Border Cafe — Restaurant in Burlington

I have been going to this restaurant for many years and I have enjoyed it until now. The food is good for the price, but unfortunately you also pay for service, where this restaurant lacks. Today I have had one of the worst experiences with a waitress AND manager at this location. Today on Mother's Day, I took my mom here to this restaurant. It started off normal where the waitress asked for our drinks and such but we noticed that she was in a rush to take our orders. Before my mother and father could finish their order she would go on to the next person. I even had to stop her after I had finish ordering because she left in such a hurry that I didn't even ask for no cheese on the plate I had ordered. As mentioned before we have been to this restaurant many times and we know the food well. The chicken fajitas on the menu are marinated and very spicy for my mothers stomach, so much so she had issues after eating this dish before. In order to avoid such issues, we thought that we could order the chicken plain with no spices. We have made requests like this at restaurants before and figured it wouldn't be an issue here. When we told the waitress about this and asked for plain non-marinated chicken, she said she would ask the chef if this can be done. She left and never came back until the food came out. When we saw the chicken fajitas, they were still very marinated. We reminded her that we asked for no spices and why she never got back to us if it could be done. If we would have known that the request would be denied we wouldn't have gotten the fish to begin with. She said "oh they said no, sorry!" And placed the dish in front of us where it was made apparent that we had to deal with it. We refused the plate because we will not pay for something we did not ask for even after we specifically told her why we asked it plain. She left so flustered that she even took our drinks with straws without asking if we wanted more. At this point when she came back with drinks we asked for the manager. She responded: "I already spoke to the manager about what you did with the fajitas" in a tone where it sounded like a threat. We persisted to speak with the manager because at this point she was being flat out rude to us when she was the one who gave us bad service to begin with. The manager came over we explained the situation. He was very polite but unfortunately had no power or authority to do anything it seems. He told us he wouldn't charge us for the fajitas (which honestly is expected since we didn't eat them) and that he apologizes for the situation. We asked if he could change our waitress because we did not want her to be our server anymore since she was already rude to us. He said no. Never has a manager done so less to make up for a bad experience on a day where we were celebrating Mother's Day. I asked for the bill and took my family else where. I ended up paying the bill for a half eaten meal but I told my family I was happy to pay it because I know now never to come back...

In town for business and the hotel staff recommended Border Cafe. Can't say I was impressed with this place at all. My experience wasn't great but the guys I was with were ok with this place hence my rating. For me the complimentary chips and salsa was a disappointment. Salsa tasted like it was from a jar. I had the blackened chicken with jambalaya. The chicken breast was small but tolerable in taste. The jambalaya was extremely bland and barely warm. We saw our waiter a total of three times. When he took our order, when he brought the food, and when he took our payments for the meal (he brought the checks when he brought our meals). Never checked on us, never asked or refilled drinks. My group split our bills so we all could pay for our own meals. When he brought back our payments my card wasn't with everyone else's. I finally got our waiters attention and I told him that my credit card wasn't there. He started to argue with us but went and looked for it. After a bit he came back and said one of us must have it because he was positive that he brought it back to the table with everyone else's. He believed it so much that he started to argue with us. I asked him calmly that couldn't it be possible that he dropped it. He said no, and continued to tell us that we had it. I finally got up and started looking for it on the floor. After 10 seconds or so a nice couple asked if I was looking for a credit card. They had found it on the floor and had given it to their waiter. I quickly got it back. My waiter did apologize.

I get it, we all make mistakes and honestly I'm not mad that he dropped it. What upset me was his insistence that my group had the card and his wanting to argue with us. I would rather he brought the manager over so we could have rectified the situation and he could have continued to take care of his other tables. I'm sure eventually my card would have made it back to me. I just could have done without the defensiveness from the waiter and the accusation that someone in my...

My first time at the Border Cafe. There wasn't much crowd when we entered, less than one thirds of the main floor was occupied. We were ushered into our table swiftly. A couple of minutes later, our drinks order was taken and we got a basket full of fresh tortilla chips with salsa. Those just be right out of the stove. They looked, smelt and tasted delicious. We got our drinks (I got the lemonade) and the food order was taken down. I ordered the Eggplant St Charles and a side of shoestring fries. The server offered to substitute the fries in place of rice and beans but I insisted the fries be a separate side by itself ( bad choice.. more on that later). We were almost through with the chips basket and had to forcefully keep the basket so that we have some space in our stomachs for our entrees. First, the Eggplant St Charles - it was wonderful. The eggplant was fried crisply and the cheese on it just made the dish more yummier. Simply loved it. I didn't touch the rice, beans and the corn cake. The culprit - the shoestring fries. This was the best fries I've ever had, period. Each one of the fry was evenly crisp. Eating fries won't ever be the same for me. So, about the bad choice, if only I had headed to my server's suggestion, I'd have not needed the doggy bag to take home the rice/beans/cake and a piece of the eggplant. A very sumptuous meal and at a reasonable price too (lemonade was $3, eggplant was $8 and fries $2). The decor was good as well. Couple of gripes, (1) the tables are spaced close to each other and there was a noisy neighbor in our next table shouting the entire time we were there, & (2) there are a lot of good art works hung around but a lot of them are partially hidden by the placement of tables and chairs.

Overall, excellent food, but our ears were ringing thanks to our neighbor. The fries are to die for.

P.S: Fix the sign outside, it says Bo Cafe...