Los Cuates — Restaurant in Albuquerque

I received a reply stating they would refund me for the cost of the queso and quesadilla. After several emails, I NEVER received a refund nor an apology. I received an excuse after the excuse. I was basically told it was my fault because queso doesn't travel well and the quesadilla had what it said it would have (no it didn't) and it's my fault for because I didn't know I had to "BUILD" the quesadilla on my own. I love Los Cuates to this day but prefer to have eat in. Where if there is a mistake I can take it up immediately.

We had just been on vacation, and when we returned, we wanted our favorite Los Cuates dinners. As we drove into Albuquerque and I placed the order on the website with a completion time of 20 minutes, by 8:15 ish. We arrived at the take out desk at 8:24 pm. We had paid online with my debit card but decided to pay a tip in cash. Dinner came out to $76.04 when we walked in, and we heard the staff asking if we had left a tip. The girl bagging our dinner said no. We walked in, gave her my name and held up $10, and said, "Here is your tip." I think she may not have realized we heard them talking about the tip. We live 30+ miles away from the restaurant.

We arrived home, and I began handing out the 3 meals ordered. The first plate was large ground beef red chile enchiladas, which looked and tasted great. 2nd was a shredded beef red chile chimichanga plate, looked and tasted great.

My meal was a shredded beef quesadilla. Which should have been a large flour tortilla with cheese and grilled beef, served with olives, tomatoes, jalapeños, shredded cheese, guacamole and sour cream. The picture below is a slice from that meal. In the to go box, a quesadilla with shredded beef and cheese, no olives, no tomatoes, and the jalapeños were in a small pile in the corner. Where was everything else? Since when did a quesadilla become a build your own? And how would I add the jalapeños to it when the shredded cheese inside had fused the top and bottom of the quesadilla together. Placing the jalapeños on top would now make this a tostada. I wanted a quesadilla. I am so disappointed.

The order also had a quart of salsa (loved it), a pound of chips, and lastly, a quart of queso. The picture below shows the queso (we added some of the salsa to it), it was so thick it was like spreading cold cream cheese on a room temperature bagel. We have tried heating it up again (started smelling burnt almost immediately), but it didn't loosen up. Again, we were so disappointed.

We couldn't call last night because they were closed by the time we arrived home. I'll call today, but it's too late. For dinner, I had chips and salsa, which really sucked after a 13-hour drive home.

What happened to Los Cuates on Lomas?

When I sent my concerns via website. I received a message that my email would be addressed and that someone would contact me in about 24 hours. No emails, no phone calls have occurred. Simply sad.  I was simply wanting an acknowledgment and maybe an apology.  I won't say we will never eat at Los Cuates again because we will, but definitely not the...

From beginning to end, this place was lacking at best. Service was too slow to comprehend. When we got our complimentary chips and salsa, we were greeted with very thick hard to chew bagged chips and overly sweet “salsa” with the consistency of BBQ sauce. We ordered tow large sides of guacamole and three drinks one which was recommended by our server. It took well over 15 minutes to get our tiny sides of guacamole (the guacamole portion was small but had good flavor) and the drinks. The only drink that wasn’t palatable was the one recommended by the server (some sort of cocoanut margarita). We ordered our meals, beef fajitas, carnita chimichanga, and ground beef chimichanga. We ask to have the cocoanut margarita removed from our bill and have it replaced with a simple Diet Coke and bourbon. Nearly 10 minutes later we received the Diet Coke and bourbon which took nearly 10 minutes to receive and was also not palatable due to an excessive amount of syrup in the Diet Coke mixture. Our meals arrived quite some time later. The fajitas were good, the pork in the carnita chimichanga was dry and over sauced. The ground beef in the beef chimichanga was undercooked (pink) and had zero seasoning. The ground beef chimichanga was not eaten and we asked to have it removed from the bill. The manager came to ask what the trouble was and as we were explaining, he just made excuses for the poor quality drinks and food. When we got the bill, each returned item was labeled “COMPLAINT” rather than simply deducted from the menu. This was by far the worst “Telmex” we...

Updated review 5 Aug 2023: my significant other and I stopped here for dinner a little after five this evening. We sat in the back corner of the cantina, and we had THE BEST server ever out of all the times we've been here. I should have gotten his name, but he was an older gentleman with a beard whom was also making the drinks at the bar while serving tables. We didn't have to ask him for a single thing; he was on top of everything, from the moment he first stopped at our table until the moment we were walking away to leave. We are completely satisfied with our phenomenal server and the always amazing food (see my two new photos added from this visit)! P.S.: Our food was made wicked fast but also perfectly! They're making pure magic in that kitchen!

Older review: I've been here three times within the past two months, and although it's not the same as when I was a kid, it's still delicious and the best New Mexican food in the state! The sopapillas seem to have changed, but I still enjoy them.

The food is consistently delicious, the drinks are made perfectly, and the atmosphere can't be beat! But most of all, the servers are friendly, hard-working, and attentive; they really make every dine-in experience great! The cantina is my favorite spot, but every dining area is nice to be in.

The photos are from my most recent visit. :) The salsa that comes with the chips is just as I remember it being when I was a kid, and the reason I'm so picky about other salsa, haha. We...