Javier's Gourmet Mexicano — Restaurant in Dallas

A dear friend and local Chef recommended Javier’s to me and my bf and I have been planning on going for a few weeks. We are both foodies and specialize in different specialty foods. We have had a long work week, and decided to reward ourselves with a nice dinner right after work today.

We had studied the menu and had everything planned out. We decided on an order of Panela. I work with cheese, so I was excited for this dish! I selected Filete Cantinflas and Carne Asada A La Tampiqueña. He decided we would share Key Lime Pie and Cajeta Crêpes for dessert, because he gauges whether or not we visit a restaurant based on their dessert menu.

As I said, we went straight after work so we were not dressed beautifully. This fact proved to be quite the issue for the hostess as she regarded us with her nose upturned. No eye contact. Snobby.

“Do you have a reservation?”, she asked me as all of the waitstaff stood all around us, watching waiting for their evening to begin.

“Do we need a reservation?” I replied staring at their empty dining rooms. We were the first customers, as we had arrived promptly at 5:00pm, their opening time.

Her emotionless face turned to their reservation sheet and she whispered to a coworker that she would put us at a specific table. Then, she told me we would have to be gone by 7:00pm because they needed the table by then.

“Okay..” I replied as we followed. Her expensive leopard print shoes did not mask how cheap she appeared to me, as she lead us past all the empty tables towards the Cigar Lounge portion of the establishment into a dark room that smelled of old, stale cigars and smoke. Hiding the trashy customers who had dared to enter her restaurant.

“They will be gone by 7:00..”, she told a man who was going to be serving us as she walked away.

My guy and I looked at one another and the smell of the room was so off putting to him, and the the hostess was so unkind and rude that we decided not to dine there after all.

I normally keep this sort of thing to myself, but this was such a…special experience I decided that had to share.

My bf and I work in an establishment that is 100% about the highest quality of product and next level customer service. Perhaps because I give that level of service to my customers every day I expect that when I am a paying customer. At the very least, we deserved to be treated with respect. We make very decent money and would have spent a lot of it on our meal and in gratuity to our server.

We tried to eat at Javier’s wearing t-shirts and that was apparently a mistake. Or maybe they require reservations, but that was not stated on their website nor were we informed as such upon arriving..

We took our business to another fine eatery in the neighborhood and enjoyed being treated like human beings and a wonderful meal.

Kindness and base level class may not be a requirement in the Javier’s culture, but it is for any place we decide...

I would start by saying we live in the neighborhood and we are not regulars at Javier's but we occasionally stop by. I have always felt that this place was a gem, nestled right outside of Highland Park, vibrant and excellent service and food. However I am not sure if Covid is having an impact on the treatment of customers or if it's something else altogether. We recently stopped by on a Friday night, SMU has a game the next day, so it's busy. We pull up to valet and the valet ask if we have reservation, to which I stated no, he laughed and said #there's a two hour wait buddy" to which I replied oh two hours, really? He then stated yes! This is Javier's on the weekend buddy! He had such an arrogant tone and so dismissive that we decided ok this is not the place for us tonight. So we left and dined in Highland Park Village as usual, which also had a two hour wait but we were not treated so rudely. We decided to give them another chance on Saturday night, but this time making a reservation. We get there on time and I let me wife out to alert the host and I wait with the car for the valet. I wait for the valet for 10 minutes and finally decide to inquire with one of the many walking past me and ask If they is something else I need to do to valet. To which the valet apologized and I headed to the patio to meet my wife, upon arrival the place was nearing closing and we were the last reservation. The tables were still moderately seated but several available. My wife had not been standing waiting for a table for 15 minutes, with clear open tables. It seemed the management for the evening was really only focused on what looked to be regulars. We finally got sat and at this point it's getting close to the end of placing a food order. We ask for menus and got a weird stare from our attendant, he said I will be right back but never re-surfaced, so we called the manager over and said that we understand we need to get a food order place may we please get a menu? He seemed very annoyed by the request and walked away and spoke to another server which came with menus. This new server argued with me that we had not been waiting for 30 minutes, and I just gave him a glare as it really doesn't matter at this point. We ordered drinks and placed a quick food order, I will state that the drinks were excellent as usual and the food was fantastic as usual. I only write this because you never know who your next regular may be. No matter how good the food, it matters how you feel about...

Been to Javier’s numerous times over the past 10-15 years for celebrating birthdays and other events. Tonight we celebrated both my daughters 21st Birthday and my upcoming 43rd Birthday.

After being at our table, in the front room across from the bar by the window and exit door, my daughter JUMPED UP in SHOCK from her chair! She had a large COCKROACH crawl on her foot and up her leg as she was sitting at the table for a NICE Dinner at a place she had chose! I calmed her down and got the attention of a” Manager” I presume.

He shined a light and found the culprit aka LARGE COCKROACH and killed it, picked it up with a napkin, carried it off and returned with a floor sponge/mop to clean up the floor after the insect was killed. Remember this was directly behind our table just before ordering our dinner.

Daughter was grossed out but we stayed and enjoyed a good meal and drink and solid service from our waiter and others.

I have over 15 years in the Restaurant Industry from dish washer to manager at all levels of dining from entry level to fine dining. My complaint is the way the manager quickly brushed off the situation at hand and never really owned up for such a meal ruining occurrence. In my experience, even at low end restaurants, that kind of thing warrants more then a small plate with 9 chicken Nachos on them which is all that was offered to us for what happened in his place of business.

If it were me as the manager I would have been way more apologetic, owned up, and a comp of at least half to all of the upcoming bill for the party at BARE MINIMUM. I understand just seeing a bug, but having a large cockroach crawl up one of your guests, let alone the one we were there to celebrate just ruins the whole night! Imagine what the kitchen is like if the dining room has this just crawling around?!

The food, the drinks, the waitstaff was all on point, as they usually are there. I wasn’t going to make a scene in front of my family but for $380 after tip for 6 of us I would never in my wildest nightmares have thought we would experience this kind of thing and when we did have been taken care of in a FAR more professional way for the HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!

Hoping this doesn’t happen to anyone else dining in such a staple of Dallas fine dining there...