Barrio - Tequila & Taqueria — Restaurant in Boise

HORRIBLE experience at Barrio at Bown Crossing this afternoon. I’ve been there twice before and gotten the chicken and bean/corn street tacos. Both of which were not very good (the chicken was very overcooked both times and the beans were fairly bland), but the drinks, guac, and service were good so I decided to give their other menu items a try.

I have a diagnosed gluten allergy (luckily not life-threatening, but serious nonetheless) and asked our server if the tortillas on the specialty tacos were corn. She said yes. I then specifically asked if they were gluten free and she said yes. The food was brought out and I took a couple bites and thought the tortillas seemed chewier than I’m used to. I asked her if she was sure if they were corn, she went to check, and then came back and very casually said that they are a flour and corn blend with a lackluster “sorry about that”. She then said she’d “stop eating them if I were you” and started to walk away. No offer to bring something different, no sincere apology for serving someone a food they are allergic to. I asked her if she could have them remade on corn tortillas and she tried to talk me out of it, but I asked that she see if the kitchen could accommodate that. She then brought out the tacos on corn tortillas and it was clear that they had used the filling from my previous tacos and put them on new tortillas. She said she “personally watched the cooks remake them”, but the shrimp was cold and the toppings were mixed in. My husband then tried to have her understand how serious it is to not double check on allergens when customers ask, and she said “yeah I got it” and walked away. Luckily my allergy won’t kill me, but this could’ve been so much worse for someone with a life-threatening allergy. She did not care, she didn’t double check when asked about the ingredients, she didn’t try to make things right, and she wasn’t honest when I asked to have food made that I could eat. A mistake about an ingredient is awful, but accountability goes a long way towards rectifying a situation. She showed zero remorse or accountability. She was by far the worst server I can remember having, and I would not recommend Barrio for anyone who has allergies or wants their food prepared in a...

So disappointed. We really wanted to like this place. It's clever but ultimately doesn't deliver on its promise. We went on a Tuesday for Taco Tuesday at happy hour. So we were looking forward to good prices and great tacos. The place was not busy, but not empty. We put in our order telling the waitress we would order more but it was our first time so we just wan to try a couple of things then order more. It took FOREVER for our order of two tacos each to come up. The tequila we ordered, the bartender only brought one out. I needed to ask for the second one and he was surprised and said - oh was it supposed to be two? Long after the tequila was finished the owner, I think, came out and apologized for the wait on the food said there was a issue with our ticket and it would be right out. Told us to order what we wanted after if we were still hungry and he'd take care of it as an apology for the long wait. The tacos finally came out. Two pork and two carne asada tacos - it was the first time I've ever had ground carne asada. Not what I was expecting. I would t get those tacos again. The pork tacos were good. We decided to order a little more based on the quality of the pork tacos. Told our server we didn't want to take advantage so while we were ok with the owner taking care of us, we didn't want them to pay for the whole meal.

We ordered a regular order of barrio tacos and some nachos and one mixed drink. The tacos came out long before the nachos - so their timing is terrible. Food doesn't come up together. The mixed drink I ordered was not the one I was served and when I asked I was assured it was the correct drink. The when it was time for the payment the server came out and said oh let me run in to confirm - so I was assuming she was clearing something with the owners. Nope. Full price. I don't mind paying for what I order but when the owner makes an unprompted statement that he will cover the whole meal and we tell the server we appreciate that but he doesn't need to cover it all, I would expect that he at least honor the items he said he would cover before ordering anything else. But nope. Full price. Bad service. Ok food. Ground carne asada. I was so hoping for a new early afternoon hangout. But we...

The word I would use to describe Barrio is disappointing. We were very excited to have a new restaurant in the neighborhood. We love tacos and cocktails and the decor was great so we were hoping this would be a regular spot for us. That was not the case. When we arrived we stood by the door for 10 minutes. Nobody that worked there looked at us, or acknowledged that we existed despite multiple food runners rushing by us. Should we wait for a host? Should we seat ourselves? Who knows? We finally decided to sit down at one of the open tables. That's when we were shocked to discover they had adopted the Chili's/Red Robin way of business where you order on a screen. Except this was worse because you have to download an app and add your credit card information before you can do anything else. Also, there are no servers. No servers! Only food runners who drop your stuff and run off. Have questions about the food? I hope not! Have questions about the multiple tequila options they have? Well, you better figure it out on your own! The guacamole wasn't fresh or homemade and clearly came out of a package. It had a gross paste-like consistency to it. The tacos were alright but nothing spectacular. The one good thing about this place were the drinks. The cocktails were very good and the presentation on them was great too. I am hoping that they will eventually change their business model but it seems unlikely. My girlfriend spoke to one of the employees who was clearing our table and she stated that ordering on the app and not having servers was planned and gave the consumer "control over their experience" I disagree. If I would have had control I would have had a server to talk to, probably ordered more food/drinks as a result of the suggestions they would have given, and not been paying for a nice restaurant experience but instead ending up with the equivalent...