Garduño's of Mexico — Restaurant in Albuquerque

If i could give zero stars I definitely would. My family and I went in for my wife's birthday and the restaurant was nearly empty. The service was slow and unattentive, leaving us sitting with empty drinks even after asking multiple times. One of the managers overheard us talking about waiting for refills and our food and at this point and proceeded to act like she was going to get to the bottom of it. The 1St manager comes back to the table defensive and tells us that they're having problems in the kitchen that they are backed up. ( keep in mind there are empty tables everywhere) Finally our food comes to the table, and it looks like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for way too long. The steak I had ordered was supposed to medium and came out charred, the burger that my Dad had ordered also medium came the same way and the burrito my wife ordered had definitely been sitting under the heat lamp and the cheese was rubbery and the Carne on the inside was full of chunks of gristle and fat pieces. So now not only the service is terrible the food was starting to match. I politely asked to have my steak redone, my father who is an older gentleman, was extremely hungry at this point and just ate his overdone burger because he didn't feel like waiting another 50 min for his food. My wife attempted to eat and pick apart the burrito but, finally gave up and lost her appetite ( because it was horrible). After waiting another 25 min my steak emerges from the kitchen and had the same sides from when I asked to have it redone. The server didn't even stick around for me to cut into it to see if it was done properly this time. So I cut into the steak and it was still cool on the inside, purple and blood red (pretty dangerous to eat)! So I've went from one extreme to the other. Obviously no one in the kitchen knows how to prepare a steak! Once again we had to track someone down in the restaurant to voice our concerns, because our waitress was nowhere to be found. So now everyone else who ordered has finished eating and we are ready to leave. At the begining of our visit I mentioned to the server that it was my wife's bithday and it was totally forgotten about until after we paid for the food that was prepared properly ( kids chicken strips, fajitas, and a quesadilla for our children) There was another manager that came to help straighten everything out, taking the steak, burrito and my Dad's burger off of the bill. (since we didn't eat the steak or burrito) I would expect nothing less. She tried her best to salvage the dinner, however it was too late. I felt bad for the second manager, she has a terrible staff and had to keep apologizing and making excuses for! ( We were not the only customers that had issues tonight) Gardunos has lost some customers at its cottonwood location, we will never go back...

We wont be back to Garduno's. What a disappointment! At about 8:00 tonight (Friday) my husband and I stopped at this Garduno's on the way home from the airport. There was no line to be seated and the hostess couldn't seem to be bothered with us. After stepping up fully to her station, she finally acknowledged us and took us to a dirty table. It clearly hadn't been bussed fully. There was trash (a wrapper) and crumbs on it, and something sticky got on my hands before I noticed it wasn't clean. The hostess also did not bring flatware and napkins when she sat us, my husband had to retrieve them for us. For a Friday night I was surprised to see it wasn't busy. Now I know why. It's been awhile since we ate at this Garduno's, and it is more than evident that it's gone downhill. Our server wasn't very attentive. While getting our drinks and food orders correct and in decent time, he didn't offer any suggestions and he left our table before we could ask a question. He was difficult to wave over to come back too. I ordered a Garduno's oldie, the seafood enchilada. What I got was a plate of over salted Blanco sauce, on top of mush with very little seafood. I couldn't eat it all, it was nothing, no taste but salt. I ended up eating a couple of tortillas from my husband's meal just so I wouldn't leave hungry! He ordered the half pound fajita platter. He said it was okay. What was NOT okay was being charged for the one pound fajita platter, another screw up from the server. We were seated near the bar. A woman who was clearly a manager, stood at the bar chatting with another employee for about 40 minutes. Straw wrappers and trash on the floor nearby her feet, and the floors of the entire restaurant were in need of sweeping. If holding a conversation is more important than running a business, then this business is in trouble. So, to recap:

1. Hostess seated guests to a dirty table, did not provide flatware.
2. Server was not helpful nor interested in being attentive.
3. Food was nasty overly salted mush on a plate. Quality and presentation are lacking.
4. Floors were not clean, visible trash all around. (How clean is the food prep?)
5. Manager doesn't care to oversee restaurant operations despite obvious problems. Chatting and ignoring instead.
6. Server billed for the incorrect, higher priced meal. The correct meal had been delivered to the table. My husband and I left Garduno's disgusted and dissatisfied. I forsee them going the way of Zio's next door if this lack of concern for customers continues...Zio's wet out...

If I could give 0 stars I most definitely would not hesitate, the one star is for the server- but will get to that later. This was the most horrible experience I have had in a restaurant in NM. I come to visit my family and will definitely never be going back to ANY Gardunos. This restaurant used to be one of my favorites when we lived in NM, but it has gone severely down hill apparently. Took my family to this establishment and it was awful. We walked in and granted I understand, having been a waitress myself in the past, you always hate the guests that come in close to closing. But you NEVER EVER let the guests know that as they are paying your wages after all. We did come in 30 min. to closing, but the looks we got from two of the male wait staff were deplorable. They stood in the back of the restaurant, just outside the service aisle, practically glaring at us. So much so that I actually asked and confirmed from the hostess that we would NOT be placed in either of their sections as I refused to give any of my tip (and I ALWAYS tip 20%+) or money to either of them. She smiled and laughed a bit nervously and said no, we would be put in the girls section and that they actually had a reservation for 10 people (not us) at 8:45 (15 min to closing) anyway. I will compliment and give the one star I gave to this restaurant to the server, she was nice and did a great job waiting on us. However, the food we received was nasty. The beans were dry, crusty and looked like they hadn't been replaced all day on each plate that came with beans, which at Gardunos is almost every plate. The rice- again super dry, hard, and disgusting. My mother in law got the sopapilla fries, and the majority of them were hard on the ends, again tasting like they had actually been made hours ago. Our bill was $178, much more than I had spent for the same group of people just a few days prior for Sadies (much better food). I would have complained in the restaurant if I had known everyone's food was as bad as mine. I heard from my children after we left that all of the food was disgusting, dry, hard, and even cold. I have never regretted spending money at a restaurant as much as I do having gone to this one. I will definitely never return and will not be recommending them to any of my friends that either live in...