Really disappointed in our visit this time.

We went for my birthday. Specifically chose the restaurant and location because it’s one of our favs, known for a good time, and the kids love it.

Things started off fine. It was my partner and I that showed up first. We were sat right away, ordered drinks and an app, and it all came out quickly.

Once the rest of the party came, it started falling apart. It took a solid 10 mins from my friends and their kids sitting down to being asked for drinks. Then almost immediately they wanted us to order. It seemed like we had a new server since we had 2, but we could never figure out who the new server was because, honestly, neither were great. The server got confused taking orders and seemed super annoyed with us when we explained who had already ordered and asked to make sure she had down what we wanted.

The food arrived quickly, fresh and hot! Great! We tried to order another round of drinks but only one person at the table ever ended up getting anything that was ordered - and it was water. We would have had a couple more margaritas each, but they never came.

About halfway through dinner one of our waitresses asked me if I’d like a churro sundae for my birthday dessert. I told her that sounded great. A few minutes later we saw them getting things together to celebrate, but the littles were in the restroom with their mom so my partner ran over and asked if we could wait for them to come back before celebrating. They’d seen other celebrations in the time we were there and were super excited to see the one brought to our table. Again, the server seemed frustrated but agreed.

Once the girls were back they headed over with the sparklers and hat - and placed it in front of my friend’s husband. The music was SO loud that when I my friend tried to politely explain the celebration was for me the server didn’t hear so my friend got a little louder. They tried to push the dessert to me but at this point we were about halfway through the song and the sparklers had gone out. One of the singers, and I’m guessing managers, did his best to save the situation by pulling a large sombrero off the wall for the second half. It was quite the sombrero!

I’m old enough to be disappointed but understand things happen. My irritation came from the part where the girls were super excited and had sat on either side of me so they could share my celebration and treat but were asking why the restaurant sang happy birthday to their dad when it was my birthday. We explained it was just a funny mishap. On top of it all, the server tried to tell us that they did that because my friend had told them it was her husband’s birthday. Then why ask me what I wanted for my birthday treat?

After the celebration there were no questions about more drinks - the second round we ordered had still not arrived - or if anyone else wanted to order dessert. We totally would have ordered one or two more things to share. A churro sundae split between 4 adults and 2 kids doesn’t go very far. There was nothing about boxes. One of the servers came over and handed the check to my friend’s husband and walked away. We did end up getting boxes because we asked for them, and thankfully the missing drinks weren’t on our tab, but it was such a strange way to end. Almost felt like they were asking us to leave.

We got the hint and headed out. Everyone at the front wished me happy birthday, thanked us for coming in and welcomed us back - like they always do.

Overall, I’m chalking it up to a learning experience for the new server and hoping this isn’t the norm. Just a bummer.