Cafe Italia Cimarron — Restaurant in El Paso

Recommend ordering to-go or opting for the Mesa location for dining-in instead. While the food is pretty decent, the restaurant’s policy requiring customers to pay/leave within 10-15 minutes after eating just makes this place a ‘pass’ as a neighborhood favorite.

I’ve dined-in for dinner at this location twice, and was disappointed with the customer service both times. The first experience resulted in multiple servers coming to the table every 2-5 minutes to ask if we needed anything else. Normally this would indicate exceptional service and attention to the customer, but we got the feeling they were pushing us to leave. Second visit I was shocked to see an actual sign notifying all customers about their customer policy on leaving after eating. I took a picture of the sign just to show friends, family, and colleagues as this is a bold move in any industry-more so in the competitive El Paso restaurant market. Unfortunately, the pic was lost after damage to my phone, but I do see other diners have commented on the same sign.

Restaurant owners beware: market analysis from 2023 show inflation outpaced groceries, so consumers are going out less and leery about trying new places. However they are willing to spend more $ at the restaurants they do frequent. This mostly impacts mid level restaurants. So unless the El Paso restaurant market is an anomaly, restaurants would do well to assess similar customer service policies.

Needless to say, this is NOT a good go-to restaurant for me in this neighborhood. It’s obvious the focus is churning multiple diners as quick as possible to make more money, but at a cost to customer service. I guess if I’m in a pinch I may decide to order to-go or better yet, simply drive a bit farther to the Mesa location for a...

Very disappointed with the treatment. We know that they don’t give you a lot of time to eat when they bring the ticket, but this time they outdid themselves, we went to celebrate my birthday and we ordered salads, appetizers, entries, beer and dessert. We had just ordered a glass of beer after finishing our entree and the waitress came to ask if we were going to order anything else. We said, yes, we want dessert, but can you wait until we finish our beer, we just got it. We were surprised when she brought us the check, we told her we had not asked for the check yet, she acted defensively and said she thought we were done. They are asked to exhort a lot of pressure on the customers. She went to the owner and told him we were upset, which we weren’t, we just wanted our dessert. The manager came to us and told us that his restaurant was not a place to come and talk, that it was a place to order your food , eat quickly and leave. We know how he runs the place but can’t we order dessert? He brought us our coffee and dessert and the check again!!! It was sooo upsetting and so rude. We left 45 minutes after we arrived!!!It’s that a reasonable time to give to your clientele after ordering so much food. To not even get an hour to eat. We told him he was being unreasonable and that 45 minutes to eat and spend so much money it’s just crazy. We are not coming back. They went too far this time, we were weekly customers, accepting his policies but this was just soooo...

The food from this location has always been excellent, everything tastes so fresh. Their two "protein" dinners (steak and salmon) are sourced from a premium distributor, then cooked in the pizza oven. Always very good and sometimes just amazing. The roasted vegetables are a prize unto themselves. They do pack bodies into the interior and sometimes that overwhelms me. We frequently call in and take home. The food tastes great, but best straight out of the oven. Their pizza is perfect for us, very flavorful, I prefer the pepperoni and mushroom, she prefers veggie. It is just as good leftover, we use a Ninja air fryer. The salads are super fresh and creative. They seem to have maintained a pretty steady staff recently and we are always greeted with smiles and attentive service, even when they are super busy on a Friday night and we pick up take out. The location on Mesa is just as good, but I find easy parking on the street here and prefer this one. Not sure why anyone could justify a low rating, unless you expect to be treated special, no matter other customers. Be kind and you will...