Border Grill — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I had quite a terrible experience here. I sat at the bar and roughly 4 minutes went by without being greeted by any of the servers. A gentleman sat down beside me and was greeted and had a heineken served to him within 2 minutes. After 7 minutes had gone by without being greeted or served, I said something to someone, and asked if I could get a drink. She explained that she wasn't my server and that she would get my server over to me. Another minute or two went by, and the lady who spoke to me still hadn't gone to tell the bartender/server that I was waiting to order. I said something a second time, at which the bartender/server came by and asked me what I want. I ordered a soda water with lime (because I no longer drink alcohol). She told me that I cannot sit at the bar unless I'm ordering food or alcohol. Fair enough, I said I don't have to sit there if it's a problem, but I'm thirsty and nobody has so much as greeted me. When she retorted to me it was with such attitude and so rude that I decided to spend my money elsewhere. I would not have minded sitting someplace else, but Nobody should sit at a bar without so much as a "Hey, we'll be right with you." or a "Welcome, we'll be with you shortly." for 8 minutes. And the woman explained that they were busy, but I saw them chatting with each other, and the fact that the gentleman who sat down beside me was served before I had even been acknowleged says something. And then the lady had the nerve to tell me "I can see that you are priviledged" like she was trying to turn it into a racial conflict. I had to walk away at that point. I have had to work hard for every single thing I have. I have never had a handout and I was raised by a mother who was too poor to afford anything but a trailer to house me and my sister, so I just about lost it when that bartender/server said this to me. Who does she think she is?!? I'm not sure who is responsible for overseeing the work that the servers are doing over there, but I would suggest that they are in need of some serious retraining. I will not ever spend any money with this company at this location again, and I am hoping that nobody else encounters such a dreadful experience at this place in the future. I have had many wonderful experiences in airports meeting hundreds of people but this tops the list of bad experiences. And this is coming from a guy who has been stuck in JFK as well as in LAX overnight, and for 8 hours once in PHX. This single experience was worse than any of those, and it only lasted a few minutes. I hope that woman learns to treat customers with respect. She is a SERVER. Her treatment towards me was so rotten, that I went over to Chaya and bought a bottle of mineral water there instead, and mentioned something about it to the guy who was serving over there. It was that bad. It was the first time someone in an airport treated me so crudely. I don't know, everyone has their bad days, maybe she just lost a loved one or something. But it doesn't excuse her behavior...

In this terminal, there is no competition if you want breakfast rather than a sandwich. I decided to try their breakfast burrito because it sounded like it could be good. I expected a lot more for their $$$ prices.

Basically, this place is a bar that happens to have some food. If you want alcohol, I'm sure this will do. If you want food, you may want to think again.

The burrito was generously sized. The filling was a mix of good to very sad. It technically had everything they said: eggs (very sad "scrambled eggs" which appeared to be made from a powdered mix), beans, Pico de Gallo sauce (was OK), and a chile relleno (which was very good, the redeeming factor). With all that said, I get better burritos for $2 at the Stripes convenience store in Texas (and with a freshly made flour tortilla).

The tortilla chips were decent, American style thin chips. The salsa that came with the chips was very mediocre. I wasn't expecting a molcajete full of fresh salsa, but this was only mediocre of the store-bought kind.

The server asked if I wanted to add bacon to the hurrito. Since otherwise there was no meat, I said "yes," not knowing it would be over 3 dollars for two very small, paper-thin pieces of "bacon." It was very disappointing and barely there.

For the price, I thought the $4 orange juice would be fresh, but no, it was a small bottle of mediocre juice made from concentrate.

The prices are very high and the food quality is, at best, mediocre. Perhaps their lunch / dinner entrees are better. On the positive side, the service was fair, the tables clean, the atmosphere as pleasant as it can be in a terminal, and at least they were open early in the morning.

Will I order it again? No. I will pack a granola bar to tide me over until I get to DFW, where I can get a much better breakfast at McDonald's at a great price.

BTW, though this place serves breakfast, they do not serve coffee. If you want coffee, go stand in line at another business first. They do serve all kinds of alcoholic beverages and a couple of juice / soda options. I realize this is the international terminal and there people from all over, but my recommendation is that if you're serving breakfast in the Americas, offer coffee...

Two of us each had a meal at Border Grill. I ordered from their menu fish tacos, other was carne asada bowl. Each of those menu items came naked: no guacamole, no salsa fresca, no side of shredded cabbage for fish tacos, no citrus slaw for the bowl. So without those items all you have are refried black beans, rice and meat for the bowl, naked and unappetizing. And without those items, the fish tacos had no color or zing. We went back to restaurant and asked for the toppings/sides that were on the menu description. We were told that those things are not included. After our insisting that those items are in the descriptions on menu, person kept saying the recipes have changed. After much hassle we finally got those items (yes they have guacamole, salad fresca and cabbage/slaw ready to serve at restaurant, hmm). If you read the menu description of the bowls, essentially it is beans, rice, guacamole, salsa fresca, and citrus slaw. Then you add your meat (chicken, beef, pork or fish). I'm sorry we did not get photos of meals. My grilled fish was actually delicious. Too bad the restaurant...