Tequila 61 — Restaurant in Alaska

A little over a week ago, I made a reservation for my birthday dinner this evening. I selected this restaurant as they were able to accommodate a larger party (14 guests), while I also remembered them having good food from a prior dining experience. They allowed me to bring a custom cake to be served following dinner, which was a plus. Come the night of the dinner; it seemed a relatively empty restaurant, seeing only three other tables occupied by patrons, no larger than a party of four at each table. There appeared to be only one waitress, who was seemingly overwhelmed by the amount of tables she was tending to. The hostess subsequently would have to step in to deliver drinks, appetizers and refill the water carafes.

In regard to the service: the hostess seemed nice, but again, was seemingly overwhelmed and barely paid us any mind. Multiple times myself or other members from my table would try to get her attention, she would look at me/them, and proceed to walk away, never to actually return to address us. It took about 25 minutes from the time we sat down (the whole party arrived at the same time) before she even came to our table to take drink orders. Following drink orders, it took another ~15 minutes before returning for an appetizer order. It was almost half an hour from the time we ordered appetizers to order the entrees. Many of us actually asked eachother if we had already placed the entree order as it had been so long.

Despite it being an hour from the time the entrees were even ordered, and the rest of the patrons had left, our table was still neglected from any drink orders, refills, or quality checks.

In regard to timeliness: it took about 10 minutes from the time drinks were ordered to be brought to the table. Appetizers about 20 minutes, one was seemingly forgotten about (not like the waitress would acknowledge us to bring that to her attention), which later got brought out the same time as the entrees - nearly an hour from the time it was ordered. Again, once the entrees has arrived, no attention was given in any aspects until the completion of dinner. The quality of the food was quite good, as were the cocktails once they were received - but the service is what really diminished the entire dining experience.

Once we had finished dinner, we basically had to track the waitress down to remind her of the cake, which was also seemingly forgotten about.

Following the arrival of the cake, we were promptly met with the bill. Given the fact that we had been at the restaurant for well over two hours at this point, we quickly paid and left.

Again, the food was good - but the quality of service was greatly lacking, subsequently making the dining experience quite unpleasant, as the talk of the table was continuously questions regarding how long it had been since an order was placed, or we had been acknowledged.

I do not intend on coming here again with a larger party, or smaller party for...

(4/6/18) Visiting my daughter who's just returned from deployment (Air Force). She raved about the duck tacos. The hostess took one look at us and her demeanor changed from pleasant to sour. I know that look...One daughter has a big curly afro and the other was wearing a beanie. All the sudden the foyer had become "too dark" for her liking. She asked if we had a reservation and my daughter replied are reservations required? She spewed back "no, but it is a Friday". I thought well damn...It's only 5pm plus the website extends an open invitation to enjoy their happy hour. She said "one moment" - disappeared to the back and came back with a manager (I assume)! He was a man of color with curly hair. He looked at us, smiled, greeted us and told her to seat us. Now all of the sudden she had availability. She scoffed "follow me". Upon entering the dining area I saw several open tables and the bar had plenty of seating. Wasn't full at all! Bad service & disrespect doesn't fly with me but I didn't want to spoil our time together. I'm proud that they sensed it too. My daughter and I have served our country (military). It is disgusting to be disrespected based on appearances. We decided to spend our money elsewhere. We left and walked across the street to Hard Rock Cafe where the hostess greeted us like she was happy to have us and the service/ food was great. Being from Texas I wasn't missing anything...Tequila and tacos is...

Tequila 61 was a place we had been wanting to go into during our trip to Anchorage. The food and atmosphere was way better than expected. My family loved the food and having been on Triple D, expectations were high. We were thoroughly impressed up until we received our check. We were a party of 8 but had requested separate checks, one for a party of 6 and one for a party of 2. When I saw my bill, I noticed a gratuity was added for having a party of 8. I was ok with it since I had the bigger party and paid the 20% gratuity. I ended up being frustrated after leaving the restaurant because our server didn't really come over as much as I thought she should have seeing how we were seated as soon as they opened and there was only 3 other tables being used. My friend and I (he from the party of 2) were discussing our meals when he told me he was annoyed with his bill but didn't want to ruin the evening at the table. He told me (then showed me his receipt) that he too was charged for a party of 8 gratuity of 20%. I feel that was completely wrong. I would check your bill if you ask for separate checks just in case. We were flying out early the next morning and I didn't feel the need to argue and lose sleep over it. I can, however, leave my experience...