Cocina Azul — Restaurant in Albuquerque

I live across town. Used to be a regular and picked up DoorDash from here as well for the longest. Met up with a longtime friend for lunch who is also a regular customer with his family. I get it, the world is different, everything is crazy and everyone just trying to make it through...BUT THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR THE ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS SERVICE AND BLATANT DISRESPECT WE ENCOUNTERED TODAY. A) We arrived today at about 12:30 PM for lunch (2 adult males) we understand that it is patio seating, however there are open doors and an open table right next to the open door so we asked if we can sit there. No only outside, no problem, 'those people' are the owners and that's why they are sitting inside...cool no big deal. We sit outside in the middle of the patio area and are asked what we would like to drink...water please and my friend orders a Corona (irony) the gentleman comes back with the two waters and I ask what beers on tap...'oh sorry your server will be right with you' ...oh ok, cool no problethroughouress comes over soonish not terrible they a little busy for lunch...what can I get you guys? Oh well my friend ordered a Corona and I was wondering what you have on tap...she starts reciting the list...(at this point my friend defends tbe waitress by saying 'Damn bro, are you going to make her tell you the whole list?') I don't hear anything I like so I asked if they have Bohemia in a bottle...ummmmm, she doesn't know (put a pin in that) ok fine I'll have a Modelo Especial on tap, the big one, extra limes please, thank you...my friend also orders his food at this time, I hadn't glanced at the menu yet. B) Maybe 5-10 minutes goes by, she been back and forth a couple times, but no beers and no words. Then the Corona bottle comes out. 'Yours is coming they had to change out the keg'..."Alright cool I'll have the shrimp tacos" sweet. 5-10 more minutes and our food comes out without my beer. I'm patient...10 more minutes, pretty much finished my tacos, my friends beer almost gone, my water has been gone, she literally had not been back to ask for refills, if food was ok, anything... C) Then she pops up at my side with the beer list, 'Hey the keg is still foamy can I get you another beer?' "Ummmm, yeah sure let me get a Stella with a glass, please, thanks" I'm a little short with her at this point I'll admit...the Stella comes out, the glass is regular I ask if they have the Stella chalice they don't ok cool no biggie... D) 20 more minutes go by...we had long finished our food and drinks...no check up, no refills, no asking if we want another round, dessert...nothing. I go to the restroom to wash my hands (shrimp tacos) (PIN) see the giant bottle display for "BOHEMIA" on the wall behind the bar...hmmmm, ok, whatever. Come back to the table, empty plates, still no check up, no ticket, nothing at all, like we weren't in the center of the entire patio area (two very large adult males, one black, one white, and we're not wearing army fatigues or any camo, lol) E) about 5 more minutes pass and the check comes..."Excuse me can you seperate these please?" I'm pretty upset and my friend is at a loss for words. She brings the ticket back, I set my debit card down and ask, "Wow, you're charging me for this beer?"( my friend has his cash out on his ticket) and she walks away with no words and doesn't take our tickets. Comes back, gets them, brings back change and my card with no words, and I ask for the manager. *Also, 2 other groups of 2 have sat, eaten and received checks after arriving after we did. (Not one offer for any thing else at all throughout) F) Manager comes out with a little bit of an attitude and asks what the problem is. Now, I'm not making a scene but I give him the play by play of exactly what I have stated above and he says, "Well we're really busy and there's only 3 servers, so we're trying to rectify your 'sassiness' (said it twice before I said excuse me??? He reclarified to 'unhappiness' and "what can I do to make you happy?" "There's nothing you can do to make me happy, this is appalling" Sonia A....

Found HAIR in my food and staff was rude and dismissive about situation, they made me feel very uncomfortable. I am in shock and frazzled at what I just experienced at Cocina Azul (5916 Holly Ave NE), I hope the owner of this restaurant sees this. I have been a customer of this restaurant for years and have had exceptional service every time, except for today Tuesday 2/25/25. Today was the worst customer service I’ve personally ever had in my life!!! I ordered huevos rancheros and found a hair in my food. The supervisor Grace came, took the plate and stated she would take it off if my bill. SHE DID NOT OFFER TO REMAKE MY MEAL AND INSTEAD LIED ABOUT SAYING THAT SHE DID. She was not apologetic at all. Also when I informed the waiter Ivan that there was a hair in my food, his response was “it happens”! I became upset at what he said to me and wanted to tell the Supervisor Grace. Well instead of apologizing for his behavior, she backed Ivan up and said yes that does happen. Of course mistakes happen but you don’t tell a customer that! She then stated that my husband and I are “86’d” from both restaurants. I didn’t even know what “86’d”means. I have NEVER in my life been treated like this! This is the absolute worst! Horrible customer service from Ivan and Grace. I was told that Gilbert the manager would be there this evening because he needs to know what occurred today. There has to be cameras in the place to show exactly what happened!!!! Then I was told that he is off today. I am so disappointed with what happened and shocked at the low level service from these two individuals. They should not be in a customer oriented job and should not be treating Cocina Azul customers so horribly!! It doesn’t make sense that I am banned from a restaurant for having a hair in my food, that is...

We came here for Mother’s Day and will NEVER be back. The service was abominable, food mediocre- the only good thing was the chips and queso. It took over 45min for our entrees to come out - we ordered two plates of street tacos and a bowl of soup - the restaurant wasn’t full at all, if I were, I’d justify the 45 minutes but that wasn’t the case. When we asked to pay our tab and cancel the rest of our order, our waiter said our food was “being tray’d now and it will be out in a minute” ... 10 minutes later our food was delivered (the soup was delivered cold). At that point, you’d think the manager would come out to apologize for the wait or at least ask how things were going - that didn’t happen. We ate our meal and asked to speak with the manager on our way out. The manager had no business cards, couldn’t look us in the eye, never offered to compensate for the appalling service, and basically only asked us to “give them another chance”. Not sure how we’re supposed to give another chance without even knowing this guy’s name. If you do risk coming here, I’d only recommend the chips and queso. They charge for salsa but I wouldn’t even call it salsa. The margarita was incredibly small and underwhelming.

Edit: After Frank Sr, the owner, gave such heated response to my review, we went back in to get our money back (his suggestion). To clarify, the party he mentioned in his response was not me. My father in law was the one who spoke with the manager, not me. Frank Jr was there when my father in law went in for the refund and was kind. It’s unfortunate that Frank Sr had such a horrible reaction to my review - when I reheated my leftover soup up, it was very tasty and like I said, the queso was good! Now if only the owner would take charge of his emotions and work on...