Uncle Julio's Durham — Restaurant in Durham

Prior to my dinner last night, Uncle Julio's was my favorite Mexican restaurant in the Triangle. Unfortunately that is no longer the case. It is difficult to imagine that we will be returning.

Below are some concerns/complaints that we observed and experienced.

No one was manning the host/hostess stand. My wife waited probably 10 minutes before someone finally appeared. Staff could be seen in the back of the restaurant as if they were on break or had nothing to do. After we were seated we could see other parties coming inside and looking around for someone to seat them. This happened regularly while we were there. Customers sometimes roamed the seating area near the bar looking for a host/hostess. I think some grew frustrated and wisely left before being seated. From beginning to end, it was like pulling teeth trying to get drink refills, chip refills, etc. I estimate that wait time for chips, drink refills, etc. was about 10 minutes per request. I ate most of my meal without a drink. Three members of our party shared a taco bar. They had finished their portions and were waiting on another serving before my fajitas (which were smaller than I recall them being in previous visits) even arrived. Other customers who came in after us were also experiencing the same problems. A member of another party that was seated behind us actually asked us if we had seen our waiter; she wound up roaming around the restaurant and finally found him. The party seated in front of us eventually left before ordering. Shortly after we stepped outside, we noticed on the patio where someone had left a full tray of tacos. I am guessing their service was so bad that they understandably left before the food arrived. At no point was management visible to offer an apology, which is telling. The servers seemed to be working hard, but they were overwhelmed. Our server, while courteous, also never apologized.

I understand that some establishments are suffering from limited staffing, but if they have any hope of surviving in the long run, shutting it down in the short term and addressing these deficiencies might be the best hope. If not, they will be forced to shut down permanently because of customer marketplace choices. This place absolutely has no business being open right now, which is a shame. We loved eating there. We've eaten there many times. The food and service used to be outstanding. Yesterday was my nephew's birthday and we were all looking forward to an enjoyable meal. Sadly, that did not happen. After last night's utterly poor dining experience, I highly doubt we'll set foot in there again. I can no longer trust them to deliver...

First time customer. I reserved online to avoid having an extended wait time. I arrived 5 minutes prior to my reservation time and still had to wait. Fine. So we finally get seated in an area that had poor lighting. The waiter came to our table about 9 minutes after being seated and asked what we would like to drink. Mind you when we were seated no menus were provided. So America (the waiter)went to get us menus. After about another 10 minutes she finally came back to take our drink order and at this time I informed her due to the dim lighting I was not able to see the menu and asked if we could move to a area with better lighting. She went to inform the manager David Castillo, who came to the table and gave us the hardest time about something so simple as switching tables. He informed me when I made the reservation online I should have indicated in the note section that I wanted to be seated in a area with bright lighting or outdoors. I have never ever heard of such request needing to be made in regards to lighting. I've never been here so how would I have known about the lightening. At that point I asked if there was someone else I could speak with and he offered the kitchen manager! At this point I was highly offended. The kitchen manager manages the kitchen...that's all! I have Keratoconus and anyone who has this eye disease would understand why I would need more light. We have poor vision especially in dim to dark places. We literally went back and forth for about 8 minutes before he finally "authorized" the change in tables. After switching tables I witnessed another party that had been seated right after me and no waiter had attended to them. They had to ask America if she was supposed to be thier waiter! Which she was! I am not sure if they were short staffed this day but the service was one of the worst I've experienced. We didnt place our orders until 30 minutes after bring seated. After receiving our food, the waiter did not return to refill our waters, we didn't have any napkins, we had to ask ine of the kitchen staff walking by for refills and napkins! For this to be my first time at Uncle Julio's, I must admit due to the poor service I will not be returning. The food was average, I've certainly had better. The beans were watery, the rice was over cooked or left over rice. The salsa was a brown color that was also watery and flavorless! The frozen drinks...

OVERALL BAD QUALITY

We went to this restaurant becuase we made reservations for 7:45 and people said it was good, Turned out it wasn’t. At first things seemed good and we got our table right away but after that things went bad and downhill. Our table did not have a waiter for the first 45 minutes , and we had to ask the manager when our waiter was going to come and she finally came. she took another 15 minutes even to get our drinks after we ordered them on top of that, she did not give us enough straws, forgot me and my dads drink, AND even though we did not request it she gave us extra chips for no reason. One of the guests asked for a grapefruit margerita but the grapefruit was chunky and it was very difficult to drink. We still had chips on the table and it cluttered up the table. I will add the chips did taste good and so was the queso was good as well. We ordered our food at the same time we ordered our drinks so you might think that it came fast, but it took another 90 minutes, and some of our ordered were wrong. 1 guest in our party order a soft taco with just lettuce and steak but the waitress brought out a normal soft taco with all of the toppings on it that was specifically not supposed to be on the taco, Along with that some peoples orders were half completed and we had to ask for the rest. The food was not bad and most the people in our party were satisfied with there food. Only problem that was very aggravating was that the people seated 30 minutes after us good the food 30 minutes before us. After eating the food We were planning on getting dessert there but knowing how long everything was taking to get there food and the wait we ended up going to sweet frog down the street which is recommended. When we got the check our waitress took 15 minutes to get the check AND furthermore she took and auto 20% fee onto everyone’s check for the tip leaving her for a 40$ tip for doing absolutely nothing. Only good things were the chips and the sweat tea but they were overlooked by everything else.

OVERALL: I would definitely not recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a fast food food experience and the service was outstandingly bad. Not going...