Cibolo Moon — Restaurant in Bulverde

Today is Valentine’s Day, so of course our expectations were that it was going to be busy everywhere and patience will be required. We booked our reservation in advance and were very much looking for to an upscale dinning experience. The reservation was for 7:30PM but we arrived 30 minutes early anticipating traffic on that side of town. We checked in with the host and knew we would likely have to wait, so we went to the restaurant bar and grabbed a couple of cocktails. We immediately closed out because the host approached us to let us know our table was ready. It’s about 7:15PM and 5 mins later our server takes our appetizer order. We ordered the chips and queso and they come about 10 mins later. When the server drops the appetizer off, we placed our order, which was 7:30PM. We were checked on 1 time by our server about 10 minutes after we received our appetizer. Everything was fine so far. Time goes by and while we were having great conversation then 45 minutes we start to wonder where our food and server was. Nobody came by to even tell us there was a delay so we found it extremely odd for a high end restaurant. About 15 minutes of noticing the long delay, the manager approached us and finally acknowledged the delay. The reason was because “A large party came in unexpectedly and the kitchen is backed up.” You know how that makes me feel as a customer? It means that a large party walked in without a reservation and their order was being catered to, meanwhile ours wasn’t as important, even though you were expecting us in advance. The manager checks the status of our ticket and we tell him what we ordered so he could identify the ticket. He goes to the kitchen and comes back to the table and tells us our ticket is next up so it should be very soon. Okay, good news. We wait about another 10 mins and the food runner comes out with the food, one of the entrees was wrong! What we ordered: a ribeye added a side of Mac and Cheese and the smoked chicken pasta. What showed up: a filet mignon, side of mac, and chicken smoked pasta. Okay, at this point we are 1 hour and 15 mins into this nightmare of a dinning experience only for them to get the order wrong. I’m not waiting about 15 mins for them to correct the order and my date is not going to eat without me, so his food would be cold by the time mine would be corrected. We respectfully asked the food runner to cancel the order all together. For the amount of time I waited, I knew nothing they brought out would make this nightmare better. I paid for the appetizer and nobody tried to make this terrible experience right. I would never recommend this place or go back. There are plenty of other high end restaurants in San Antonio that would have done so much better than this. On top of it, they marked my reservation on Open Table as a “No Show” trying to invalidate the fact that I wasted 1 hour and 15 minutes at this “restaurant”. DO BETTER!

The only good thing:

The gracious valet representative asked us how our dinner was and after we told her what happened, she didn’t make us pay, even after we insisted, because it’s not her...

The first night I came here, it deserved 4 stars. Service was exceptional. Tried to go to 18 Oaks, party of 1, and was told they had no openings. Uh ok, for a party of 1??... Bye. Cruised over to Cibolo and was seated right away. Server was wonderful, I believe his name was Richard. There was also a pleasant manager walking around, I think his name was Ethan. All around impeccable service. Food was good, but not great. Biscuits with spicy strawberry jalapeno jam, delicious! Interesting tequila martini which was good. Mac n cheese was a little lackluster. Shrimp was a little overly salty and grits were a little bland, but together they were good. As a whole nice little hotel restaurant with nice views.

Update... Came back again and it was disappointing. Food was better, but the service was rough. We were seated at 810. We didn't get our meal until 940!!! Just a party of 4, nothing crazy. I get it they also had some larger parties due to the conference, but honestly we waited a while to even get our table and then to have to wait that long for food. I mean chips and guac took like an hour+ minutes which is insane to me (we ordered it at the same time as the drinks). Also my husband got the tequila martini and tonight it looked wildly different than the one I had two days ago. We got no biscuits at all. We honestly asked to cancel our order at one point and they couldn't even commit to cancelling our food so we could try to go elsewhere. Overall the service at the restaurants have been really tough for such a nice resort type hotel. Not sure if it's staffing issues due to covid or what, but highly...

Pro tip: If you choose to celebrate an occasion here, such as an anniversary, notify the staff beforehand and they will step up the experience for you -- possibly with a courtesy dessert as well! Cibolo Moon is one of the few haute cuisine dining destinations in San Antonio with a vegetarian menu. You must ask for it separately (which is pro tip two). I have tried the vegetarian quesadillas, which are stuffed with a variety of grilled vegetables (and not just the palate-numbing standard of onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms). Very large portion, makes a great shared appetizer. I also tried the organic spinach salad, which is a treat with corn meal croutons. The waiter brought us the salads with bacon crumbled all over them -- kind of a surprise given we ordered them off the vegetarian menu. However, the waiter was mortified and we had fresh vegetarian salads in front of us in two minutes. And he comped us. The dressing was a strong mustard-based concoction, and very good. Again, huge portions. The tofu in the tofu tacos are large rectangular sticks that are flame grilled and seasoned. Homemade tortillas. Among the best tofu tacos I've eaten, and I've eaten many, many recipes. The grilled portabella in the mushroom burger had an exquisite marinade. The side of fries is heaping. Great place for a romantic dinner. Try the margaritas or select from the huge...