Uncle Julio's Gaithersburg — Restaurant in Gaithersburg

We stopped by the Rio for a movie on Memorial Day and decided on Uncle Julio's for an after movie dinner. The place is right on the lake at the Rio and has a large dining room and a good size patio for outdoor seating. We had no reservation and walked in hoping there was not a long wait. There was no one at the hostess stand but a few people were waiting. It turned out to be a number of delivery app drivers were waiting by the stand waiting for take out orders. Once the hostess returned and she ignored the hovering delivery drivers to give us her attention, we had the option to wait for an outdoor seat or get an indoor one right away. As it was chilling out outside, we were happy to sit inside. We were handed off to another young lady to be seated who was immediately harassed by a phone being placed into her face by a delivery driver and being given disgruntled look for not getting her attention. She ignored him and led us to our table. So noting here that the delivery app drivers hovering and waiting at the hostess stand is really ruining the vibe for customers trying to come in and get a seat. We soon were greeted by our waiter Christian and a basket of chips and two small bowls of salsa (ugh! love\hate relationship with these. I can just eat these forever). We placed our order for drinks. I ordered a Raspberry Tea while still deciding on what to eat. Now, I am used to Raspberry Tea being a tea with some raspberry syrup in it, but this turned out to be some raspberry puree in it which made is very sweet. I didn't dislike it, but I rather tea with raspberry and not raspberry with tea. As our chips started to get down to the small bits on the bottom, we were visited by our waiter for our order. While eating the chips we got a craving for some Queso, so got a small cup of that and then we both ordered Enchiladas. I ordered two, one beef and one chicken. The wife ordered three, all chicken (she was looking for some leftovers the next day). We asked for another basket of chips (ugh! so good). It did not take too long for it to show up and we started to dig in. As we were waiting I started investigating the chips. This was the second basket and it also had a large ratio of small broken bits and it made me think about how places serve these out and how they put it into the basket. Anyone else contemplate this? I feel like they must use a scooper of some kind and then some customers are going to get the bigger ratio of small crushed bits. I think I kinda confirmed this with our third basket (I know!!! I blame the Queso) where is was a large ratio of nice warm large chips like from a brand new container of chips. The Enchiladas took a while, but they finally came out and the plates looked great. I wouldn't say I was amazed with the Enchiladas, but they were very good and we enjoyed them. The wife took two of the three home. I have always enjoyed Uncle Julio's and have mostly enjoyed the Bethesda location, but I would return and recommend this one if your looking for some Mexican cuisine. Could be better service, but still good. Next time I will go back to my favorite which are...

Horrible night made better by 1 waiter. Being in the hospitality industry we, friends and I, understand delays when there is a busy time (Cinco de Mayo). Restaurant was packed and there was a 2 hour wait. We were fortunate enough to find a small table in the bar area, but our table wasn’t cleaned nor did the waiter ever stop by to take our order, we waited over 1 hour to see if we would be waited on while we waited for our name to be called since had originally placed ourselves on the list for a table. After little over 1 hour, we saw a bus person and we kindly asked him to please clean our table and to please call the manager so that we could speak to them. Before the manager arrived he had another server, not working the bar area, come to take our order, he constantly came to check on us. When the manager arrived, we informed him our unhappiness with being ignored for so long by the waiter in the area. We were highly disappointed as we were ignored all night by the waiter working the bar area. The manager apologized and comped our drinks and appetizers. Things looked to get bette for us but then we waited over 1 hour to get our food which we had to informed the waiter that kept checking on us that it had been over 1 hour and we still had not received our food. We said he would inform the manager and check the kitchen. The food finally came out and 1 of us was served but then the food runner had a mishap and dropped the remainder of our food. What a disaster!! Food was cleaned up but food had gotten on my purse so I asked the manager what could be done about my purse and he said nothing but we will comp the food; that was very disappointing as we work for other companies in the hospitality industry and we, as manager, would have asked what we could do to rectify or make the situation better. I had to grab napkins to clean my purse from the food spilled on 1/2 of it. Then they finally brought out the remaining 2 dinners but I was given the wrong food. When my correct meal came out it looked as if they just threw food onto a plate and then my steak fajita was super salty. We were given many apologies by the manager, the manager taking names for tables, and the waiter from another area. We informed the manager on duty that our main gripe was that we were ignored the entire night by the waiter working our area - he NEVER arrived to even ask if we were ok much less to take our order. We were highly offended by the waiter in our area as he took orders from other tables and checked on them but he NEVER said a word to us - that is VERY UNPROFESSIONAL!! As professionals, we asked about our waiter, the 1 that actually took our orders and checked on us continuously, as well as they lady that fell with our food. Due to this treatment by that 1 waiter that ignored us the entire night, we may NEVER return to this...

The front desk lady (wearing white; other most of the staff were wearing black) was not helpful when arrived. We asked to sit outside (7-8 tables were empty outside since we walked from there before entering the restaurant) for which she said we don’t have anything available outside. It was about 8:45 pm and they close at 10 pm so it was probably unlikely that 7-8 tables were reserved. Anyways, we asked for what is the wait time on which she responded I cannot tell you how much wait time would it be but took our phone number since we wanted to eat outside. I got a text saying the wait time was about 2 hours (probably just an automated text so kinda useless to get customers phone numbers). After 5 minutes I went back and met with another lady (wearing black) at front desk who told me the tables are available outside just need cleaning so should be ready soon. We got the table in next 2 minutes. The server Yazan was nice and greeted well. We ordered veg fajita, veggie quesadillas and queso dip. Food was not flavorful and not even hot. This place does not serve the authentic Mexican food (maybe they don’t claim to be authentic) if you’re looking for some good Mexican food, this is not the place. Quesadillas were the only okayish food. Chips and salsa were just bad - stale and not tasty. Any other Mexican place will have regular salsa (Tomatoes, onion, cilantro, jalapeños) but this place is doing some experimentation with salsa - some charred veggies can be seen visibly which makes it less appealing and taste is just the worst. Queso was not even good and ice cold - it was mixed with pico de gallo and cheese was very thin in texture. We asked our waiter Yazan if they have just regular queso - hot melted cheese with no or minimal ingredients added and he said they don’t do it there. He did offer to ask manager and get us another with just cheese since we did not like it at all. He ended up not providing update throughout the dinner neither brought the replacement but at the end of dinner took off from the bill. Veg fajita was mostly big chunks of portabella Mushrooms and lots of zucchini. Not sure if it’s some healthy version of fajita but it was far from regular tasty fajitas that other places offer. Tortilla were good but wish they had corn tortilla- or if they do they did not ask. Most authentic thing here was the bottle of Blue moon - cold and served with lime. Overall, bad experience and not tasty food. Probably one of the worst Mexican food I have tried (second worst after one tried near Houston TX) among the ones I tried across different parts of USA and Mexico. I have much more appreciation for Taco Bell and Chipotle in terms of being ‘Mexican food’ after trying here. Not recommended and will...