La Cueva Restaurante Mexicano — Restaurant in Four Corners States

My two friends and I stopped at La Cueva Restaurante Mexicano before beginning on our Capitol Reef NP trip. The owner, Terry, had not opened up shop yet and probably wouldn't have yet if he didn't spot us walking back to our car - we were the only people for miles on this random Wednesday afternoon! He personally walked out to us and asked if we wanted to eat. We apprehensively shook our heads 'yes', and thank the stars we did. What followed afterwards was the most heavenly dining experience I've had to date. After taking a few quick minutes to open up the restaurant, he seated us in a cozy booth with the most beautiful view of the mountains off in the distance. He chatted it up with us, learned we were all vegetarian, and offered us a run-down of everything vegetarian on the menu, alongside offering to turn any meat dishes into vegetarian ones. Extremely attentive. Returned with a delicious, refreshing, natural salsa and a creamy, crunchy guacamole with warm chips. The appetizers alone had me rolling. This quality of guac in the middle of Utah?! Never in my wildest dreams. Okay, we know we're supposed to be hiking right after this but the quality of the guac had us wondering about the quality of the margs. Ordered 2 for the 3 of us to share. The best worst choice we've ever made as a trio. Best because the marg is impeccable. Worst because we are now snatching cups back and forth from each other, trying to get the next sip. While we are playing grab hands with the drinks, Terry brings us our entrees. Presentation: 10/10. Flavor: 100/10. As I was ripping into my tostada salad bowl, I couldn't help but think God herself was smiling down on me. Keep in mind, I got something with the word "salad" in it. And it is now top 10 things I have ever eaten in my life. The tostada shell was crispy and flaky, bread straight up MELTING in my mouth. I can't stop thinking about it. I want Gordon Ramsey to taste it. I know he would also lose his mind. The taco salad filling was flavorful, simultaneously somehow both light and hearty - just so, soooo good. My girlfriends and I always plate swap, and I could feel the sweat building up on my forehead, nervous that they were about to rip my plate away from my grip. I'm usually so giving but I did not want to give up a bite of that tostada salad bowl!!! Alas as our elders say, sharing is definitely caring, and I'm glad that penultimately, I swapped plates. Because all the food here rocked!! The chimichanga blew it out of the water. Again, in UTAH?! Nuts. The portions were huge. I finished at the expense of my stretchable yoga pants and our planned hikes. Eating every last bite of my entrée felt more important than Cassidy Arch.

I've gone to the mountains. I've found peace and stillness nestled in the valleys of La Cueva Restaurante Mexicano - a haven for all weary hikers and Mexican cuisine lovers. Let Terry take care of you next time you're...

If you don't want a ton of details, here's a quick synopsis: La Cueva has pretty good food if you're willing to wait for it. Our experience did not include stellar or prompt service. We were there a REALLY long time. I really hope they can iron out whatever service kinks they have, especially when serving during busy times, because they have the potential to be great.

If you want more details of my experience, see below: My wife and four children were in the mood for some Mexican food and it was busy enough that it was about a 30 minute wait to be seated. It was around 6:15 pm and it was pretty busy. Upon being seated our order was taken after a few minutes but we didn't get any chips or salsa to munch on or even get our drinks quickly. We had to flag down a server who wasn't the person who took our order for chips and salsa, which we eventually got about a half hour into being seated. We also got our drinks and after a sunny day of hiking Capitol Reef, we were thirsty. Refills didn't happen right away. We heard another table ask for chips and salsa and the man who took our order told them he only took orders. So we had no idea who our server was supposed to be. We flagged down the same server again to ask for another batch of chips and salsa because we were over an hour since our order was taken. People who came in after us were getting food before us. There were repeated periods of several minutes where no staff were visible at all, like they were all hanging out in the kitchen or something. Kind of made me wonder if the servers were also making the food.

Our food finally came and it tasted good other than being lukewarm. Of course we got our food before we got any utensils so we had to wait a few extra minutes for those. The nachos were very soggy due to way too many refried beans being put on them but otherwise tasted good. Once we got our bill after roughly two hours of waiting for food, etc. (not including the 30 minutes we waited outside), I wasn't planning on leaving a tip; but we got our bill and found they had already put a gratuity on which seemed odd for a party of six. It was pushing 9:00pm at that point and we were just too tired to argue so we paid and went to our hotel.

Next time we're in Torrey, we will only come back if there are no other options for food. For what we paid vs what we got, not a...

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!

We went here as we were travelling through Utah and visitng the Mighty Utah 5 (Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, Bryce and Zion). We were staying in Torrey for one night and decided to go to this restaurant and had a horrible experience. It was my son's birthday and he picked mexican cuisine. This being a small town, and us being vegetarians, I thought this might be a good option. They were not super busy when we got there..but had to wait 10-15 mins to be seated. We were seated in a corner booth by the right side of the restaurant. It was 4 of us, myself, my wife, and 2 kids (5 and 7). Next 15-20 mins go by and no one comes to take our order, bring us drinks, chips and/or Salsa. I get mistakes get made, but even after bringing this to the manager or owners attention, nothing changed in the service.

The server comes and takes our order and was somehow visibly irritated that I had complained about the way we were treated. What followed this initial interaction was the worst customer service I have ever experienced. We ordered enchiladas for the kids. I was not warned that the enchilada sauce is a bit on the spicy side even though I had mentioned its for the kids. So, once we got the food, I called the server over and asked her to see if they have non-spicy sauce? She said they do not. As I was explaining that its spicy for my son, and trying to figure out what other options they have that may not be spicy on the menu (I was willing to pay for the 2nd dish), she just walked away in middle of the conversation like I was wasting her time. No one from the restaurant came to check on us for the rest of our meal to see how the food was or if we needed anything more. My son didn't even eat anything as it was pretty spicy for him. Our food was also mediocre at best.

I was so mad that my son had to essentially stay hungry on his b'day. We ended up going to a different restaurant to get them fed. WORST RESTAURANT I HAVE...