Mulas — Restaurant in Corrales

I am writing this review because I live in Corrales and really want Mulas to succeed and get better. My family has been there twice, once for brunch and it was excellent. Once for dinner last night (Friday June 14, 2024), and it was the second worst restaurant experience we've ever had in our lives. It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get our food. In that time, my wife and I were only offered one drink. And our waitress only spoke to us twice (once to get our food/drink order, once to deliver our drinks). I finally flagged down the bartender, who to his credit was very apologetic and professional. He explained that there were call outs in the kitchen that day, and they were running really behind. I understand that. We were not the only customers who were affected by this, as the couple sitting behind us walked out minutes after I spoke to the bartender, saying they weren't going to wait any longer for their food. After speaking to the bartender, our food was brought out minutes later and it was fine. The waitress then offered a free cheese cake due to the delay. But to be honest, we had been there for SO long that I didn't want to be there for any longer than I had to, so I declined it. The staff did not offer any kind of discount for the wait, which was disappointing and surprising, but made sense. As my wife and I paying for our meals were subsidizing the other customers who were just leaving because the kitchen was taking too long and the waitresses were non-existent.

The restaurant was FULL of people when my wife and I arrived to our reservation. Which means that management needed to realize that their low numbered staff could not realistically handle a full capacity restaurant. Management set up their staff for failure last night. When the kitchen call outs were received, management needed to cancel customers reservations, shut down the patio or a certain number of tables, to realistically meet the work load that their short staff could accomplish. I cannot stress this enough: I would have MUCH MUCH MUCH rather had my reservation canceled than gone through the experience my wife and I had last night. If our reservation was canceled, the negative experience last night wouldn't have happened. Our opinion of Mulas would not have changed. And this constructive criticism review wouldn't exist.

Needless to say, it seems like management is trying to do too much with this restaurant. Slow down, simplify, get good at something, then expand if you want. At this point in this restaurant's life, it is really trying to be two or three different restaurants. And I'm sure that is why the dinner experience is so awful for customers. My advice: Make your lunch/brunch menu your dinner menu. Have one menu for all times of the day. Stop trying to compete with Restaurant Forty Nine Forty, you will not win that fight. Corrales needs more "normal" dinner restaurant options. Not more high scale options. And you are much, much, much closer to having the more casual dining experience figured out than having the fine dining experience figured out.

My wife and I will come back for lunch or brunch. But we will not be coming back for dinner any time soon. Also, update your website. My wife and I thought we were going to be able to get enchiladas and tacos for dinner. But were very disappointed when that was...

UPDATE #2: Late June '24

This is unquestionably one of the most inconsistent places I've been.

Right back to the occurrence of 'specifically' clarifying no meat on a salad, and what comes out?: Literally LOADED with chicken.

Ordered an egg sandwich with side salad, specifically asked no potatoes. What comes out: Sandwich with potatoes, no side salad.

We waited 24 minutes to be served a sandwich and salad, place hardly busy and clearly staffed up.

Good gosh.

UPDATE #1: Early June '24

Already vastly improved in the service catagory. BRAVO!!

Only reason not a 5star for me currently: Deep lack of options for vegetarians. Such an easy thing to accomplish.

Previous Review...

Cuttin' some slack since they are just gettin' underway, but decidedly some things to address.

First, the good!...

Food was superb (when it finally arrived accurate - more on that later...). Had the brunch omelet and was thrilled! High quality ingredients, great presentation, and very tasty. A satisfying meal on all levels.

Atmosphere is delightful. Feels like a fancy international resort restaurant, we literally felt as though we walked into a Central American country. MUCH bigger space than it appears from the outside. Interior delightful, back patio very nice (but the latter needs some work).

Constructive critique (atmosphere): Some shrubs (small trees) or vine trellis supports between the back patio and rear parking lot would be very desirable. Immediate exposure to the lot greatly cheapens the back patio ambiance.

Constructive critique (food & service): We were among the first folks to arrive on a brunch morning and when we finally got to ordering, only then did we learn that almost half of what was on the menu was not available due to no stock on key ingredients. What the heck?!? We should have been told this BEFORE we began making our choices. It's as if server had no idea of this, UNTIL they delivered our orders to the kitchen. How does this even happen first thing in the morning? Buying team needs to sharpen their forecasting.

When I ordered my omelet, I didn't order any meat additions (these specifically show as add-ons to base omelet). But when my omelet arrived it was loaded with ham. Looked and smelled great; but I'm a vegetarian - so was not going to work for me. While they did rush my replacement, it was clearly not prepared and presented with the same care.

By the end of our meal, three of us at our table were denied our first selections, one drink order was delivered incorrect and one meal (mine) was delivered incorrect. At the very least, one of our drinks should have been comped. Instead, server was mostly unapologetic and less than attentive.

Lastly: Small thing, not huge to me (but my friends took note): Gender specific bathrooms seems quite tone-deaf.

There's massive potential at Mulas! It's early in their presence, so hopefully challenges can...

Upon entering Mulas you will be greeted to a beautiful restaurant with great ambiance, perfect for a date night. The decor and lighting is well done and the location is ideal. However, once you sit down, the imperfections truly begin to mount up. Upon looking at the prices of the food items you'll be expecting to be getting extremely high quality food to align with the justification of the costs. However, upon getting the food you'll realize how overpriced the items are in comparison to the actual quality you receive. This is all, of course, assuming you stick around long enough to receive your food. The service is the worst part of this restaurant, with everyone seeming like they have absolutely no idea how to work at a restaurant. From bartenders breaking several glasses in the span of time we were there, to waitresses running around aimlessly with food for the wrong tables, to being told that our ticket was never put in to the kitchen after waiting over an hour. Even minor things like bringing sodas to the table took them over 30 minutes to accomplish, and when they did, they were lacking ice and were room temperature. We ended up waiting over 2 hours for food that was mediocre for the prices. There are dozens of other restaurants of similar or higher prices that I would have preferred to go to had I known that the service was almost non-existent and the food was so lackluster. Mulas pulls off a great illusion of allure by drawing you in with the ambiance and decor but that's where the extent of what they're doing right ends at. I'd recommend going anywhere else for faster service and better quality food if you're going to be paying upwards of $50 per dish, depending on what...