Polvo's Downtown Central — Restaurant in Austin

We came here for a birthday dinner with a group of 20 people. Since the group was large we ordered and paid ahead to avoid issues with splitting checks, however when we arrived at the restaurant at 7:50 for our 8:00 pm reservation we were then forced to wait over an hour to be seated at our table. The host repeatedly assured us that the servers taking care of the table we had reserved were urging their patrons to leave, however we instead watched the servers take numerous additional drink orders and make zero effort to ask their tables to leave for the next party to be seated. At one point the manager of the restaurant tried to make our group wait outside in the pouring rain with no cover, as we were apparently inconveniencing the entrance to the restaurant. After over an hour of waiting we were finally seated at disconnected tables at 9:30 pm, our food was cold as it had been prepared over an hour and a half earlier and we did not receive even an apology from the staff for the wait. I understand that a restaurant sees a group of young adults and assumes that we are not well paying customers and doesn't give the same quality of service as a group of adults in our situation would have received however, it was extremely disrespectful that even when our group made an effort to go above and beyond to make the restaurant's job easier for them by making a reservation, calling the day of to confirm the reservation, ordering and paying ahead and arriving on time for our reservation we were treated with such disrespect. It is a shame that the food is so delicious at this restaurant but none of their staff is equipped with basic service skills. When one makes a reservation they expect the staff to honor that reservation and have their table prepared. They do not expect to have to wait over an hour, be berated by staff and encouraged to leave a restaurant we had already ordered and paid for food at because they decided to take too many walk-in tables on a busy Saturday night and could not manage it. This was absolutely unacceptable and this was not the first time a similar situation has happened to both myself and friends. This location needs to be under new management immediately, or else this lack of professionalism will seriously damage the reputation...

Unfortunately, despite high recommendations from friends, we had a horrible experience here in July 2. We made reservations the night before, but when we arrived the hostess didn’t have us down on the list. She said she would put us at the top of the waitlist, but after 20 mins of standing outside, we just asked to put tables together in the bar area.

At this point we were in a bit of a rush and couldn’t seem to wave down a server, so we asked the bar, and they said to wait for a server. After another 10 mins or so, I asked the hostess who should be helping us, and she said the bar! So I go back to the bartender and took forever to wave down. Told him what the hostess said, he said okay I’ll be with you soon. I stood at the bar another 5-10 mins and could not get a single one of the 3 bartenders to come help me.

So I walked up to the server stand where they were putting in orders and at this point we only had time for guacamole and chips. Which is too bad because we were starving, but after 50 minutes of waiting we were getting late for an event.

It looked like the manager I was talking to, so I told him about to situation, and he didn’t even apologize or offer to help with anything.

We asked for a pitcher of frozen margaritas…and he brought over iced margs… When I mentioned we really wanted frozen, he said the machine was broken and it would be at least 20 mins!

I might give them another chance one day, because my friend swears they are usually great, but on this occasion I was completely ignored after 50 mins of waiting in the restaurant only to be brought the wrong things without even a single apology of everything that was happening.

It was hectic, stressful, and we left hungry & late...

Went on a Friday night, it was absolute confusion in there! Waited too long for a table, when we could see open tables. Waitress brought out chips and menus, said we have the salsas inside please help yourself (did not say there was a 4.99 charge for the salsas) we waited over 1 hour for our food to arrive. Meanwhile, they kept bring out plates and asking "uh is this yours?" and then if it was a tray of food, they would just leave it in the middle of the aisle and go find who it belonged to, and then come back for it. I understand they just opened but c'mon, guys. Finally when we got the food we asked for to go boxes and bill. where we saw they charged us for salsa. We asked for the manager and she said that because they are downtown, they charge 4.99 for the salsa. I said listen, if you charge, fine, but you have to tell us there is a charge. Not only that but don't give me the We are downtown so we have to charge more for downtown prices. I told her I live downtown, and I know the "downtown" prices, but you can't tell me that you have to charge more then other Polvos locations because of rent. When all I am arguing is why we weren't told there was a charge. Anyway - food was very good next day and the tortillas were yum.

Hopefully in a few months they will get it down. For us it was more of a convenient place to walk to, but if that is the case then your better off going to Boiler 9 or True Food. If you like their food, go to the original location. Which is were we probably will go next to try the food with a...