La Wheela — Restaurant in El Paso

Okay so I love La Wheela and come here often. I always rave about this place to friends and family. I had previously given a 5 start review. So trust me when I say it pains me to lower the stars on this one. I believe they are going through growing pains, but it was a less than pleasant experience this Sunday at 12pm and a lot of things are obviously being over seen. The Sunday before this was also not that much better in terms of service and it was after their busy time at 1:30pm.

When we arrived, the hostess told us there would be a 45-minute wait. No problem, it was busy. But as we waited, multiple tables opened up and we still weren’t seated. The hostess wasn’t helping the servers at all, which didn’t make sense given how busy everyone was. She could have been seating guests with menus, napkins, and silverware, taking drink orders, helping run drinks while the kitchen caught up, and help buss dirty tables. That would not only improve the guest experience but also increase sales since guests might order more drinks while waiting for food. Although lately the bar has had trouble getting drink orders out in a timely manner as well.

When we did get seated it was without silverware or napkins. Once our server got to us she took our drink orders, which all came out at different times with the fountain drinks and waters coming out last which really doesn’t make sense. My husband’s green juice never came out and our server waited another 20 minutes after she took our food order to tell us they did not have the ingredients to make the drink. The new drink he ordered took another 10 minutes to come out.

My mom and I ordered a cup of menudo and chilaquiles, my sister had the house breakfast, my son had a burger, my daughter had pancakes with a side of potatoes, my husband ordered green pozole. Chilaquiles came out with the cups of menudo. In my opinion the cups of menudo should come out first since that is already ready and just needs to be served. My mom’s chilaquiles were missing an egg, my eggs were overcooked. My daughter’s pancakes came out without her potatoes, and my son’s burger came out on time. Our server then thought this was a great time to let my sister know there were no eggs and asked if scrambled was okay, she then told my husband there was no pozole so he would have to order something else. You DON’T wait for everyone to get their food to communicate you are out of something. If you are out of pozole and eggs this is something that should be communicated to the staff right away to avoid this. My sister received her food once we were all done eating and my husband received the wrong sandwich after we had already paid our bill. We had to ask for napkins 3 times, my sister got her tortillas after she was done eating, and my daughter got her potatoes after we were all done.

While our server apologized I still feel like the organization and management could be a whole lot better. The place is not that big to let so many things fall between the cracks. The manager was non-existent, he only came out after I told our server to keep my husband’s sandwich, which was wrong anyway, and take it off my bill. According to the server there were 3 managers on duty, but they were helping in the bar and kitchen. Bottom line a manager needs to be on the floor touching tables and making sure they are supporting the wait staff. Hostess should be sitting customers with menus, napkins, and silverware no exceptions. Staff should be informed of what has run out immediately. I also believe their menu has too many items and adds to prep times and puts unnecessary stress on the kitchen. You have been open long enough to eliminate unpopular items.

The food and live music were still excellent, but the service, management, communication, and organization need serious improvement. These are common challenges when a business grows, but they must be addressed quickly. The manager did comp the sandwich and give a discount, which I appreciated. I hope my next...

First time visitor, girl dad. Along with my daughters overall we give this place 3 stars. The concept of the place is different and the setup itself is nice, a bit small but it works. My issues was the food not being so great and the service was not great. The drinks alone took long to come out and the food even longer, yes it was busy since it was Sunday morning but I assume they should know breakfast/brunch time is busy. The waitress was very young looking, nice and friendly but I feel she was just very inexperienced. She seemed to be all over the place and I feel she may not have put our food order in right away, this being part of the reason it took so long to come out. Even the white chocolate matcha I ordered for one of my daughters took 15min to come out(I timed it). Once the food came out it was nothing that blew you away. My girls had fruity pebbles French toast (pic posted)and a croissant sandwich. The French toast presentation looks sloppy and the croissant was ok according to my other daughter, she didn't look happy, she then said the egg was too dry and overcooked. I had the southwest Benny, (pic posted) for some reason they covered the eggs with the gravy, usually the eggs sit on top of the biscuits and gravy, but ok no biggie, the gravy was delicious, I did have to ask for more, but for some reason the extra gravy they brought out was extremely watered down, it came with 3 chicken strips as you can see, the breading would have been nice but they were fried for a bit too long, also had a side of breakfast potatoes along with one of my daughters, those had great potential, good flavor the way they made them with onions and bell peppers I believe but they were cut into tiny bits, perhaps leave them a bit bigger and also don't serve them up so greasy..not sure if they were deep fried or made on the grill, I really wanted to enjoy them since they tasted good but just too greasy. Not a great first impression for myself and one of my girls, my youngest said she liked it but then again I think she just enjoyed all that sugary goodness on her French toast. I like eating local and you should too. Give them a try, hopefully a better experience than us. We will be back but not for a while, as you can see the cost of our meal in comparison to the quality is a bit high for a single dude with...

Last Sunday I attended my friend’s 50th birthday brunch in the upstairs private room at La Wheela. I feel so badly for my friend, because the lack of organization on behalf of the restaurant was apparent from the moment we arrived, and it ruined the celebration.

The guests pre ordered their meals with the birthday girl. The brunch festivities started at 11 am; we thought we’d be eating near the beginning of the party. We didn’t receive our meals until close to 1 pm. The servers were auctioning out food. At one point they asked the room “how many more plates of Arrachera tacos are missing”? TEN people rose up their hand 😳. The tacos arrived with on a plate with three tortillas and some meat inside. Absolutely no care in preparing the plate; you could tell it was thrown together & sent out the kitchen door. The Wheelita children’s plates were served super late. And lastly, the dirty plates and utensils weren’t cleaned up. You could tell that by the end of the party the servers quite literally gave up & just left the room a MESS. The entire situation went from bad to worse and I felt so badly for our friend/the birthday girl.

As much as we want to patronize local restaurants, sometimes they completely miss the mark and something has to be said. This was one of those situations.

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Edit #1 in reply to La Wheela’s response on 8/21 @ 3:05 pm: At this point not taking accountability says more about the character of the owner and/or manager. They blamed the poor service on unexpected guests. This is completely false. My friend even sent me the email of the Word documents with the names of families and their orders. 53 plates total. Please do not think that lying your way out of this situation is the best course of action. It makes your business look worse.

On Friday August 15, 2025 at 7:50 pm an email was sent to La Wheela with an updated list of guests & orders. That gave the restaurant at least 36 hours notice. And there were approximately 50 guests that attended. I personally saw that list in the hands of the servers. Yet the food was still delayed 2 hours.

And while we are at it, there were no prepared silverware for any guests. And I over heard multiple men say that there was no soap or paper towels in the upstairs men’s bathroom.

Please take...