Pyramid cafe — Restaurant in Los Alamos

I was surprised that the business owners would even ruminate about opening a Middle-Eastern/Lebanese/Mediterranean style restaurant in a tiny city/town like Los Alamos considering the population and questionable exposure to this type of cuisine, but I'm glad that they made the choice to move forward with it. Since I can't see the future, I won't know how successful this restaurant will become, but I hope this business remains for the long haul because my experience here was good; not to mention, this area needs more diverse options since all I mostly see is American or (New) Mexican-centric food. Living in Las Vegas (Nevada), and having traveled to many countries, I have gained appreciation and the palate for all types of food from a wide-array of cultures/ethnicity, so it was refreshing to see this restaurant here.

I stopped here for lunch with a co-worker on 9 Oct 2024 and overall, I "liked" this restaurant as depicted in my 4-star rating. When we arrived, the restaurant wasn't busy at all...I'm not sure if it's because this restaurant was on the newer side and many people didn't know about it, or perhaps we didn't arrive during peak hours; or, maybe this restaurant wasn't that good to other customers. Regardless, I was happy that there were tables open for us because I didn't feel like waiting. The restaurant is a self-seating and pseudo-self-serve concept, meaning, we chose our own table and utilized a tablet to order and to pay for our food instead of placing our order with an actual employee (server). I didn't have any issues with that process; however, I wanted to add it to this review in the event people aren't as tech savvy, or thrive off of interaction with people/employees. Normally I'm not one of those virtual/technology types of people but I will say that their tablet was intuitive...and I especially enjoyed how it provided an option to split the payments versus having to request it afterwards. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the tablet prompting you for a tip prior to services being rendered...similar to how a lot of businesses are using that concept (the whole turning the digital tablet around at the cashier counter asking if you would like to leave a tip). It's not that I don't agree with leaving a tip; I just don't agree with paying a tip before a service.

I ended up ordering the Chicken Soup, Hummus with Pita Bread, and Gyro Plate. The soup had great flavor and had that traditional lemon taste to it; the hummus and bread was adequate - I can't say it was the best I've ever had, but it still hit the spot. The Gyro Plate was outstanding...that meat was cooked to beyond perfection (I enjoyed how they seared the outside of the meat providing a magnificent texture to it). I was a little bummed that the plate didn't look exactly like the picture, meaning, I was hoping for a little bit of veggies with my entrée. But, overcoming certain life's obstacles can be easy...I just went to one of the employees and asked for a plate of lettuce, tomatoes, and onions...which he happily provided with some cucumbers.

The price-to-quantity/quality ratio was respectable. The booth seats could use a little bit of an upgrade since it wasn't comfortable at all - it felt like I was sinking into the seat, and I know I'm not that heavy. I hope for the benefit of other customers, it was just that booth and not the entire restaurant. The service that we did receive (bringing out the food and drinks) was adequate - the employees were nice and efficient. If you've never tried this place, I highly recommend it. I am all for trying new places and new types of cuisine so eating food outside of your typical McDonald's and Applebee's is always within my playbook. Why not adventure away from the...

On 5/26/2023, we visited the LA Cantina. We ordered the al pastor tacos, picanha tacos and a chicken sandwich along with a margarita, mojito and a root beer. Total was ~$64 before tip and included taxes.

We liked the mojito and rate the margarita as average. Both tacos were great, however, the black beans were lukewarm and not to serving temperature. I did not try the chicken sandwich but my son said it was good.

The staff seemed friendly and helpful but after we sat down and were given a hard copy of the menu, we saw a staff person twice (once to input a code for the adult beverages and second when those beverages arrived).

You order from a Square kiosk at your table and it works just fine. However, you are asked to pay and tip upfront. I dislike this setup since I want to tip based on the service I receive and not what I expect to receive. I think that’s a fair approach for tips. The robot that delivers the food is interesting and fun. The robot seems to find their way around well enough and we had no problem retrieving our food from it.

I realize this is a newly setup restaurant and there will be some growing pains. With that in mind, we liked the taste of our food but there should be more attention to patrons after the food is delivered. We had silverware for 2/3 people at the table and we would have provided immediate feedback that the beans were not at serving temperature. Both of those issues could easily be resolved if someone comes by within a few minutes of the food arrival. While it may not be possible, I would prefer to run a tab as we go so we can easily add more drinks and tip at the end. We tend to tip well but held back bc we didn’t know what to expect. We likely would have ordered a set of two mojitos but didn’t want to hassle with waiting to flag down a staff member and go through paying again. Also, why not offer both menus whether you sit in the Cantina or the Pyramid Cafe? The kitchen is the same and this would accommodate varied taste within patron groups.

I applaud the owners for this updated approach here in LA and hope they continue to improve. As I said, the food was good and with some slight improvements, it will enhance customers’ experiences. We’ll come back after they get established and compare our...

Be aware - the food got unrecognizably bad - at their new location. It was my bd - we ordered two kabob plates, both kinds of gyros and chicken with rice. Well, I tried to figure out what was in my kabob - chicken or beef - it would be better described as over processed hotdog cubes that resembled spam meat that was grilled at some point but got reheated in oven or microwave later with some wilted vegetables. I never had kabob that had some kind of unrecognizable ground meat in it, when you expect solid chunks?. The gyro lamb wasn't better either, and all three gyro dishes came with some old shriveled green skinned potato fries (yes, the ones you supposed to not eat). They tasted very bitter and all three sets were not edible. Third, the chicken rice dish - our chicken came shredded, loaded with lemon juice taste to cover up chicken being old. And the rice - it wasn't good either. It definitely looked good and yellow, but had no flavor and looked like they used the most cheap basic rice you can find - no traces or jasmine or basmati. The only thing we could eat without discomfort was some store bought pita bread and yogurt dip that unfortunately did not fill up our hungry belly's. And to add more pain to experience, their seating was crowded with just a foot between the table and chairs, bearly any passing room around us, we had to get up to allow wheelchair person to pass by. The server just brought us food and disappeared, serving entire restaurant with us trying to get any attention. He also spilled beer on the adjacent table on family with a baby in the stroller when serving. The suffered family decided to move to different table, instead of leaving. Think twice and save your money - any drive thru food is better than this in this town. I would at this point drive an hour someplace else than be resorted to this. Definitely wasn't the best place to make your...