this was normal , but if you can’t eat it that’s not normal!!!!! I almost felt sorry for him as what an embarrassment to try and defend that kind of culinary disgust on a plate and justify it as normal or Mexican . As a professional Red Seal Chef of more than 25 years I can say it was disgusting and disappointing and will not be back unless it’s to give the place a much needed rebirth. Not at all sure what the hype of this place was and if it was good at one time it definitely is not anymore. Worst meal /worst experience in Winnipeg ever ! Comping meals and drinks should never happen , it’s flushing money down the toilet and I suspect it’s a regular thing judging from the many other...

Our food was ok… the spicy beef enchilada tasted good, but weren’t remotely spicy. Good sized portion, so value for money is there. The guacamole we ordered as a starter was insanely salty. Not sure if that’s just how they make it, but we left a LOT behind. I’d have taken the remainder home but it was barely edible. (Yes, it could have been sent back, but our server was barely present). Again, massive portion, I’d love to try it again, assuming the amount of salt was reduced to a tenth (I actually use a decent amount of salt in my own cooking, so this was not just a personal intolerance to salt, it was overpowering).

The biggest disappointment was our server. She wasn’t unpleasant, but very monotone and robotic, and the only time she even attempted to chat was when she brought our bills. I had even tried to engage with her a bit earlier but was met with crickets so I gave up. She didn’t punch our guac and chips in as a starter like we had requested, so it came out with our meals, forgot to bring our waters, and when I reminded her 20 minutes later you could tell she had zero recollection of being asked. Honestly, it didn’t seem busy at all, but maybe she was...

The server didn't take us seriously when I requested to make sure the nachos we ordered were at least half with no cheese. She scoffed at me and said that of course it will only be on half. When we received our shared nachos they were pretty much completely covered in cheese and I was left to pick at the bare chips around the edge of my side of the plate. Our server never checked on us at all. We were talking about the quality of food/service as she cleared a table next to us. The bartender must have been alerted of mine and my friend's conversation about how mediocre everything was, because he came by asking if everything was ok. I brought up the situation and that I couldn't enjoy a single chip that had beans on it because it was covered in cheese. He attempted to mansplain to me the science of how cheese expands over the entire body of an item while heated, however I mansplained back to him that I wasn't always vegan and I know how to make a dish work without cross-contaminating the whole thing. He brought me out a side of beans so that I could at least try to enjoy the few chips that we tipped them more than the average...