Owl Cafe — Restaurant in Albuquerque

I've gone here many times with my family and have enjoyed it. They have wonderful shakes. We don't eat out often, but this is a go to when we do. During COVID we did take out here every other week for months to help support this business because we didn't want them to go under. We knew the prices were going up - and completely understood that - but had to back off ordering as frequently due to cost. The staff is always very friendly, though today the ones we dealt with on the phone were not trained enough to know what types of cheese or breads they have - and didn't take the initiative to ask. Today's order was below subpar. We paid almost $70 for 4 meals, 3 of which were done wrong - 2 could not be eaten. 1 was a plain cheeseburger that ended up having mayo on it - which could not be eaten by the person who ordered it. The next was a Quesadilla that was supposed to come with fries. It came with chips. I was able to get that switched out before we left but the amount of fries they gave was half that of the burger we ordered and less than half of what they had in the way of chips. I guess that was a good thing because the fries from both meals were undercooked and soggy some how. Needless to say not appetizing at all. The last order that was wrong was supposed to have a substitute of a roll instead of a tortilla. They decided to keep tortilla because they were out of that type of roll and didn't think to substitute with any other type of roll because clearly a tortilla wasn't wanted - and that tortilla ended up being soggy and disgusting as well. I was aware of the tortilla before I left - but what was I supposed to do - wait another 15 minutes for that meal to be corrected while everyone else's meals got cold? They didn't even offer a credit or anything for the 2 errors (chips and tortilla) that were made before I left. Only 1 meal was able to be eaten and enjoyed. We have never had this type of issue here and have loved this...

Maybe it's unfair, but I have to compare this Owl Cafe to the famous Owl Bar and Cafe in San Antonio. They both have a similar style of GCCB, but the ABQ Owl unfortunately comes in 2nd place to the original. While I applaud the efforts of the new ownership, there are a few shortcomings as far as the burgers . I will list these in order.

1: The beef is too lean. A hamburger should have a decent amount of fat in the ground beef. People who eat hamburgers once in a while are not looking for a healthful meal. Maybe it's a cheat meal, or they just love a good burger. Ground beef for a hamburger should be at least 80/20 or less. Use more fatty ground beef.

2: Why automatically put mayo? Or maybe give the customer a choice? Mustard or a mayo/mustard combo is better with a GCCB anyway. It adds an additional flavor.

3: The toppings and cheese: The cheese is good an melted and perfect. But what's with the sweet pickles on the burger? They taste like they are made in house and are good but sweet pickles just don't go well with a GCCB. The lettuce and tomatoes are nice and fresh. However, the onions were lacking with only two maybe three rings of raw onion. I had to ask for more and my server brought chopped onions which was a disappointment. Bring it with more onions and less sweet pickles.

4: The Chile: A GCCB is not it without it. The Chile is 8.5 out of 10 good. It's got flavor, it's mild to medium hot, and it's roasted perfectly. I would prefer a tick more heat, but that's just me.

5: Sides. I ordered the GCCB with onion rings. They were 9/10 almost perfect and they came with a great dipping sauce. I also enjoyed the traditional and complementary side of beans with a little bit of chile.

Bonus: on a separate occasion I picked up a pint of their red chile sauce to go. It is absolutely delicious and nice and...

Okay so I decided to check this Owl Cafe out to try their highly recommended green chile cheeseburger. So, I did just that and I ordered a very small thing of fries to go with it I didn't realize it came with chips until the server had brought my food. It's a good thing that I did order those fries however, because the chips, ewwwww they were burnt and tasted horrible! I'm sorry I'm just not going to candy coat anything, I just tell the truth. 😏 The fries were, well some were burnt and some weren't. The ones that weren't, tasted ehhhhh, just okay. Now for the burger. I mean it was ehhhhh, just okay. The old Wendy's commercial slogan comes to mind of, Where's the beef?!; though 😂 and it was undercooked. There should have been an option given as to how I wanted it cooked, but I wasn't even asked. My server was very sweet and friendly and the host and busser was really nice, as well. My server though bless her little sweet heart forgot about me so I stacked my own dishes which I do everywhere I go anyways and brought them to the busser with bringing my drink so I could take it to go with me. She did apologize and regardless of anything, I tipped her well and I also tipped the busser because I take care of servers/bartenders & bussers. Oh yeah and booooo, although there is a small variety of beer choices offered in one of the menus, I was unable to order one or two or three or four-lol, kidding 😂 because there's new ownership of the Owl Cafe and the new owner does not have their beer wine/license yet. So, I had to order a Coke zero. I will come back when I have that...