The Butcher — Restaurant in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque

I posting my husband's review because I am still so shocked by our experience on Saturday:

Very disappointing experience. We have frequented both Cafe 6855 and Vernon's Speakeasy (the sister restaurant) for years. Vernons was a destination for special events and for business meals. We did our best to patronize the restaurant during the pandemic as we know how hard-hit the industry has been. The food is good but a little pricey. The drinks are good too. We decided to go for a nice Saturday afternoon lunch/brunch.

Unfortunately, there is a complete lack of management training at this restaurant. We ordered a sandwich, breakfast foods and salad. The table that was seated just after us received their order before us - but that happens - so we didn't think anything of it. When that table had a problem with one of their orders and then received their replacement food before we got anything at all - we were a bit more annoyed. Finding good staff these days is difficult if not impossible, so we patiently waited.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later we saw a mother arrive with two children. When they were seated, ordered AND received their meals before we had gotten ours my wife decided to ask if we were ever getting our food. The manager did not apologize in any way and in a very defensive tone said that the food was currently being prepared for us.

Clearly, only our drink orders had been entered. Their answer was essentially, "Tough luck on the delay - you can just wait."

We decided to leave the restaurant as we did not have all day to spend dining at Cafe 6855. Nobody stopped us as we walked from the patio areas through the indoor space, or out the door to the parking lot. It was only when our car was about to drive away were we accosted by a screaming manager calling us criminals for leaving and not paying for the drinks. He was shouting from behind the walls of the patio area.

I parked the car, returned to the establishment and in a very loud voice asked, "I am back to pay - where is he?" Intending to pay my bill, I was carrying my credit card in my hand - waving it around so that they knew I was trying to pay for the drinks we never finished. The angry manager/owner was no longer yelling at us from the patio. He was not in the restaurant area. He was nowhere to be found. No wait staff approached to apologize or to make any effort to handle the situation. I walked into the bar and asked the bartender to please ring out my wife's drinks. She ran my card and I left.

A simple apology for a mistake can go a long way in deescalating. There is really no defense for losing someone's order so why bother trying? Giving a complimentary drink or snack while the family waits is better than watching people walk out due to poor service. Yelling at people after they leave is worse. Everyone in the patio area saw that we were sitting there for a long time with no food and knew exactly why we left.

Mr Tough Guy was big and brave from behind the walls of his patio but vanished once he saw my car stop, park and saw me returning to pay. I am not a large person and hardly intimidating - so I can only imagine this was a show to make him look like the victim. I am not a criminal. I am a good tipper and I bend over backwards to help small proprietors by choosing their businesses over big-box or chains.

I will never patronize their business...

Santa Brunch - HUGE disappointment

Steep price of $25 a person but it's Christmas so hey... it's worth it right?

We arrived on time to be told we would have to wait 30 minutes for our reservation. Excuse me, what? So the manager tried to make it right saying we would get 20% off our bill. We stayed positive and made the most of our wait. They sat us in the back and gave us a tour which was cool.

Then I saw the Santa. Obvious fake beard. You know how sensitive this can be if you're a parent. These people are about to ruin the magic of Santa with poor execution. The worst part is Santa went outside to his car and my husband had to quickly close the curtain and distract our son from seeing him. Still... I remained positive.

The food arrived! This should make up for our experience so far.. or so we thought. My son did not like his "berry stuffed French toast." Why? Well there were NO berries and umm it was not stuffed. Bread was not high quality. My huevos rancheros was a joke. I would've preferred Frontier any day of the week to this tasteless meal. Green Chile wasn't even Chile, it was green sauce. Come on! We are in NM and this is a local restaurant. How do you get this wrong? When I asked for a corn tortilla instead of a flour tortilla, I was told no substitutions could be made. This was the terrible considering huevos SHOULD come with corn tortilla and I have a gluten intolerance so I asked for it on the side. I didn't even eat it... wasn't worth my calorie waste. My husbands posole was the size for a small child and he mentioned the $4 food truck food was much much better. The whole Santa brunch was a disappointment— $25 a person was just a ploy for money. Poor execution on Santa. Food menu was nothing to be proud. Poor management taking more reservations than you could support in a reasonable time period.

The service was superb and I don't fault the staff, they were great and this wasn’t their fault. However, we will...

My true rating would be 2.5, because this restaurant was mid as all get out. My husband and I have been to Vernon's before and we had a great time. We even came back less than a month later with my in-laws and we all enjoyed our visit again. During one of these times I signed up for the email list and that is how we ended up at Cafe 6855 for their Halloween brunch.

TLDR: Mediocre at best. Drinks were good. Food was the blandest I've had since returning to the SW from Ohio in March. Service was poorly paced. Overall waste of our Sunday brunching time.

Deets: It was a pre-fixed menu with a per person levels at $35, $20 and $10 (for kids), reservations require.

The meal: When we arrived we were seated promptly but our server was slow to get to us and slow through out (bad pacing). We ordered the 2 drinks from the bar (both delicious), the asparagus con carne and the deviled eggs. We knew this would be bland as hell when the yolk mixture in the eggs showed up looking wet and heavy with absolutely no spice but the chili sauce, which my husband got on the side. He loves deviled eggs and was so happy to see them on the menu but extremely disappointed in the dish he received. Papas were simply diced & fried potatoes, again without seasoning of any kind. The sourdough toast only came out after we asked for it, no jelly/jam and only the slightest dab of butter. My asparagus con carne was also underwhelming. The carrots were my least favorite part, tough and just kinda there. The asparagus was nicely cooked but neither the asparagus nor the meat was seasoned. I didn't expect much as I'm not a fan of NY Strip steak but when they said marinated I though it'd be flavorful. I was wrong. Also, we didn't receive in costume discount, but at least we got to wear our Halloween gear. Overall, a very disappointing experience and with all of the tremendous dining options in ABQ, I highly doubt...