El Patron North — Restaurant in Albuquerque

We had the worst experience ever. We arrived on a Friday evening around 8:20pm. According to their hours, they close at 10pm. We were not presently greeted by a hostess. We asked to be sat outside. The server at the time sat us. She proceeded to greet shirtless friends at the patio gate, stating loudly that she was done and would be departing shortly. We found her friends visit to be extremely unprofessional. Then we were greeted by a new sever, Jordan. He was ever so attentive and pleasant. He took our drink order and stated he was uncertain of a Gray Goose martini. This has always been a staple, special at Jimmy’s restaurants (Nick and Jimmy’s, El Patron, and Mykonos). Jordan expressed that he could “try” to serve us water, as the fountain machine was already cleaned for closing. I then inquired on the closing time and he explain it was 10pm. Jordan returned with chips and salsa, and explained that he had to beg for this, as they closed this part of service for the evening. He proceeded to take our food order. The food arrived and Jordan expressed great pressure to close up from the other servers. Around us severs were cleaning tables, placing chairs upside down on the tables….we took that as a hint to close up. Jordan kept asking if we needed anything, and again stated that his coworkers were trying to close up for the night. We have never felt more unwelcome to be at a service establishment. The unprofessionalism was appalling. Where is the general manger in this? Why publish closing hours of 10pm when employees want to leave at 8pm? Later when I received the bill, I was charged $16 for a Gray Goose martini. Nick has always had this on special for 6.95. The outrageous price and unwelcoming experience has discouraged us from ever returning. We hope, young server Jordan, will find a better job elsewhere that will use his phenomenal customer services...

Never been to El Patron on the North side until yesterday evening. Restaurant had a few empty tables, and about 14 full tables between 4 servers. Bustling but not packed.

Unfortunately, did not go well for my 7 yr old son and I.

We sat on the patio. Ordered fajitas and my son ordered a kids enchiladas. Took 40 mins to arrive. Waited another 30 mins for a single, small cup of chocolate mousse, and it still had not arrived. Server did not return to our table during this time. Finally gave up and went inside to discreetly ask our server for the check. As I walked in from the patio, she saw me from the complete other side of the room and shouted across the dining room rather defensively "I put in the order, sir, I'm still waiting for it!" I had not said a word. Heads turned, totally awkward. I smiled and played it calm but really it was not pleasant, at all.

Here's what needed to happen: Regularly touch base with your table, whether you have an update or not, and don't resort to yelling across the dining area. If you have a customer with a young child, please do not put them off like this either.

By the way, we got the little chocolate mousse dessert (it was a small ice cream scoop of refrigerated mousse with a tbsp of whipped cream on top. 30 minutes?), but then waited another 20 minutes and she wasn't coming back for the check. In the end she never did return to our table and I had to get a different server to cash us out at the bar. That server was very helpful by the way.

I won't be returning. The experience wasn't just sub-par, it was quite bad. Hopefully you will discover an enjoyable dining experience at El Patron North...

So we are regulars at the main El Patron off of Montgomery Blvd. and absolutely LOVE the food and the atmosphere so we decided to try the smaller El Patron off of Paseo and Wyoming and boy were we DISAPPOINTED!!! My wife and I walked into a fairly slow night at this location with only 2 couples sitting in booths and another 2 couples at the bar having some drinks so to say that they were slow is a correct statement. No one greeted us at the door for over 10 min. The couple that was at the bar saw us standing their so long that they leaned over to tell us that the restaurant has only 1 wait person working and a bartender/cook covering the place. Look, I get it, post pandemic, shot staffed, Yada, Yada, etc. etc. If you didn't have the help then be respectful to us paying customers and close early until you can get a full staff. We are willing to spend our hard earned money at your establishment the least you can do is provide a decent meal with decent staff to provide services to your paying customers. This is not going to stop us from going to the main location but we will definitely not be returning to this location. After we left from being unattended, we drove 5 little minutes towards I 25 and stopped in at Cocina Azul and were sat by a very attentive host immediately. Had some great dinner and drinks to a live guitar playing some great country classics. I really don't understand why Cocina Azul had a full staff, maybe it has something to do with the Management at El Patron as to why they can't get any...