Cervantes — Restaurant in Albuquerque

We take a group of clients to dinner every year. Three years ago, we went to Cervantes. The fun holiday vibe made it a special time. We went back again last year, with a larger group. Again, this year we took our group of clients to Cervantes. I personally was looking forward to it for weeks.

We were sorely disappointed. Our server was rude to us from the moment she came to the table, and she just got worse and worse.

First of all, it was quite a long time before she took our drink order. Drinks we ordered with lime twists came with no lime twists. She noted that as she set them down, saying “I’ll be back with the lime.” But she did not come back. After ten or so minutes of our drinks growing warm, we just drank them without lime. We toasted our clients – one of whom had an empty glass of tea to toast with, as the server had not refilled his drink.

One client got the wrong food order. The server spent quite a while going through her tickets in an attempt to prove that our client was wrong about what she ordered. (“I just want to double check.”) When she discovered that our client was actually correct, that she had not ordered a chicken enchilada, she commented that the chicken was actually more expensive than the requested beef enchilada, and we hadn’t been charged for it. And then she sort of stood there expectantly, like that solved the problem. When it did not, the server finally agreed to bring the correct enchilada on the side. The man who ordered a dish that came with tortilla did not get tortillas, and was told she would be back with them. As she put my plate in front of me, she said “I still need to bring you the limes” – not noticing that the need for lime was long past, as we had finished our drinks.

The man who had asked for no onions got plenty of onions, which upset his stomach right away. My own order was flavorful and stiff as a new cardboard box, very hard to cut. The server showed up with the tortillas and the limes, saw that we did not need limes, said – out loud – that we did not need limes anymore because we had finished the drinks without them (that was thirty minutes ago, lady), and slammed them down in front of us anyway.

The server then arrived with the enchilada and noted the need for tea refill. A few minutes later she arrived with a new glass of tea, told our client she couldn’t do refills because there was a problem with the ice, so she just had to give him a new one – and slammed his drink down in front of him as though it was a huge favor.

She arrived to begin aggressively clearing dishes while some of us were still eating. She then came with the check, said she would be our server when we were ready… and stood there staring at us until we got our card out. She returned shortly after this to inform us that there was quite a crowd waiting for tables. I held my tongue with great effort, but our clients were clearly incensed. One of them pointed out that we had not been given any time to chat over drinks when we arrived and we were still finishing up with our conversation now. The server said fine, and stalked off. Our conversation turned mostly to how bad the service had been, and we took a moment to cut her previously generous tip in half. (Don’t think I won’t notice if you change it back, lady – I made a note.)

When she returned to the table a scant few minutes later to bluntly ask that we order more drinks and / or food, I told her we were leaving as it was quite obvious she wanted us to go. (We were seated shortly after 5 and paid our bill at 5:52 – it’s not like we had been there for hours.)

This woman clearly resented how much work it was to take care of us and the fact we were taking up so much precious space. Our entire group was made to feel unwelcome.

If you think I’ll ever willingly return, you’re mistaken. The decorations are cute but I don’t take clients to places that act like this. I came home and removed my previous 5 star review here (to which the owner replied “thank you!”) and replaced it...

Written on night of service: 1/26/2020; reported to Doordash, have heard NOTHING back from the owner. That night, I became nauseous and couldn't eat anything else to supplement the dinner that I had ordered. The order total was over $60. We're beyond saddened by this.

So.. I'm completely unhappy to write this review. We ordered from Cervantes tonight via DoorDash. We've eaten there in the past and had fantastic experiences (see: previous review). Tonight, though.. it was disappointing.

This was our order verbatim (from DoorDash's site):

1 Flan If sold out, contact me $3.50

1 Natillas If sold out, contact me $4.50

1 Beef Taco If sold out, contact me $3.25

1 Green Chili Cheese Fries If sold out, contact me $5.25

1 Tostada Compuesta Chili Choice: Green Chili If sold out, contact me $9.75

1 Cheese Enchiladas Rolled/Flat Choice: Rolled Chili Choice: Red Chili If sold out, contact me

Now.. the tostadas were amazing. The taco was amazing. There aren't pictures because they were eaten quickly. Here's where we get to the problems.

The green chile we ordered on the side was, disappointingly, not spicy at all.

The red chile was overly spicy (food that is too spicy, as we all know, is not good because it completely destroys the underlying taste of the food). The enchiladas were cheese, but I could barely taste the cheese because of the chile. There was supposed to be a side of sour cream for them. There was none. There was supposed to be onions on top. There were none. The rice smelled slightly off (not quite spoiled, but like it was going to be soon; this is bad because, besides the obvious reasons, I have a compromised immune system). The beans were cracked and dry (as though they'd been sitting there for hours). There was also a request for extra tomatoes on the enchiladas. Guess what wasn't there?

Now, to the desserts. As you can see, the flan.. or the dessert that was supposed to be flan.. well, it's swimming in milky water. This flan was in no way "freshly made". This flan tasted frozen and that is the only reason I have for why it looks like an old sponge soaking in milk. I tried it (as you can see) and it tasted like it was frozen and defrosted. I'm super sad about this because I legit love flan. But, not like this. Not even that cherry could make this better.

The "natillas" was more like rice horchata. It was extremely watery. I don't know why. I have never seen natillas that looked like this.

The sopapillas that come with each entree were.. well, they were chewy. I don't mean chewy in a good way. I mean.. they were probably old. They tasted alright, but they just didn't taste fresh.

Cervantes had always been so good to us and we really wanted their food today. Today, as everyone knows, was very rough across the board. A lot of tragedy hit this world today. We wanted some comfort foods tonight while we watched the Grammys.

I think that, if we order from Cervantes again, it'll be us sticking to the tacos and tostadas. All in all, this was super disappointing. I'm sad to have written this, but I hope that they address these issues and soon. They can do so much better. The initial bar they set in our home was so high. I'll end this review now. I'm just really...

The food was good. Not great but good. First time visitor. Stepped in for something local on our first night in town to celebrate my birthday. Felt rushed from the minute we walked in. There was only 1 other table of guests when we arrived and only 1 guest arrived after us. The hours on Google showed closing at 10 so we thought we had plenty of time arriving about 8:10. Turns out they close at 9 but modified hours weren’t posted anywhere. Even then, we were rushed to order because the kitchen was closing. I asked about their adovada sauce and was told it was a red sauce that they marinated and slow cooked the pork in. Never any mention of it being spicy so I just expected savory. The spicy flavor was good flavor but I agree with one of the other reviews that spicy and flavorful are different expectations. I asked for a side of sour cream to cut the spice so I could try to enjoy it. It was $2 for about 1.5 ounces. The serving size was generous considering we ordered a la carte but the lackluster service, being surrounded by someone sweeping in our immediate space, and the sense of being rushed through the meal from start to end ruined the whole experience. To top it off, my boyfriend ordered a modelo dressed and it was dressed with table salt - he couldn’t even drink the beer because it also had the salt in it. So, he asked for a water - he was brought a glass of tap with no ice. I ordered a mexican martini and it was a strong one but too strong to enjoy. Needless to say, we finished our meal and were out by 845, completely disappointed. I’d like to think another try might redeem our sentiments about this place, but we wouldn’t be willing to risk it again given we’re only here...