La Patrona — Restaurant in Cullman

I was really excited to try the new Mexican place but from the moment my husband and I walked in that excitement quickly faded. It wasn't busy when we arrived, but we had to wait at the door for almost 10 minutes and that was with an attendant standing at the desk playing on his phone and two servers sitting on the bench by the door just talking. After we proceeded to be seated we couldn't hear anything the server was saying bc the music was blaring, and people were talking so loud. We couldn't even have a conversation with each other and we both ended up with headaches. The salsa was good and the food was good with a generous portion size. However, service was non-existent after the food was served we sat with empty tea glasses for almost the entirety of our meal. The servers were busy talking to people they obviously knew instead of checking to see if we needed anything. For the time it took for them to renovate I would have expected to see the old cloudy, nasty pizza hut windows be replaced and for the bathroom to be updated and renovated but none of that has been done. You can eat outside IF it's not raining. I really would have liked to have seen that with a roof on it, if for no other reason than to have a place to go to get away from the blaring music, loud conversations and the banging and clanging from the kitchen. I don't expect to go back any time...

My wife and I arrived around 6pm and it was busy, which was a pretty good sign, but after we were seated, it all went down hill. We got waters to drink and placed our orders. Our wait for our food was average, the food below that. The Charo beans have, what looked to be, Vienna sausages cut up in them, and the rest of our meal just wasn't great. As we were trying to eat however, the waiter for the table next to us came and put their tray of food, on our table, to serve them. No, excuse me, I'm sorry, nothing. Then our very own server came to top off our half full water glasses, with drinks for onother table in her hands. She set the other drinks down beside the plates we were eating from, topped off our water, then picked up the drinks and took them to the other table. We were shocked. When we were waiting on our bill, the table beside us got up and left their plates barely touched. Ever the table busser was confused. And as we continued to wait on our bill, the waiter from before began moving chairs from a table behind us to a table in front of us, and slammed it into out table turning it sideways...again, no I'm sorry, nothing. Needless to say, tonight was our very first, and our very last, trip...

We ate at LA Patrona today for lunch. We were a group of six. They hostess had us seated within just a few minutes. We were at a large table that comfortably sat six. The atmosphere is very nice and the restaurant is very clean. Marlen was our waitress. Marlen took our drink orders within a few minutes. She checked with us a few times about ordering. We needed a little more time to review the menu and were not rushed. She took our order very carefully. After going around the table she read each of our orders back to us to make sure everything was correct. Our food did not take long to prepare and everything came out together. The order was as we ordered and everybody was pleased with their selection. I got the combo plate and chose a taco, burrito, and an enchilada which came with rice and beans. All of my items contained ground beef which is what i requested. I thought my taco could have had a little more meat in it but everything was very good. The seasoning on everything was very good and flavorful. Our first trip was the day they opened. La Patrona successfully worked out all of the opening kinks. Yes we will...