Baja Grill | Little Rock — Restaurant in Little Rock

I would have loved my first visit to Baja Grill to be positive after all of the amazing things that I heard and seemingly wonderful menu options available. However, I was treated rudely by one of the servers and told to leave by the manager after she stated “No server here will take care of you” and turned her back and walked away from us. Here is the timeline: Approximately 4:00 pm, we arrive at Baja Grill eager to try it for the first time. Seated by a host (young white gentleman with longish dark hair) on the patio. The person who seated us was stopped by another employee (young guy, high low fro) That same employee then came to our table and said “there was a host who wasn’t here and didn’t know” and then without any further explanation walked away. The same employee came back to the table just a few minutes later saying we “had to move” telling us it was shift change and there are several reservations. We said “we already know what we want. We can give you our order while you guys figure out what’s going on OR we can just take it to go! He then said we needed to move inside to a booth in a really confusing manner. My husband called the restaurant from his phone to get a manager. Manager (white lady) came out and said that we needed to move to the table next to us, due to them only being at half capacity., which wasn’t a problem at all. We asked “Is that what your employee was trying to communicate?” Manager then advised us that “He DID tell you couldn’t sit there.” I said “he didn’t say anything of the sort” Manager again tries to defend the employee. My husband then said “No! I’m telling you that your employee was unprofessional and you’re defending him!” Manager then said “Well do what you want but NO server here will take of you!!! Husband asked “Did you just say that we should leave because no server will take care of us here!?!” Manager advised “Yes” and walked away.

As we left, we walked back by the patio table where we were originally sat. The group of three people who were sitting near us were just as confused as we were about what was happening and wanted us to come back over and join them. They said “You weren’t bothering us, please come back and sit down.” We advised, would love to, but we couldn’t since we were asked to leave. At this point, Marcus (bartender) came running out to us. He thought our laughter with the three top was us “starting trouble”. They explained it was all good, and they were as mystified as me as to why we were being kicked out. They advised Marcus that “we weren’t the problem” and proceeded to pull out their credit cards so that they could pay and leave.

Marcus was just trying to “protect” his coworkers. Good for him!

I understand Covid-19 restrictions and respect that each restaurant has to follow the guidelines to keep their staff and patrons safe, and I understand this is a stressful time for businesses operating in this new normal. However, I would have hoped for better service from your establishment...

Coworkers and I wanted to try BG for the first time on our lunch break (on a Friday) & they're so close to downtown where we work so we thought it would be a good lunch spot. The food came out very quickly after we ordered and all agreed it was absolutely delicious. That is about the only positive of our visit, though. About halfway through eating one of my coworkers ordered a brownie dessert to-go, we weren't done eating yet but she figured once we were done eating & paid she'd have it and we'd leave. Once our waiter put in the order for the brownie he didn't come back to check on us and we were all sitting there, done eating and talking. He still didn't come check on us, clear plates or bowls, or bring our checks so we had to flag him from the next table to ask for those. That in itself took several minutes, and when he did bring those we had our cards already out and ready to pay and tried to hand them right back to him and he waved his hand up and said 'Just hold on' and walked off. Couple of minutes later when he did come back to pickup our cards he walked around the restaurant with them tucked under his arm. He walked to other tables, passed out other drinks, went to stand at the bar .. Then finally went to swipe our cards at the till.. if I'm not mistaken he would swipe one or two, tuck them back under his arm and walk off to do something else again...When he brought our cards back to us he said "don't leave" because my coworker still hadn't received the brownie she ordered about 20 minutes prior! She tried to ask when it would come out and he just said "it's still not ready" and our other coworker tried to ask how long it would be and he had walked off on her mid-sentence. We tried to wait a couple more minutes but by this time we had already been here almost an hour (when we received our food well within 10 minutes of ordering) and had to get back to work since this was only supposed to be a lunch break. So our coworker paid for something she didn't get. The food was very good and we'll likely come back to eat, but will have to order ahead and take it to go or go through the drive thru. If our waiter had been more attentive or urgent in taking care of us during a lunch hour the experience might not have been so irritating. But watching someone walk around the restaurant with my money with no haste on giving it back is not okay with me.

**Edit to add. Thank you so much Heather and Erin. I never want to put down any restaurant staff but this was such an odd & irritating experience for us. We’ll be back for the delicious...

I preface this by saying that the food was awesome but my dining experience was horrible. It was myself and 2 other people in my party. When we got sat it the waiter five minutes to come over, luckily he had water with him. The waiter brought out the menus and then left. He didn't come back for almost 15 minutes. We ordered appetizers and he was gone another 15 minutes. All the while another table got sat. That table was immediately greeted. We had almost force the server to stop at our table for refills. The other table got their appetizers before us. After that we finally got our appetizers. Then another couple was sat at the table on the other side. Again greeted immediately. We finally ordered entrees. And we waited for almost an hour. The other 2 tables sat 15-30 minutes after us got their drinks apps and entrees. By that point our original waiter did not even come back to the table. 2 other waiters seen us sitting there with waters and thought we had just gotten seated. They were very nice and helpful and immediately got our food out. I'm not sure what was the problem with the 1st...