Agave Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Columbus

Let me start by saying I have NEVER left a review for any restaurant, until now. I apologize in advance for this review being so long, but I want to make sure I am being correct and fair. Two weeks ago, I went to Agave for the first time. My first experience went ok. We were seated upstairs and no one acknowledged us, until my husband stopped someone and said no one has come to our table yet. We waited patiently for 10 minutes before letting someone know that we hadn’t been seen by a waiter yet. It took awhile to get our drinks, chips and salsa; however, our dinner arrived in an appropriate time. Since the experience ended somewhat well, we decided to go with some friends the following weekend. The 2nd time was the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant in 47 years. It took awhile for our waitress to take our drink order. It took 15 minutes for me to just get a water. Also, it took 15 minutes for our waitress to bring us chips and salsa. The salsa was very small for 4 people, so we asked for an additional salsa. Our waitress forgot and we had to ask her again. When she took our drink order, our friends ordered a cheese dip too. It took 30 minutes to get the cheese dip and they had to remind the waitress. After being there around 45 minutes, she asked what we wanted to order for our meal. I ordered the shrimp agave taco salad. I asked for the cheese sauce to be put on the side because I like to control how much I put on the salad. Also, I didn’t want sour cream. When they brought my salad out, it was drenched in cheese sauce and sour cream and missing multiple food items that were suppose to be on the salad. I wasn’t upset at this point because mistakes happen. I politely told the waitress what happened and she said she would bring me a new salad. This time, it was awful and I would have been embarrassed to serve this to anyone! They brought me out a tortilla shell barely 1/4 full with ONLY shredded lettuce and 5 shrimp. My husband and our friends were in shock when they saw the extremely tiny taco salad. It was suppose to come with tomatoes, peppers, onions, etc. I told the waitress that my salad was extremely tiny and is suppose to come with other items. She brought me out a few of the missing items and this took my tortilla shell to barely 1/2 full. I am not sure if this chaos with my salad was a waitress problem or the kitchen’s problem. My guess it was a little of both. I will say that my husband and our friends food did come out correctly. After we finished our dinner, our waitress asked us if we needed anything else and we told her no thank you and we were ready to pay. It took her 30 minutes to bring us our receipt and around 20 more minutes to bring back our credit cards. Even after having a horrible 2nd experience, I was going to give it another try, but then my daughter had a terrible experience this week. I won’t get into what happened to her because she left her own review.

P.S. I just saw your response and you and I both know that my daughter didn’t decide to write a review because she couldn’t make a reservation. SHE HAD A RESERVATION made well in advance BY YOUR STAFF 3 1/2 weeks ago and you decided to not honor it and left her scrambling at the last minute to find another restaurant that would accommodate 16 people, some of which were coming in from out of town. Fortunately, Travioli’s was extremely nice and had something available. It is sad to me that you try to play the victim and make things seem different in your response. You really need to worry more about your customer service and getting some consistency...

So I have been to the place 2 times in the last month. You’re going to be spending a little bit more, so don’t think this is your run of the mill Mexican restaurant. Food delicious, I had the Del Mar chimichanga and the next time the agave chimichanga. Both visits all of my friends also agreed the food is delicious. The only downfall of this place is the service. Bartenders are great, friendly and quick with drinks. Haven’t had to deal with the hostess’s before. I have gotten the same server the 2 times I have been there. He always wears a fancy pants button down, if you’ve been there before you know who he is, he also works upstairs. BOTH times I have been he’s been terrible, everything takes too long and he’s not attentive at all. My party of 5 was sat down and he didn’t come over till 15 minutes to just ask us for what we wanted to drink. A real sign your table isn’t happy with you is when you order your drinks, alcoholic beverages and MEAL order at once. He didn’t even come over before this and say hey guys I’m super busy I’ll be over soon, no acknowledgement, nothing. The only reason why we had chips/salsa on our table was because another waitress brought it to us but by the time he came to get our entire order it was gone and guess what, he didn’t once refill them or ask, we had to tell him hey can we please get some more? Once he eventually brings you your drinks which are probably room temperature by the time they get to you, you don’t even want them. He’ll visit you very little, so don’t expect to refill your chips/salsa or drink till your food gets out. One time both my friends got their margaritas and then I had to tell him 2 times I just wanted my corona. He just shouldn’t be a server IMO. He couldn’t handle our table of 5 and a table of 8 at once with no additional tables. Then when you get ready to ask for the check, he asks you what you ordered, and then still proceeds to mix and match my buddies and I checks up and had to wait another 20 minutes for him to fix it. I really wanted to give him another chance this second time but it was the same experience as before. The first time i had him i was with a party of 10 so i gave him the benefit of the doubt and the restaurant was visibly busy but this time with the party of 5, the upstairs was very slow, to me it just shows a pattern of incompetence. Maybe he needs to work in the back of the house or as a bartender but not as a server. Really ruins the whole experience. Best bit of advice I have is not to go upstairs and have him as your server, you’ll enjoy the...

Party: 6 adults Day of week: Friday Time of visit: 6PM (Drinks and Dinner)

The establishment is situated on a busy street in Downtown Columbus, so ensure to arrive early to secure parking; the street does get busy due to alike patrons.

The restaurant itself is beautiful, kept clean and appears that it fairly new (possibly 2 years?). There are (2) levels to the establishment and most employees utilize the back stairwell to alleviate traffic from patrons that utilize the front staircase.

Our party arrived at 6PM and waited at the upstairs bar for 2 hours- for a table. While at the bar, the bartender delivered mediocre service; (1) never asked if we wanted appetizers (2) never checked up on us and (3) only served us when we flagged/requested for his attention. There are only 8 chairs at the bar (if that).

After we finally got to our table, we had to wait at least 15 minutes to be greeted by a server. Additional time was spent ordering beverages (ie: water) and waiting for utensils to be placed - which came after we had ordered appetizers.

The ceviche is, not worth the price and it’s terribly bland (didn’t identify the presence of herbs or spices) and needs a lot of work on presentation. Many of the appetizers we as a party, felt that it could have best been made and consumed at home- or an authentic and traditional Hispanic restaurant elsewhere. The calamari was mediocre: soggy, hardly battered with flavor. The additionally purchased dips were very small portions and did not include chips (it should be brought together) and not require patrons to ask for chips.

To occupy you while you wait, however, the servers will overwhelm you with chips and dips. For a party of 6 and the wait time? We went through 6 total basket fills of chips and salsa- a good and bad thing.

The spacing between the arrival of our party’s entrees were, of concern. (2) plates came about 25 minutes after ordering, (3) entrees 35 minutes after order and the final entree about 40 minutes after being ordered. Not ideal for a party of 6 that has all married couples- waiting for their spouses dish to arrive as to not be rude and consume food without the other. The quality of the dinner entrees made up for the less ideal quality of the appetizers.

We had waited too long for service and food at the restarting that we did not want to risk being there another hour to receive dessert. Our entire visit took more than 4 hours long and at the cusp of 5 hours.

Will...