Braceros Mexican Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Amarillo

If I could give this place negative zero stars I would... I just moved to Amarillo 2 days ago into one of the historic homes on route 66. After a long 2 days of moving everything in, I wanted to treat my family to a nice dinner for their help. It was about 6pm this evening and we had a party of 7. We went in and announced our party and asked to sit outside. It took over 10 minutes for anyone to even come to our table to greet us, take drink orders, etc... we finally got some chips and salsa and I went inside to ask for a salt and pepper shaker. As soon as I walked through the door, all I hear is one of the servers complaining about another customer to the hostess. And using the most foul language. F bombs, calling the customer the b word, etc... I reminded her that I was standing there and she was behaving very unprofessionally. She proceeded to tell me rudely that she was not talking to me, but to her coworker and I told her that's not the way to behave or talk in front of customers and she rolled her eyes and walked away. So I went back to my table. After being out there for a little bit, we got our drinks and one got spilled immediately. I sent my 12 year old daughter to ask for a replacement and the waitress (a different girl) who greeted her was also very rude and unprofessional, seemingly annoyed by her request, and rolled her eyes saying she'd send someone out, and my daughter observed and commented on how rude she was being. A moment later my nephew who is 11 walked in to change his clothes from the spill and overheard this same waitress talking to another girl and calling my 12 yr old the b word. She's a 12 year old child. So we asked for the manager and the manager seemed very annoyed with us when we told her what had transpired just in the first 20 minutes of our visit there. She offered us free appetizers and said she'd talk to the wait staff. We started talking about going somewhere else and she was saying she had to see if the kitchen had started out order, like we wouldn't be able to leave if so. But at this point we were no longer interested in patronizing this establishment, especially after the manager seemed so annoyed to have to handle the staff. I worked in restaurant management for 17 years and was astounded by the way the staff and management treated us as customers. There are 1000 more places in Amarillo we can spend our money, and with a party of 7 all ordering off the full menu, not kids meals, I would expect some hospitality and decent customer service, as we were expecting to spend quite a bit of money. Especially on old Route 66. I'm sure this location is a big money maker for Broceros as a company and their staff. But you can count on the fact that they will never see a dollar of mine and I had anticipated spending plenty on this strip, as I plan on living in this location for a very long time. I'm hoping the owner reads this review. In my experience, when the staff behaves this way, it's usually attributed to bad management. You all need to clean house and start over.... Or close the place down. Your restaurant and staff just took and big L tonight. And for anyone traveling or passing thru expecting to get good service from this place because it's on Route 66, just go somewhere else. Amarillo is supposedly known for people being friendly, but for us new to the community and wanting to spend our money with you, you just left a terrible taste in my mouth and I'll never be back. I'm also going to tell everyone I know (which is a lot of people) not to patronize your establishment until y'all clean up your act. Too bad I didn't get to try the food. It certainly has to be better than...

First of all this is not a place I would go again, or at least not frequently, they have a "convenience fee" which means the servers have to deal with people complaining about it when it is the owner's at fault for not wanting to pay the fee themselves so they take it out on the servers, hopefully at least they get paid decently. With that being said the lettuce on plates can be a hit or miss, it had a weird taste on the enchiladas plate, but on the shrimp and fish plate it was fresh so they probably are not organized on the back when it comes to fresh vegetables, so it was a big let down because everything else tasted as it should. Another thing I would like to point out is that the place is too small for what it is, it is hard to walk between tables and it feels very hot, you really can feel the heat on the person sitting on another table, I understand they cannot do anything about it because that would require remodeling, but still doesn't mean that it is well organized overall. The servers and kitchen staff are really carrying this place on their backs, while the kitchen staff does the best they can with what they have so hopefully they give them fresh ingredients in the future, the servers are outstanding overall, they are very nice and they know how to talk with people, most of them are bilingual so that is definitely a plus, they are very caring for the guests and they do their best with what they have, you can tell all of them are very experienced from the moment you walk in.

Pros: service is great Neutral: food can have fresh ingredients or not. Cons: "convenience fee" just pay the fee and stop putting your workers on that awkward positions. DO BETTER! Too crowded and you can...

The smell of grilled meats will hit you hard when you walk in, so if you love it, you'll be in heaven, but you will leave smelling like a bit of smoke which I didn't mind a bit.

Nico was our server, great guy who was attentive throughout the meal. There were 5 of us, including one child.

The only drinks listed on the menu are the beers, but they do have a full bar as well. I got a spicy bloody mary, which was very salty but good. Large draft beers were $6 and they could do the dressed, good selection of Mexican beers.

They bring pitchers of salsa and the chips are good. The queso wasn't great, but I suspect the flameado would have been a better choice.

We got the molcajete, the asada was just fantastic, super tender and flavorful. Everyone enjoyed the shrimp, the nopales were flavorful and well cooked. I wasn't wild about the rice and beans, but others enjoyed the rice in particular. The guac was very good.

We got the parillada which was unique and I was blown away by the quality. The cabrito, fajitas, and adobada were excellent. High quality meats, not a lot of gristle, incredibly well seasoned and absolutely delicious. I had added quail to it and it was, hands down, the best quail I've had anywhere.

The sides could use a little work, but if you're coming here for the meat, you will not be...