Las Trojas Cantina — Restaurant in Huntsville

I don’t like to complain. I really hate it.

I arrived here and loved all the amazing décor and sculpture. 5 stars. I sat at the bar and someone brought me free chips and salsa. Nice! Then I waited. And waited a VERY long time. It was 4:30 and the bartender was very busy making drinks for the waiters

I munched on the chips with no water or drink until I fished them. The salsa tasted like ketchup, but different people like different things.

Finally a waiter stopped by me and asked me if I’d like to order a drink. I asked for the menu and a blueberry margarita, no salt. I was clear I wanted blueberry, even pointing to it on the specials sign that was on the bar.

Then he came back and I ordered my food. He realized my drink still hadn’t come. I think the bartender had forgotten it. These things happen. You make allowances when a place is obviously understaffed.

More waiting. My food came (a huge serving for $18). A moment after the food was placed, the bartender brought me a red frozen drink and zoomed away. Since when is blueberry red? I tasted it to be sure. I really don’t like blackberry, but at this point I had eaten a bowl of chips and needed to get some liquid. So I ate my entree and sparingly sipped at the drink. I really don’t like blackberry, but it was better than nothing. I was hoping someone would come and I could tell them of the mistake.

I finished the whole plate before the waiter finally came back. I had begrudgingly drank half the drink. I gave him my card, but showed him the drink and asked if it was blueberry. He said it was. I questioned why blueberry would be red. I could see a frozen drink machine stirring away with a blue slush, surely that was the one I had ordered. He corrected himself to say “blackberry.” I suspect he didn’t realize they were different.

At this point any typical restaurant would apologize for their mistake and offer to replace the drink or remove it from the bill. Nope. It was really uncomfortable, but I asked him to remove it from the bill. He went to get his manager (I hadn’t asked him to).

The manager came over and I explained the situation. I retrieved the little specials tent from the bar again and showed him that I had wanted blueberry, not blackberry. He countered that those specials were for a different day, not today. Okay. So? I ordered a blueberry and got blackberry. And why do they have that sign sitting on the bar on the wrong day, anyway. Further, he said I had drank half of it. I explained, again, the huge amount of time I had waited, that I couldn’t get anyone’s attention, and told him I felt abandoned. What was I to do? Sit there not drinking anything while the wrong drink sat in front of me and not drink it?

I asked him to take it off the bill. He said the best thing he could do was to credit me the difference between the full price and the special price, as if that was generous. I told him that any other restaurant would have credited me without me having to ask. That’s just normal when you make a mistake and the customer is unable to find anyone to fix it. He refused.

I’ve never done this before, but I told him I could give the restaurant a bad review on Google. He told me “that’s your business.” That’s actually a really good answer for a customer that’s being unreasonable. Perhaps he had just gotten into “combat mode.” Maybe he was having a bad day. But he had dug in.

I told him that I could just do a zero tip and that would be similar to a refund. He repeated “that’s your business.” So in front of him I wrote “Zero” in the tip field. He didn’t budge and I left.

I regret not tipping now. Yes, the waiter or bartender made a mistake, but those things happen. We’re all human. Yes, I was left abandoned, unable to get help. That often happens at a table, but it’s weird for it to happen when you’re sitting right at the bar. It’s weird that the bartender didn’t take my order (or even greet me). But I still shouldn’t have zeroed the tip. Maybe it was just this one manager, or maybe a bad day. But it left me shaken and unhappy....

Since I'm not sure what each row of stars is representing (see attached photo) I'll assume its Overall rating, food, service, atmosphere. I gave a 1 star for food as this was the most sub par Tex Mex style food I've had. I'm familiar with the Las Trojas restaurants around this area, and I've known that they tend to be a bit on the pricier side. My husband and I decided to stop at this newer location, since we had not yet visited. It was a Saturday evening and the restaurant was mostly empty because... college football. The bar is huge and nice, but not one person was at the bar. We were seated in a booth. My husband immediately commented on the prices, which are double the amount of other similar food establishments. But I reminded him that we knew this and expected good food. Unfortunately, we were let down immediately. We had the guacamole to go with the chips and salsa. I immediately noticed a "fishy" taste, which led me to believe they used bad/spoiled avocados. Ok, we know how perishable avocados are which can lead to loss of profit during slow times. I salted it to try and make it better, to no avail. Our food came and it was presented well and service was nice. However, the rice was old, and so were the refried beans. I ate half my quesadilla and took the rest home. We ordered to go plates for family at home, and paid. What would normally be $70-$85 tops before tip, came out to over $100. (No alcohol). I would "maybe" consider trying it again when its busier and the food is more fresh. But I doubt I would convince my husband. It was a one and done for him. I always wish for restaurants to do well and prosper, especially locally owned. Hopefully they'll pick back up after...

I have been to many Las Trojas Cantinas from all over Alabama and Tennessee. This by far was the worst one I have ever been too. This review will be in depth because too many bad things took place on this one visit. I started off ordering a Margarita and when it was brought to my table the waiter spilled about a 1/5 of it on the table and just said sorry. So I asked for some napkins to clean it up myself. About 20 minutes have gone by and I still have not received my napkins nor has the waiter come back to the table so I asked another staff member to bring some napkins so I could clean up this mess. My original waiter finally brought out some napkins and had the nerve to ask me why I didn't use the cloth napkin my silverware was in. I told him I had already used it because my Margarita glass was all sticky. Finally our food arrived and I did not get my tortillas that came with my meal so I asked our waiter to bring me some. I thought well how could he mess this up. To my surprise he did. The tortillas that were brought to me had chewed up food and bites out of the tortillas. I was brought someone else food that they did not finish eating and had spit out chewed up food in it. At this point I was pissed. My dad that was with me had to calm me down. I wish I had told management at the time when I was there last week but I felt I could not control my anger so I left. That is why I'm leaving this review now. I really hope this does not happen to...