The Daily Grind — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Upon first arrival, we were seated quickly, and our drink order was taken promptly by the hostess. We waited for about 10 minutes, when we were finally greeted by our server, he said he would be right with us to take our order. He came back about another 10 minutes later with 1 of our drinks, we waited about 30 minutes for our second drink, which was a mimosa. The server wasn’t 21 and couldn’t handle alcohol, so another server came to check our ID, and even after that we still had to ask a few times for the mimosa. Finally, yet another server delivered the second drink. Our orders were placed and the food came out pretty promptly and looked wonderful. We were enjoying it when my partner noticed a hair in my food. We tracked down our waiter and showed him, and he quickly took the plate and put a rush on replacing it. Once finished, we asked for the ticket. Our server brought the ticket, and we were ready with our card moments later, but our server again disappeared and never came back to take the card. We ended up getting up to go inside and pay. Once at the register, we asked if the meal with the hair could be compensated. They got the manager, and he came over hostile asking how much we wanted. We simply said the meal that had the hair, and he was instantly combative. He said wasn’t it replaced? It was, but we still had the inconvenience of the hair in my meal. He then stated that we didn’t wait that long, and that he would fire our server because he was so terrible, which we never said or asked for. The manager didn’t know how to work the system and had to ask for help to apply a discount. In the end, he ended up comping the entire meal my partners included, and our drinks, minus the mimosa. Which isn’t what we asked for, nor did we make a huge deal about any of it. We were very patient. Just the entire experience was not enjoyable and we will not be returning. I wish I would’ve caught the name of the hostile manager, but it was just too much at that point and we...

Atmosphere: If you eat on the patio, be prepared to live the movie, "The Birds" in real life. We didn't expect Sunday brunch with the birds but that's what we got today. Should be called The Pigeon Patio instead of The Daily Grind. There were a ton of them and they are a menace! They swooped over people's heads, legit attacked food on tables, and didn't have one care about the people trying to eat their food. I guess there's very little that can be done? Funny at first, then not so much. Pics below are only a few of the very aggressive gang of feathered fiends that harassed us. If not for those punks, weather was nice and the patio would have been far more enjoyable without looking over my shoulder and around my feet literally every few minutes.

Service: There was not enough staff to cover the patio properly. Host was not at station inside to seat us so a server ok'd us to grab a table outside. I counted two servers for inside and patio, maybe there was another but didn't see. We waited a bit to get the table cleaned and menus came a bit after that. Male server was friendly and took good care of us. Through our meal, I watched as other tables sat down and waited much longer for menus, drinks, and order taking.

Food: Average. Had a ham & cheese omelette which was standard, nothing special. Visually, big chunks of ham gave me hope, but it was meh and the cheese to ham ratio wasn't adequate. Home fries are frozen, reheated, and flavorless. Sourdough was warm and served with one butter patty and packaged jam. All edible but nothing to brag about or invite me to return for it. Maybe I ordered the wrong item and there are better menu items. I ate here many years ago and had great service, but I don't remember the food to compare.

Bathroom: the one I went in didn't have toilet seat covers but was otherwise clean.

Wouldn't go out of my way to eat here again but without the pigeons, nice patio with comfortable seating and umbrellas...

We have been visiting the Daily Grind for a few years now, and I have to say that each time it gets a little more disappointing. I finally decided to leave a review, just because my experience today was so bad.

I was having brunch with a friend -- she had never been to DG before, and I told her the food was pretty good. I got there before her. I stood in the doorway for 5-10 minutes while nobody even acknowledged my presence. I wasn't greeted, and I wasn't seated. I just decided to help myself to a table so that I didn't have to continue standing awkwardly in the doorway.

Once I sat down, I waited an additional 15 minutes before anyone even came to my table to serve me. I let the waitress know that I was expecting someone else. At no point, even after my friend arrived, did she ever bring another menu or another set of silverware. We even shared a menu while ordering, which appeared to go unnoticed.

My friend ordered water with lemon. Water eventually came -- no lemons. We drank our water carefully, since we proceeded to be largely ignored for the remainder of our stay, and we didn't want to run out of water and go thirsty. Good thing we did that, because even though we asked for more water, we never actually got it. Our food took 30 minutes to arrive (we ordered 2 sandwiches), and when it did, half of what I ordered on my sandwich wasn't even on it.

This has pretty much become the standard experience when I go there. I have continued to go because it's close by, the food is good (especially the raspberry scones), and I like the new space, but I am finally over it. The service is always slow, they aren't at all attentive to their customers throughout any part of the dining experience (from arriving to leaving), and they often get orders wrong. I'm sorry I had to write this, but I thing DG has a LOT of work to do in the way of...