Juanita Greenberg's Nacho Royale — Restaurant in Charleston

Let me start by saying I had a good time there last night. I left a local conference and just needed a bar to grab some beers, watch the game, and grab some food. I drank bottled beer that was cold, went down very smooth after a long day, they have a smoking area out back, and I grabbed some food after several beers. Atmosphere was nice, the bartender was awesome, very attentive, and held my seat (they were slow) when I went out on the back patio for a smoke. That said, while I was throwing back beers I was looking at the menu, not a real authentic Mexican place, but hey, it’s a college bar, but I was watching the cook and the kitchen , honestly I was questioning the food by watching the cook and the cleanliness of the kitchen. I do not think they have cleaned the kitchen, I mean really cleaned it in years. The lights above the grill were coated in thick grease and the cook was wearing cloves when he touched the seasonings and the cheese, but would rip the gloves off and handle the cooked food under the grill, the meats. One thing I noticed is all the trays of meats were FULL when I arrived and when I left, meaning I was about to eat day or days old meat and anyone there tonight would be eating older meat, be careful. After throwing back a lot of beer, I am no lightweight, I heard the cook say he was closing the kitchen just before 10. The bartender hearing this said I needed to order before he closed, so I ordered the steak burrito and Mexican pizza, both were meals by themselves but I was hungry and still skeptical. The food cost maybe $26 and my bar tab was double, I said I drank some beer. I tanned out and put the beer on my card and the food on company card, the company does not pay for alcohol. I tipped in cash, $40, only because I felt bad for the bartender getting stiffed by a few other patrons and honestly because she was great, like I said she was awesome and well deserved the tip. I walked the five minutes back to the hotel and ate the food. I wanted to give the place 3.5 stars, 5 for the bartender and drinks but only 2.5’ish for the food. The Mexican pizza was just an open faced burrito that didn’t really have much taste and the steak burrito also lacked flavor. Now let’s be honest food tastes better when you have had a few, all this food, and I didn’t finish it, did was fill my stomach. If you are looking for some drinks and an awesome bartender, this is the place. Looking for food, well… you may want to look elsewhere, had I been sober I know I would have ate less if any at all. Probably should have stuck to the...

We came here as a group and there was a bunch of open table in the patio area. Sat down and ordered our drinks. One of our sodas came nearly clear. My 7 yr old inquired as to why the soda was so clear and were told, "oh the syrup ran out." Ok, the why on earth did you bring it? Weird. After many apologies for the long time the food took, stating the kitchen was backed up, we had few errors and issues. My wife's margarita had remnants of the last strawberry daiquiri in it. Gross. 2/3 margaritas ordered with salt had no salt. Ok. The Nacho Royale pizza thing that was requested without lettuce, announced by the runner as, "sausage nacho royale without lettuce," clearly had lettuce all over it. The $1.25 extra jalapenos came with mushy jalapenos and bits of cheese and cilantro in it. Huh? The waitress seemed overwhelmed and kept apologizing and stating that the kitchen was backed up. A) she shouldnt be making excuses for careless kitchen work. B) it was half empty in the patio area, if that's backed up and busy, how is it when it's actually full?!?! It must be an absolute nightmare. At the end of the mediocre lunch, I think it's safe to say that management needs a bit of an overhaul. It's not the kitchen being backed up or the "busy" restaurant. It's poor management. It's clearly inability of management to properly keep the place humming. It certainly didn't seem understaffed, I counted at least six or seven staff waiting tables and running food for about ten occupied tables. After all the nonsense, we were charged for the gross margarita and the clear Mr....

We were here last Saturday to celebrate a birthday. This is normally a great after dinner spot or happy hour. I work at a local hotel in the area and I always recommend this location to our guests for a great marg and tacos/nachos. This particular night all of the tables were full so we were directed out to the patio where we were waited on by Charles. At first he seemed reasonable and helpful. We ordered one pitcher and we sat there finishing our drinks, Before we could order more Charles came to us and said the patio was closing and brought us the check. My sister closed the check out with the assumption that we would go inside and continue drinking. Charles got the check and was extremely irate. He said "You know y'all shouldn't have came out tonight if you weren't gonna tip".. "why did y'all even come out here!?" "where do y'all work??" "seriously someone should've gotten on y'all by now about coming here and not tipping..it must be yall first time." We were all so taken aback because we weren't eve done drinking and he never offered us to go inside to continue waiting on us... I gave him a $15 tip of which he didn't deserve at all for the horrible service and behavior displayed!! I will never refer anyone here again!! With the change in servers and Bartenders the service has definitely gone down. Juans needs to invest training for the new staff. We went next door and had an awesome experience at the cute cocktail bar called "Proof" the menu has a lot of exotic cocktails. Try them and skip Juanitas! Especially if Charles is your...