Lindo Mexico — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Customer relations at Lindo Mexico are atrociously bad. I talked to the owner and she was very proud to tell me that she has an AA in Hospitalty.

But she must have gone to a school that taught her how to treat customers like subassemblies in a mass production assembly line in a factory.

This being said, the food here is better than average by far for a Mexican restaurant, and i’ve eaten in dozens or hundreds in New Mexico and California, from friendly neighborhood tacquerias to first class Mexican and Latin restaurants with seaside views.

I was whisked by the hostess/manager to a seat at the bar way in the back of their enormous dining room. Normal gracious behavior would be to ask me if I preferred to sit at the bar or at a table.

When I said I did not wish to be anywhere near alcoholic beverages, she then parked me in front of another bar (the service bar for orders for the wait staff) and propped up a huge drinks menu in front of me.

Some customers are recovering alcoholics, pr diabetics, or like many Americans trying to lose weight - but they’re trained not to care.

She also put me next to the constant in-and-out noise and chaos of the kitchen, at a table for 4, even though I came in by myself, and she had several quieter tables for 1, nowhere near the kitchen, and at least 50 or more feet away.

But it was my first time at the restaurant, I did not even see those tables until I’d finished eating, and she was very abrupt, and she neglected to simply offer me that option!

When I brought this up to the hostess/manager and the owner, they took turns rudely interrupting me, smirking at me condescendingly, and telling me that I was insane to bring up these very basic concerns.

They also do not offer a choice on the beans. When I asked the waiter for whole beans instead of refried beans, it threw him into confusion; he disappeared into the kitchen and told me that whole beans are $2 extra (even though whole beans require less preparation).

I do have to give them credit; the refried beans were the best i’ve ever tasted. Not heavy, not greasy; really, really good.

And the dining room is truly spacious and roomy and beautiful. There’s even a very nice coin fountain.

I should have wished for gracious service to match the food.

It appears that when the owner got her AA degree, she was not taught that giving the customers choices is one of the key elements of treating customers well and making them feel welcome.

I checked with a friend of mine who’s lived in Albuquerque much longer than I have, and he told me the staff and management at Lindo Mexico are especially unfriendly and even hostile, and that he’s stopped going there.

Some of the better restaurants the world over have surly, grumpy staff, but really good food. We put up with it bc we know restaurants are very busy and the work is often hard.

But - Lindo Mexico - has really good food but a team that is capable of being openly aggressive, insulting, defensive and combative - a complete mismatch to the lovely dining room and good food - and this is really an opportunity sorely and sadly missed to provide a truly great...

Mediocre is a compliment. Just another usual overpriced menu with poor service that depends on ambiance. Went here for Valentine’s Day. Thought it would be a nice evening. Once we were seated at our sticky table in the bar because they weren’t seating the dining room anymore so they could get people out and close on time, we weren’t greeted for nearly 10 minutes. Drinks took another 10 minutes. The “bartender” who obviously didn’t want to be there had to remake our drinks because she didn’t read the order correctly, another 5 minutes. The server did make up for it by bringing us another round of chips and salsa. Once our drinks came out it took another 12 minutes for our server to take our food order. While she was taking our order and describing to us different plates that we were asking about, she would abruptly begin to talk to someone else who was talking to her in an earpiece, and then asked me to repeat what I was saying. I literally had to ask her who she was talking to and if she needed to continue with whom ever was talking to her in her earpiece. I also had to repeat my entire order to her because she wasn’t writing anything down. They had a limited menu for the occasion. We ordered a plate designed for two. Food came out quick which was a surprise, but consisted of chewy over cooked fat ridden meat, cheap hotdogs, a baked potato with only butter, a small bowl of a few tasteless beans and chicharones in broth, and a bowl full of semi coagulated super oily cheese that was obviously microwaved that I needed to drain the oil out of and cut with a fork and knife. When asked what type of tortillas we wanted with our meal we decided to have both flour and corn , I later found out that my server charged us an additional $1.25 each for both sets of tortillas which at least one type should have been included, one would think. Our server did check on us once to see if we wanted another round of margaritas, we both ordered another drink each, only to be told shortly thereafter by our server that the bar had closed, and we couldn’t get our drinks, this was 30 minutes before the restaurant was supposed to close. I then watched the bartender make and serve drinks to three different staff members who enjoyed them thoroughly. Two shots, what looked to be a mimosa, and another mixed drink. I also watched the bartender make two drinks for another waitress who delivered them to her table after we were told the bar was closed. This wonderful experience came out to be an affordable $67. And we were all but swept out of the bar as all of the eager workers were quickly turning off all televisions and sweeping as we tried to enjoy the last sips of our drinks. And our server was super quick to run the receipt and card. I tipped her well anyways because I get the server life, but come on!! This wasn't a romantic dinner for two on Valentine’s Day by any means. Boo...

My family and I decided to have late lunch for my son's 6th birthday on 4th of July at Lindo Mexico to celebrate. We had a party of 8 and were told our table would take about 40 min, pretty usual for this restaurant. Asked the host if it were OK to bring in a cake, host said yes totally fine. We sat and They took our order fast but also brought our food faster than I can say my ABCs , the down fall to that was that our food was under cooked (steaks, asparagus) the food was loaded with tons of salt. They also took 15 min to bring out my plate, chiles rellenos the same plate my mother ordered. Everyone had already finished eating and I was bearly beginning my plate. My family is never the type to return food so we just tried to enjoy as much as possible. Before i was even finished I asked the waiter for some extra plates to cut my sons birthday cake and the waiter had the manager come over and manager let us know that she would bring out some plates if we promised to do it fast because they were about to close (I'm guessing since it was 4th of July holiday) At that point it made sense why they rushed to seat, place drink orders, and take out our food. So we ended up cutting the cake, singing happy birthday and cleaning up as fast as we could. Then me and another family member decided to go wash our hands since we helped cut the cake, we weren't even in the restroom for 1 min when our waiter came in rushing removing the trash bags underneath our knees, slamming stall doors and being super rushed and rude near our area. As we were leaving we noticed the floors were super wet from them mopping the exit, but there were no cautious signs put in place. With an entire staff out on the floor they didn't even decide to give us a warning. Very hazardous. Still left a pleasant tip, but I was very disappointed in the customer service. Don't allow a big party to enter if your gonna rush their...