Ernie's Cafe Bar & Grill — Restaurant in El Paso

I went during lunch and waited a good 5-10 minutes before anyone acknowledged me, I could see there were several available tables. Yes, they place was busy but 2 waiters walked right up to the main entrance where I was waiting for someone to show me to a table, one just grabbed a bottle to drink water, the other checked their purse, without so much as a Hello or Welcome. When the hostess finally showed up she asked how many were dining with me and took a menu. Still no eye contact or friendliness. My waitress offered to take my drink order, and only after she had served my drink explained the special, which included tea, not lemonade, so I would have to pay separately for the lemonade. I checked the menu, there is a $0.50 difference in price between tea and lemonade, so why she couldn't just add 50¢ to the bill was beyond me. Also if the special includes tea, then she should have served me tea since I was already going to pay for the lemonade separately. The food was good but not great, it was served at the correct temperature and the place appeared clean and orderly. I don't withhold four or five star ratings frequently, but I can't stand subpar service and employees that are indifferent to their customers needs. Being busy is no excuse to behave as if a customer is invisible, nor is it a reason to treat them with annoyance if they ordered the wrong drink. It was the waitstaff's job to inform of the special, especially if not any drink is included, prior to taking the drink order. I won't return here. It is not the one server with the issue, it is everyone that works here. Evidently, management at Ernie's expects the bare minimum when it comes to caring for customers. I will take my money somewhere else where I am greeted and...

They never answer the phone 📱. I'm trying to order for pickup and I've called several times during business hours and no one answers. UPDATE: They finally answered the phone and I got to order. Changed my review from 2 stars to 1 star (should be zero stars) after dealing with the unprofessional staff (w the exception of the chef in back who seemed more professional). I ordered over the phone and they took payment over the phone as well. When I arrived to pick it up the first girl I spoke w told me she couldn't find my order. She got a second girl involved who showed me the receipt and said someone else took my order (or something of that sort, she didn't speak English well so it was hard to tell). They both smiled and laughed which upset me because they seemed to not care about the confusion they caused. They never apologized for the inconvenience and one girl (the bigger one) even said "what inconvenience?" Which was so unprofessional considering I had to wait for them to make my order and go thru all the confusion due to their incompetence. The two girls need to be more organized and take a customer service course because they severely lack empathy. Service here is terrible, the menudo is good so it's sad that the restaurant will not succeed with that...

To start our server took forever to bring everything out. He forgot our chips and salsa, and even the tortillas that came with our dishes. Refills were slow for the ones who had to ask, and none existent for those of us who never got the chance to ask. Worst of all this is the second chance we gave him, he was worse last time. Then I look up and see a girl in street clothes, long hair straight down her back, loose. She said hi to people, touching all kinds of things and without washing her hands, went straight into the back with the food. She then went into the kitchen and started walking around and serving herself as well as eating things she grabbed from the food serving station. She never washed her hands, and her hair was long just swinging around all the food. On our way out we went to restroom and same girl came in behind us. On our way out we stopped to wash our hands and she did not. Gross is not even the word that I would use to describe today’s experience. Our family loves the food at Ernie’s, but after today we understand the low health inspection grade they got last month. I’m so disappointed and won’t be returning...