Teocalli Cocina Longmont — Restaurant in Longmont

My wife and I went to Teocalli tonight around 5:45pm to celebrate out 10th anniversary hoping for a nice night out. Was very excited about there being a new Teocalli location here in our hometown of Longmont, as we had enjoyed the location in Lafayette. It's one of the few places we can eat out at, as we both have a severe immune intolerance to gluten.

Firstly, I want to say that I rarely write negative reviews. 99% of the time, I find them to be unproductive, a waste of time, and I typically don't have any personal desire to linger in a negative headspace.

That being said, this may have topped one of our very worst dining-out experiences of our adult lives...

When we arrived, we opted to be seated outside instead of waiting 15-20 minutes for a table. Quickly realized that is was blazing hot on the patio, with the sun being directly perpendicular at that time of day.

We were both literally dripping sweat, hot, and uncomfortable, so we kindly asked our server if we could move into the shade at another table, which he was willing to accommodate.

Unfortunately, the sun seemed to keep following us even though we had moved tables!! When the hostess came out, we asked if we could get on the waitlist for a table inside, and she had replied that, "the sun will go down in a few minutes" which was not only very strangely untrue, but also totally dismissive.

Such a weird thing to say -was basically an indirect way of saying "deal with it".

So we kindly asked again to see if we could get a table inside, and she literally said "no because you have already ordered your entrees"!?? Talk about a total lack of creative problem solving, or willingness to make your guests feel comfortable.

At that point, he had considered asking for our food to go, but we decided to give it one last go and shuffled our food over to the table directly next to us in an effort to get out of the sun (by that time the table next to us was at least slightly more shaded).

Waitress then came out and actually publicly scolded us in front of other customers and said something to the effect of "I just want to let you know that you guys can't keep moving tables, we have a system, etc. etc."

I kindly reminded her that she literally just said we couldn't sit inside because we had already ordered entrees, and that were dripping sweat and just trying to get comfortable.

She then had the audacity to say that she offered us a table inside when we first arrived to the restaurant (referring back to when we had the choice between waiting for a table or sitting outside).

While technically true, she for some reason insisted on having this adversarial tone. Yes, we did at first choose to sit outside, but then underestimated how hot it was. It's not that complicated.

Have never been treated like such a sheep in all of my years of dining out. Server was obviously very young and unexperienced, and not willing to help us out whatsoever.

Its a real shame. Really wanted to love this place, but unfortunately this experience has not made us not proud to live in Longmont. So much for celebrating our 10th anniversary, and so much for having another GF option where we can eat...

We went here for the first time last night. The food was pretty good, if basic. For instance, my pork belly tacos were nothing more than a little strip of meat with a couple strands of pickled onion in a small corn tortilla. The other members of my party agreed food was just alright.

Atmosphere is nice. I like the artwork and the style of the tables and such. It has a nice bar, with plenty of TVs, and a huge skylight over top which is neat. We sat upstairs in a nice little area of maybe 8 or 10 tables.

The service was where this place really fell short. We had a party of 8 for a birthday dinner. Our waitress took a while to show up, then for some reason only took 3 drink orders before walking away, leaving the rest of us wondering why we weren't asked for drinks. 15-20 minutes later she came back to take our food orders, and that was the last we saw of her. Our food was eventually brought out by a team of runners, but one dish wasn't brought out. Maybe 10 minutes later, our friend who was left without food had to go downstairs to the kitchen himself to ask where his food was. We then sat another hour plus without seeing a waitress. We finished our food, had empty glasses, and were just left wondering why we weren't seeing any staff. Everyone downstairs seemed to be getting served, and it wasn't very busy. After we'd been there a total of about 2 hours, still only seeing our waitress those first two times, another member of our party went downstairs asking to speak to the manager. Maybe another 10 minutes later, a new waitress came up with "notes from the manager," (not sure why the manager couldn't come talk to us themselves) and said they had switched sections after we placed our orders and nobody was sure who was supposed to be serving our table. So... They just didn't send anyone?

We had planned on more drinks and a second round of tacos for everyone, but decided to get our check and leave instead. Luckily they ended up taking our apps and drinks off the ticket, which made things a bit better.

I'd like to maybe try this place again sometime, it has potential, but the service needs a...

First, I just want to say that my wife and I are huge Teocalli fans and we have gone to both the Arvada and Lafayette locations and love them both. We live quite close to the Lafayette location and we are regulars there... But it's super busy and so when we saw that the Longmont restaurant opened and we had a need to be up there, we dove in. We were so happy to get a reservation for dinner time too!

In short, the food was just ok in Longmont. I think I'd chock it up to practice. I don't think the cooks have had the reps that Lafayette and Arvada have had and so it reflects at that location. I would suggest that the kitchen staff rotate strategically around to Arvada and Lafayette to get consistent training and as such consistent food results. Because when they get that down in Longmont, look out! Longmont could eclipse Lafayette for revenue because they have a lot more seats! Now that could be part of the problem too... More seats means more simultaneous orders and if the kitchen isn't big enough, you'll have quality issues. Our tacos and our appetizer (the queso in the cast iron) were not on par with Lafayette at all. Too little queso and there were some stale flavors that came through in my tacos that made me honestly make a face like "huh?" Because when these recipes are done right, dang... Amazing. But sadly Longmont needs some work.

The service was just ok as well. Our waitress while pleasant was not awesome. She got the job done with no frills and little pleasantries and if I'm honest, she was pretty slow in getting us our check... Something that isn't blocked by the kitchen.

The restaurant atmosphere is incredible and I'm excited for what could be there! Just work on those things above, Longmont, and we'll be psyched to come back. But we're gonna wait a while and keep going to Lafayette and Arvada.

Lastly, if you look at my other reviews, you'll generally see that I give positive reviews because I usually only review places I love. But I do love Teocalli... And I'm hoping that this will help you guys!! Cheering you...