Salsa Brava Fresh Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

My party and I walked in at 3:55 pm. We waited in the front if the restaurant for 5 minutes, the only people in line, during which time, 4 different employees walked up to the front booth, but never even acknowledged we were standing there, nor attempted to make eye contact. No one even greeted us, said someone would be by shortly to seat us, or anything until the manager came to the front. We were being ignored from the beginning, but I really love the food, so we decided to stay. I do want to say, the restaurant wasn't even half full at this point.

After being seated, we placed our order, but our waiter never informed us that he was putting the order in under the happy hour special, so we were expecting at least 2 taquitos to be delivered, and only received one. We then placed an order for a quesadilla so that we could share something a bit larger. About 8 minutes after receiving the first Taquito and placing the order for the quesadilla, we placed an order for one more Taquito. The waiter informed us the quesadilla would be out shortly.

We received the second Taquito about 8 minutes later, but had not received the quesadilla. It took another 4-5 minutes before the quesadilla arrived. At this point, the restaurant was filling up, and there were multiple times our waiter walked by our table without looking to see if the food had arrived, or checking on us for close to 15 minutes.

We made the mistake of ordering some fried ice cream at the end. The waiter brought a box for the left over quesadilla within a minute of placing the order for the ice cream, but then we didn't see him again for over 15 minutes. The ice cream arrived, we finished it, and the waiter finally stopped about 8 minutes after we were done eating to check on us. We had to ask for the check at this point, which he delivered about 5 minutes later, after not acknowledging or even looking at us as he walked by 4 different times.

We immediately tried to get the waiters attention to pay so we could leave, but we went another 10 minutes with him walking by, never looking at us nor acknowledging us as we waited to pay the check. The other person in my party ended up taking our check to the restaurant owner asking that we get checked out because we were tired of being ignored.

The owner attempted to apologize, but had a very condescending tone because, he reasoned, it was their first Saturday open, and they were horribly understaffed. This is understandable, but the frustration on our part was the ignoring started long before the restaurant filled up. We were finally able to leave the restaurant at 5:30 pm.

We definitely feel the waiter was personable during the interactions we had, but the overall feeling of being ignored and dismissed is what prompted thus review. The owner offered a free margarita for the next time we go (which is highly unlikely), but nothing was done to rectify the immediate situation, besides the snarky apology.

Highly unlikely to dine at this location again, which is sad, as we love the other locations and have never had such a poor experience.

The advice I would give the owner and management of this location is to remember that there are 2 methods by which a customer receives service - through the product itself (e.g., the food we ordered), and then how the company makes the customer feel about doing business with said company. Meeting the minimum expectations (providing what is ordered) does not create repeat customers. How the customer feels about the interaction is the key to building repeat customers. And in our case, we felt as of we were an...

From ordering carry-out on May 18th, 2023:

I’ve loved Salsa Brava for a long time, I think the first time I went was in the mid-2000s. The food and drinks are great, I have specific memories of wonderful service, and I’ve also enjoyed my experiences at the restaurant over the years.

Last year, we found out our son has an extremely severe anaphylactic reaction to cashews, a severe allergy to peanuts, and an allergy to chickpeas. We originally didn’t go out to eat at all when we found out, then only to places that had none of the allergens present at all in the restaurant, and only recently have we ventured to places that have minimal allergens present in the restaurant that can be avoided on what we all order.

We called Salsa Brava tonight and the person on the phone went to the manager and the kitchen manager to check on all of his allergens, told us exactly what dishes had what, and when we placed our order the person putting it in also let the kitchen know that all of what we ordered needed to be free of the allergens as we were sharing, not just our sons order.

I worked in restaurants for about 14 years, from busser to server to bartender to cook to manager, name a position and I did it. And I know allergies can be hard to accommodate, just because of the nature of a restaurant sometimes ( I wouldn’t expect a place called “Cashew Express” to be able to assure us our son would be fine eating there.)

Salsa Brava’s team tonight made me feel incredibly safe getting food for our son and I had no doubt that everything possible was taken care of in the kitchen to accommodate allergens, not just for us but in the way the restaurant is run. Which makes me super happy because I’ve missed going to Salsa Brava and to Urban Egg!

The only name I got because I didn’t remember anyone we talked to was Whitney, who’s name is on the receipt. There was also someone up front at the host stand who was chatting with me and complimented me on my nails. Side note, that meant so much, I’m a male who just started painting by my nails and carry a fear of judgement. The compliment meant the world to me!!!

Thank you again Salsa Brava and everyone who helped...

First of all Salsa Brava has always been our go to when we’re in the Springs..which is frequent..those quesadillas are flipping delicious, on point margs, chips and salsa yummy that being said, the last couple of times..service at the bar? Unbelievably lacking. Having been in F&B service for 45 years, I grade on a curve, everyone has bad days, makes mistakes, i am forgiving if it is made up in another way and I ultimately leave happy. In these times people pick and choose the maybe one time they will eat out in a month, not all people, but inflation has indeed effected restaurants, and it’s important to treat every customer the same. No matter if shifts are changing or it’s extremely slow at 3:30 in the afternoon. It shouldn’t matter service is key in a successful business in sales. Bartenders want to make tips correct? Who runs this place? Ignored. Ignored is a deadly word in the food service industry, being ignored is the reason I won’t come back. We ordered the most expensive margarita, and the bartender told me I should order the $5 happy hour margarita..I would have, if I were Lindsay? from that second on spoiled that couple. But instead the guacamole we ordered was forgotten. No plates with apps? Yep that happened. An empty aforementioned expensive margarita sat empty, pushed out to the edge after 10 min. I would have adored another..and maybe dinner? But was never really asked. One last thing and this is the little thing that kills.. At the bar, an employee sat down. In the open air part of the bar, between inside and out..why is that allowed? I’ve never seen that..at least get out of your uniform..she was fawned over while we were ignored..wow. She was secretly passed shots, I would have enjoyed a shot. Or food, or water..pretty much any glance my way at all. Rico Suave?? I don’t remember his name but that’s my nickname for him, well he had plenty to eat.. Rico and Lindsay shared some tacos in front of hungry guests..wow. Again, chewing in front of guests is disgusting, you are there to serve me. I’m literally paying you to. Ok well I’ll leave this here. Get management who knows how to train and run a restaurant if you want...