Bulevar Mexican Kitchen — Restaurant in Austin

I never write reviews. I adore this place - the food is top notch and crafted with such care and detail. The flavors are incredible. Normally the wait staff are definite foodies and so on top of everything! But tonight, something was VERY off and staff didn’t seem to notice or if they did, they couldn't get back on track, which did not make sense for a restaurant of this caliber.

We got there at our reservation time and the hostess apologized but couldn’t get us what I asked for with the reservation because she said all of the tables at the railing had people that had been there for awhile and apparently weren’t leaving. We were a little disappointed but mostly ok with a table off to the side.

There was a table of 5 very young 20-somethings at the rail who were extremely loud and obnoxious. They were so drunk they were completely unaware of how loud their voices were. They were conducting themselves as if it were 1am Sat night on 6th st. My 19 year old son (in a college frat himself) was even irritated.

I thought they would leave soon if we could just suck it up. They didn’t. They were so drunk that they were barely drinking anything anymore and one kid got on his phone and exclaimed, “We are all SO wasted!” The waiter did nothing but smile every time he came to the table when he should have been asking them to quiet down or maybe find a gentle way to get them to leave.

I couldn’t believe a restaurant of this caliber was allowing this to go on. WHY?! They didn’t have to allow this – this restaurant is always packed!

The staff of Bulevar are restaurant professionals for sure – but they were either neglecting the situation or someone new was in charge and didn’t know what they were doing. Or why didn’t their waiter notify management when these kids sat there inebriated being so obnoxious and crazy loud?!

Meanwhile our waitress was taking a very long time to check on us each time, and the food was taking a very long time to come. At the one-hour mark from when we arrived, I asked her when she thought our food would be coming. She said, “Your food will be coming.” She acted irritated I had even asked.

Not long after that, a girl vomited at the obnoxious table and it smelled. No staff even noticed because each staff member was taking so long to check on their tables! The girl was crying and the other people were taking their napkins trying to wipe it up saying “We got you.” Taking awhile and still not leaving.

I had to get up and go find someone to notify because I was not going to try to eat with that smell. It wasn’t easy to find someone. I found the hostess putting together a to go order near the kitchen. She, appropriately horrified, went immediately to a manager. Another manager, Willis, came directly to us, which he did not have to do, apologized and comped our appetizers, which he also did not have to do. His words went above and beyond, he apologized, and thanked us for our patience. I thanked him but let him know we had been there over an hour and what the waitress had said when I asked an ETA for our food. He went to check on the food. Even that took awhile. (It was never explained why.) The waitress was not clearly not pleased when she came back to the table after that. I couldn’t believe how unprofessional she (and the clueless waiter of the vomiting table was). That’s not been my experience of the normally very impressive waitstaff.

The girl who vomited had to partially undress down to a bikini top and have a guy help her walk out of the restaurant that way. The sight and the smell of the area was foul. Staff took their sweet time cleaning it up but it was not set back up all the way - some of the dirty napkins and the girls’ purse were just left there. We just tried not to look while we ate.

Willis was the bright spot in all of this. He seemed to be the only one that knew what he was doing and how to handle things. I only wish he was in the kitchen earlier figuring out what the holdup was and was made aware of the obnoxiousness of the vomiting table by...

Long post warning. I normally don't write bad reviews but our experience was one for the books. Made a reservation for a friend and I to try out this restaurant after the rave reviews. The evening started off promising as we were able to get sat earlier and that's pretty much one of two good experiences here. First, our waiter greets us and gives his recommendations for their drink menu and regular menu. We decided on the margarita spicy (hers) with tajin mine with regular salt and a couple courses from each portion of the menu as suggested. Well... my drink was wrong the waiter was nice enough to re-submit my drink order and after thirty minutes it was still wrong. Oh well, must have been the bartenders. Food wise, we chose the sopes, lamb, and salsa sampler. The lamb was delicious, the salsa a sampler was ok and the sopes? Well... fast forward to an hour and fifteen minutes later the manager comes to our table to tell us the food wasn't up to standards and they are making fresh sopes for our table that should be coming out within a few minutes and for the wait it will be on the house. Well, they came out and where was our waiter you ask? No quite sure but when he came over to check on our table he told us the kitchen made a mistake and for some reason the order got lost!? When we informed him the manager came over to talk to us and let us know what happened he said "ok, let's go with that" and walked away! Anyways, we decided to order their house old fashioned instead (which never came out) and we were told quite matter of fact that the gentlemen who took our drink order simply forgot to put it in. The rest of the food ordered was just OK oysters were fresh, snapper ceviche was ok, the scallops were not good, and the duck was a bit tough. When we asked about the tortillas which we assumed accompanied the main dishes the runner simply stated he didn't know if our dish came with tortillas. At this point we just start laughing because the service was so terrible. Fast forward to our tab, the sopes were not removed of which we had to tell a random waiter to remove from our check. After we received our tab without the sopes included, our lovely waiter graces our table with his presence to tell us he also comped one of our drinks for the wait and guess what... NOPE still charged for the drinks. We would have mentioned it but given the course of the evening we would still be there the following day waiting for service. The whole experience was like an episode of the twilight zone where you don't know what's true or not. On a last ditch effort to try and salvage the night, we decided to stop off at the bar hoping for a different experience. NOPE as we walk up we're are met with a look of disappointment as apparently they closed at 9. BUT the bartender was since enough to let us have a drink which was the second saving grace of this evening. Sooo if you want subpar food, disastrous service where wait staff isn't briefed on the menu, then go...

My husband made reservations at Bulevar for our 14th year anniversary and it was definitely a pleasant surprise! We absolutely love ATX Cocina so he went with the sister restaurant and it did not disappoint.

As you walk in, you’re quickly greeted by the hostess. He was so sweet and congratulated us for our 14 years together! It was such a nice touch! I noticed the bar was poppin and there were many tables occupied. It looked like a vibe! Very modern Mexican feel. There’s a huge portrait of Zoro on one of the walls which was so cool!

We were seated on the lower level to the right side of the restaurant. It was dim and had the perfect romantic feel. Once we sat we noticed it was kinda loud in there for a Thursday night. We still could have a conversation without feeling like we were yelling over each other. I will say that area has something wrong with the lighting as the dimness would change and the lights would softly flicker throughout the whole time we were there.

We met Grant, our server, and instantly knew we would be in great hands! He was so attentive and always came around at the right time. He made some amazing recommendations and was so personable!

We started with the Caesar salad as we love their salad at ATX Cocina! It was just as good!! Big portion and had the Parmesan crunch topping we love! The lettuce was made of baby leaves and it was crisp and refreshing. Every bite was flavorful! We finished it all!

We ordered some of their chicken & pork starter tacos which come 3 in an order! They were so delicious and fulfilling. We also ordered their chile relleno, which is on the secret menu. It is vegetarian so no protein but it was also very fulfilling. We did not have any room for an entree and we were not mad at all.

Hubby ordered their blood orange frozen mezcal and on the first sip he was blown away! He could taste the smoky mezcal and knew he had to take it easy with it. It will definitely hit you!

They brought us some delicious Nutella ice-cream accompanied by the sweetest signed letter of all of the staff congratulating us for our 14 years together! The Nutella ice cream had pecans in it and a sugar cookie. The perfect combination!

We couldn’t resist the churros so we ordered them. It comes with some cajeta and chocolate dip on the side. They are perfectly crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. I did think it had a little too much cinnamon sugar but nothing a few taps couldn’t take off. It was the perfect ending to our meal.

We will definitely be back as we really enjoyed it! Parking is much easier than ATX Cocina and the food is just as good! They do have a couple of TV’s by the bar. We highly...