Rio Bravo Brewing Company — Restaurant in Albuquerque

We have been coming here since 2017 because of the New Mexico Piñon Coffee Porter, which is my all-time favorite beer. The beer, food, and service used to be great, but lately the beer is the only thing that remains so. The service has been slow to the point of my husband having to go to the bar and ask someone to come over and take our order. We typically come here in the late afternoon, between the lunch and dinner crowds when it’s not crowded. There is plenty of staff on hand to check in on us, but they don’t bother coming over. We had to go up to the bar to ask for more chips and another round of beer. In addition, the food selection and quality has dropped significantly. Last two times we were here we ordered guacamole with the chips and it was well beyond its prime - actually brownish in color. My husband ordered the smoked brisket and it was tough and fatty. I was also sad to learn that they are dropping their black bean burger from the menu, leaving only a couple of choices for a vegetarian. A portobello burger is not a good alternative to a black bean burger. The fried avocados are tasty, but so small you’d have to order six of them to feel full. They don’t come with any sides and don’t offer any, such as black beans, pinto beans or rice, to make a meal rather than a snack. Many restaurants have wonderful choices for vegetarians. Rio Bravo should broaden its horizons and offer more creative choices. We will still come here to buy their take-out beer, but are looking for other alternatives when it comes to food. Edited to add - reading some of these reviews alerting me to the owner's attitude toward minimum wage has me looking for an alternative to my favorite beer. ABQ has many breweries from which to choose, so the search is on for a replacement! And it's very telling that the owners - Randy and Denise - don't even bother responding to any of...

Went here during the Trolley Santa Pub Crawl and I would have to say that my group was very disappointed by the wait staff. The man in question is Johnathan, he wears the tiny glasses. We sat down at our table and he was very short and rude to us. He was upset that we didn't have our order ready as soon as we sat down and walked away as we were asking a question, which we contributed to a misunderstanding. He later returned and was visibly upset that we were ordering food. We gave him our orders, and he returned with cutlery and no napkins saying that they were out and to tread lightly with our food. He didn't try to find a resolution to this issue, he could of offered hand towels, paper towels, etc. We had to go to the bathroom and get paper towels. A waitress checking up on us asked if we needed anything and we told her we needed napkins. She returned with some, which we asked if they were out and she said no. We had asked prior to our service if Johnathan could keep in mind that we had separate tabs. When he returned with the check he said it was too complicated to separate the order between 4 people and we would have to figure it out, we had one beer each and 3 entrees. He never once checked in on us. It was almost as if he was deliberately trying to make us feel uncomfortable in every way. The sad thing is, is that this is not the first time that this happened with him and between my group. Something similar happened on the Halloween Pub Crawl, where he said he knew nothing about it and wouldn't give us our discount with our stickers. Despite the first negative experience we had with him we were excited to give Rio Bravo another try. Needless to say we have sworn off this place. I thought I would leave this review because I couldn't believe that someone was treating us like this and must happen often...

One of the worst experiences we have ever had! Came here earlier this year and had a terrible experience, it was near closing time and there was a table full of staff in the back of the restaurant area (off the clock and drinking) being very loud and hollering rude things. Then the server came around to put up chairs and he was actually slamming them onto the tables. The restaurant was still open, there were other people there, we had closed out and just finishing the rest of our beers, didn’t even eat just had a few beers! The staff was being very rude, clearly trying to get the rest of their customers out of the building (still before actually closing time). We are both in the service industry and completely understand the desire to finish your shift and get off the clock, but this is extremely childish and inappropriate behavior and a terrible way to treat your guests. After several months we decided to give them another chance a few weeks back, sometimes one experience can be a fluke! However our return visit was not much better. Came earlier in the day and sat at the bar to eat. The servers/bartenders were impossible to flag down, the guy who took our first order disappeared and it seemed no one else wanted to help us. Finally got food and my partner had an empty beer and could not get anyones attention for another beer until we were done eating, no one checking on us after our food arrived. Very disappointing! The food was good and it’s such a nice space, but with such terrible service we will not likely...