Lady Nomada - Mexican Kitchen — Restaurant in Lakewood

Since there isn't an option for a 3.5, I'm settling for a 4 (especially because I have hopes for this place).

We ordered an appetizer; the potato taquito. The guac was ok (sorry, my wife has set an extremely high bar for guac. I'll try just to please her but hers is the best). The sauce I didn't even get to try as both my wife and myself had one bite each and felt the potatoes were spoilt. We had to return this dish. The staff was very kind and accommodating. They thanked us for letting them know so they can probably discard the potatoes in the kitchen.

The mains:

Both of us ordered a taco meal each.

My wife ordered the mushroom and fried avocado with black beans and rice. I tasted the mushroom taco; OUT OF THIS WORLD. Really good.

The avocado one was ok for my taste but my wife loved it.

I had ordered the Baja fish and Chicken tinga tacos with black beans and rice. The Baja fish was ok; nothing special about it. Fish was well done but been there done that. I'd rather try something else. The chicken tinga on the other hand was EPIC. The chicken was still juicy and tender. This is something not easy to accomplish. The flavor was outstanding. I actually wish I wouldn't have ordered the fish and instead ordered 2 of the chicken tingas.

So why the 3.5 stars?

We came in for dinner what seemed like a little early for Denver perhaps (about 6pm) but we were starving. There was a large group in the patio already and another large group in the dining room; each group consisted of 12 people.

We waited and waited and waited for the hostess to have us seated so I was already feeling like walking out. (She did however come and say she will be right with us after she gets another couple situated). Other than the 2 large groups, there were a few tables occupied. Overall, I'd say the restaurant was about 30% full. The hostess finally came and right away elevated the experience. She was appreciative of us waiting and apologized. Overall, at this point the rating went back to a 5 star for me.

Things that could be improved were:

Attentiveness Speed (while I do agree that good things take time but only about half of what we had was 'good') Better coordination among staff

Their water glasses are super small and we both drink a lot of it. The server came by once to refill our glasses. After that, for the rest of the time (and we were there for just over 90 minutes), different servers passed us by with jugs full of water going to other tables but didn't even glance at our glasses to fill. In fairness, they were starting to get busy. The restaurant was not about 60 to 65% full so nearly double of when we got there. Sure, I could have requested more water and I should have (but then I wouldn't be able to observe this lack of attentiveness). Lack of attentiveness.

Now in all, we ordered 4 tacos and the rice and beans each. I think we probably waited at least 30 min or so for our dishes to arrive. I was just about to walk up to one of the servers to order a bowl of salsa and chips when one of the staff came with our dishes. Way too slow for such a small order. Equally was the wait to get our check. Nobody cleared our plates in spite of us having finished our meals and leaving the plates bare.

Lastly, it was a little confusing in terms of who was our server. We had the bar tender take our order at one point, then we had another senior staff member take another part of our order, someone else came to serve the food. I wanted to approach someone for the check but wasn't sure who. Finally, I just approached the senior staff member that took one of our orders for the check. She was kind and polite; sent someone right over (yet a different person).

In conclusion, while some of the food was fantastic (I will go there again to try some of the other stuff), the service while polite and well intentioned could use a little bit of efficiency. My gut tells me I need to give it another shot and I will before I leave Denver sometime in the...

It pains me to write this review because I love the drinks & I love the vibes at Lady Nomada, but I've now been given food that goes against my dietary restrictions on three separate occasions due to how haphazardly and carelessly the food is ordered and then served.

The first time my fiance and I came the manager of the restaurant personally sat down at the table next to us, asked about our restrictions as vegans, and then personally served us our meals, which included refried beans that are cooked using animal products & topped with cheese, and rice that cooked in chicken broth. We were able to swap for black beans, but the manager didn't even know the rice was cooked in chicken broth so we ate it all and didn't learn that until our second time at the restaurant when we returned to redeem our experience from the first time.

Our second time is when our server kindly informed us that the rice had chicken broth, but it was well after we had already been eating it. This time we were also served refried beans with cheese instead of black beans, despite explicitly asking for them.

Most recently, I returned for my third and final time yesterday and ordered the mushroom tacos (no cheese), and black beans. The server verified with me while putting the order in that I wanted the mushroom tacos. Instead I received the fried avocado tacos, which are topped with a dairy based sauce, and the refried beans with cheese on top for the third time. Our server took 20 minutes just to bring us water, so at that point I had to judge whether it was worth waiting to get the entire order remade, so I was stuck eating a third meal that was not vegan in more than one way.

This is a serious issue. I am vegan by personal choice, but other customers can have serious allergies and the staff, management included, do not know well enough what the ingredients are in the meals that they're serving people. And the servers don't check in enough to give customers an opportunity to ask for it to be made right.

ALSO - If you order the chips and salsa, they serve you the most laughably small portion of salsa I have ever seen. It is quite literally like, 1-2 ounces of salsa, so you can enjoy approx 4 chips...

The food and service here are often inconsistent. We've been to Lady Nomada (Belmar) several times and have had some not so great experiences. Our most recent experience is definitely review worthy. The service was just downright awful on New Years Day, and there really is no excuse because the place was mostly dead. Only about 4 tables were being served the entire time we were there. The attitude of our server was just awful. Go home if you don't want to be there. She was not attentive at all and eventually abandoned us. She didn't even ring in part of our order as we found out after waiting and waiting some more. As for the food, the "grande" margarita was a mountain of ice. We ordered chips and salsa, chips and guac, and chips and queso. Even though each appetizer includes a basket of chips (so we've been told), they always try to get away with just giving us one basket. We always have to ask for the other baskets of chips.

The mini chili rellenos come with a teaspoon of ranch. Yes, about a teaspoon, not nearly enough for all three. I asked for more, and the second was filled up, but don't be fooled here because you will be charged for the extra. When we received our bill, we were charged $9 per grande margarita, yet the menu said $8 and charged $1 for an extra ranch. We asked to speak to a manager. I would like to mention that the manager on duty was extremely cold and unfriendly. I'm not sure why she works in the hospitality industry. She refused to take off the charge for the extra ranch and told us that the teaspoon sized amount is normal, and if we want more, we need to pay for it. As for the prices of the margaritas, she said we were given old menus and that the prices had increased. She said she would honor the pricing since we were apparently given the wrong menus. However, her tone was condescending, and she acted like she was doing us a big favor. We definitely won't be back for a while. There are much better restaurants with friendly service that deserve our hard...