Andes Cafe — Restaurant in Houston

This is our second visit to Andy’s café. We made a reservation because we wanted to try the “ceviche bar.” The food tasted good, but the ambience and service were terrible. First, this is not a ceviche bar. Food bars are where you actually interact with or at least can see the food during its preparation. This is simply sitting uncomfortably at a hemmed in counter with the food apparently prepared in the kitchen and plated on the other side of the counter, which we couldn’t see. The Ecuadorian decorations were nice, but really the only thing of interest at our seats. Sitting in a row like that with a solid counter in front of you is uncomfortable for a party of three and there is simply no reason why this could not have been served at a table. So we were disappointed from the start. Then, the advice on food quantity that was provided while we were ordering was simply inaccurate. The appetizer was entrée size and should have been shared among the three of us. We were advised that it was small and individual. That led to wasted food since we each ordered a full appetizer and entree ceviches as required for ceviche bar reservations. The ceviche itself and the appetizer were quite tasty although I had one bite of something crunchy that tasted off. The food wait is long, which would’ve been fine in a better setting, but the server failed to provide our beer and wine for the lengthy wait for the appetizers. We finally reminded her and she brought the order, but had missed one of two glasses of wine. This was very clearly ordered so I’m not sure what the problem was. The wine pours are very small when compared to other restaurants. I am not sure it was even 4 ounces. The entrées were not serve together. Again we understand they were freshly prepared and had to be prepared one at a time, but it is awkward when you’re a party of three and your food comes out at vastly different times, particularly when you are sitting at a metal counter and all you can do is stare at the counter or stare at your food. We all found the ceviche excellent. Given the small space at the counter, it was unfortunate that the appetizer dishes which had been pushed to the side were never cleared. It’s unappetizing to have dirty plates sitting there and it took up space. I should note that there were only one or two tables filled and a couple of walk up orders so the restaurant was not busy. One server should have been able to handle things better. Finally, we ordered the alfajores to take with us. This restaurant needs to find a better way to pack alfajores than an over-sized plastic box. I went with three stars because we loved the Andes café of old in EaDo and are sad that our two visits to the new location have been less than stellar.

We gave it an excellent rating the first time we were there, even though the service was a little off. But this was our second visit, and we tried the ceviche bar, and it was very...

We have visited the modest Andes Café on several occasions over the past three years since its opening in 2014.

The talented Ecuador-born chef and owner, David Guerrero, has become a friend over the years. He opened Andes Café on a shoestring budget and, in spite of some serious health challenges, has weathered through difficult times to keep the café open thanks in part to a loyal customer base and the support of his employees who kept things going when he could not be present.

Back in 2014 and for the next couple of years diners ordered from a sensibly priced all-day menu on which most items are less than $10 and even the costliest topped out at $15. Not anymore. The restaurant has become quite expensive with many main courses now ranging from $17-$24. Unfortunately, the quality of the food has not improved to the same extend in order to justify these much higher prices. If anything, our meal was extremely disappointing, bland and overpriced to the extent that when we received our final bill of $146 ($178.00 after including an 18% gratuity) that we felt ripped-off and foolish for allowing ourselves to be taken advantage of so blatantly.

The current online menu is outdated, reflecting the more reasonable older prices. Many of the online menu items are no longer offered. Tallying up how we could have spent so much for so little the following day we concluded that not only have the prices increased substantially but it appeared we were over-charged by about $20 on the final bill that we simply didn’t catch at the time due in part to our shell-shock as the final cost for the evening sunk in. A good reminder for us to be more careful in the future when checking the final bill, even at a formerly trusted establishment.

Things have certainly changed, and not for the better over the past three months since our last visit. Perhaps Guerrero has to do too much of the work himself and when he is not present quality suffers. I cannot fully justify the horror of our most recent experience on this one factor alone. Whatever the case may be this will have to be our last visit to the Andes Café.

At the end of the evening, upon reflection, we felt disappointed, frustrated and frankly taken advantage of by this latest incarnation of a previously favorite restaurant. The lower quality and inconsistency of the dishes, spotty and inept service, sketchy location and new exorbitant fine dining pricing simply do not merit a return visit to this...

Usually I believe if you have nothing good to say about something, better not to say anything; however, this time it was a little bit annoying some aspects of my visit. I visited this place the same time some other reviewer called Noor H. Extraordinary food, flavor, I really really liked, I am not south american but trying some others I think this is a really good point to bring up.

Now the buts: 1.- as Noor mentioned, this place has the music I like, old tunes that I heard when I was in Mexico, that nostalgia part was covered perfectly by the band, however, it was loud, really really loud, I think brunch is great for conversations and to catch up with friends but we barely could do this.

2.- AC off, or I think it was on, but not enough to cover the whole place, hopefully this review can be seen by the managers in order to fix this little issue.

3.- Service was horrible, we wait for 20-25 mins before getting something from the kitchen, and the cherry on the top was when they came back to one of our friends saying: "I am sorry we apologize for not having this, would you like to order something else" seriously dude, if it is taking more than 25 mins to figure it our that you can serve a dish, something is wrong.

After we complained heavily with management, the service improved significantly. We got all our dished served, they apologized, even we got some extra goodies to solve this problem. Good way to come back, but the damage was done.

My recommendations for management based on what I saw , please understand what is the concept of brunch, here is a good definition I got from wikipedia: "It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week." Guys, the place is loud, by definition a loud place creates stress in the workers creating a bad experience for customers ( that's a medical term used in the manufacturing industry for the last 40 years) please find a way to create a cheerful atmosphere without compromising your budget since the price is ok for the product (not the service).

I am coming back probably, but not in the next few months, probably by fall I will give them another chance since I can see multiple communication problems within the kitchen and services, if by then they are still bad, well you at least have something from my side that can improve your...