Blue Akai — Restaurant in Englewood

I have been dining and ordering here for over 10 years. The medical practice I work for also has supported this business when we had conferences. However, today I experienced the worst costumer service. I placed an order on line for deliver. My confirmation stated the order would arrive within 45 min. After an hour and a half passed by I called the restaurant. It might have been a little language barrier at first, but the assistant who picked up finally realized I was calling my order status. She really couldn’t explain the delay, but quickly said they can add a dessert as compensation for waiting. I replied okay cool, and I proceeded to tell her the dessert I would prefer. She then apologized and said sorry the driver left ten minutes ago and they already selected a dessert to give. I found it strangely odd that they ran 1hr and a half behind and didn’t call to inform me or ask how they may compensate me. I live fairly close, so I just said ok, I guess the driver should be here shortly, she replied correct and hung up. Now it gets to the 2hr mark and still no food. I call and ask for the manager, the same woman says ok hold on, after three minutes she’s back on the line saying she’s the floor manager and the general manager is out. I then stated ok, well I would like to speak to him, can you give me his name and hours so that I can call back. She said no I can’t he’ll be here tomorrow. I said well I would appreciate a name . She then said no again and disconnected. I then called back and said ma’am I believe we were disconnected. I would really appreciate taking down the managers name to call back tomorrow. She said no sorry we don’t do that, just call tomorrow after 11am. I asked why can’t she give out the first name of the manager, her reply was I don’t know. At this point I feel like I’m in a twilight zone. Even at that point I felt maybe she could have taken my info to have him call me back instead, because she never cared to confirm who is was and why I was requesting a manager. It was so unprofessional and uncomfortable. It’s now 5 mins to 5pm. I placed this order at 2:30pm. By the length of this message I’m so frustrated. I will be calling tomorrow and let’s see if they can right this wrong. It’s unacceptable and if I can’t be compensated properly, I’ll have to take my business elsewhere and...

A long time ago Blue Moon was an absolute local staple. It still could be. I’m guessing the slight change in name indicates a change in ownership.

The consistency is all over the place. Sometimes the food is good, but way too often it’s just not. The service is also super inconsistent. 5 people standing at the desk but no one can figure out who to seat. 8 waiters for 25 tables, most of which are empty and it’s still impossible to get a refill or some chips to start. It takes forever to get a drink from an empty bar too.

And the drinks are now a mess too. They consolidated the menu, which is fine, but a HOUSE margarita is now $15. And they’re using mixer. In a margarita, in a Mexican restaurant. It’s 5 ingredients, tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, ice and salt. What do you need mixer for? And $15 for a house margarita with mixer is insane. Especially when it takes 15 minutes to get to the table at an empty restaurant.

And they also wrecked the atmosphere too. Between the inconsistent service, inconsistent food, and now insane prices and poor atmosphere? It’s a mess. No one wants to listen to a 15 minute tuba solo at 11/10 volume at 6pm on a Friday night. Music really should be that hard at a place like this. But everyone has to shout to talk over the music, it explains why people can’t get out fast enough. It should be light, upbeat, and background noise. You can be club akai or whatever after 9pm. But I’m pretty sure 15 minute tuba solos aren’t really that vibe either.

One star is for where they’re at, the other one is for potential. Go back to providing good food, good service at affordable prices and maybe you can have a line on fridays again. But I’ve walked out after waiting 10+ minutes to meet my server in an empty too many times to warrant...

Had to stop a passing waiter after 15 minutes in order to place our order. Our waiter either never showed or was the random waiter we got since he ended up taking care of us for the meal. He was good but I'd normally expect someone to come take the order without having to chase them down.

The food was not great. The Blue Moon Chili felt like eating a bowl of taco seasoned ground beef with a couple pieces of cooked onion and a few beans thrown in. It was very salty. We ended up using it as a dip for the chips as it was practically inedible as a chili. Steak fajitas were bland and on a bed of unseasoned onions and peppers that looked like they might have been cooked in water? They were a solid step down in quality compared to places like On The Border or Jose Tejas which are significantly cheaper options. There wasn't anything we received that was spicy including the salsa for the chips (which had an almost ketchup like after taste) and the sauces that came with the fajitas. Everything felt very much like Americanized Mexican style food. Probably something that 90 year old Americans who've rarely strayed from steak and potatoes during their life might think is good Mexican food. We didn't see many Mexican people eating there. If you cross the street a couple blocks down you'll find La Taqueria Los Gueros (an authentic Mexican taco place) which has plenty of Mexicans eating there so this local area has a decent Mexican population, they just don't appear to frequent Blue Moon. If your looking for real Mexican don't go here. If your looking for safe Mexican style American to eat with seniors who are used to nursing home food then maybe this is the place to go.

The restaurant itself looks nice and it's put together well but the food quality is what will keep me...