Sahara Cafe — Restaurant in Manitou Springs

I have loved and raved about this place since the first time I've eaten here. The first two times I have gone, the service and food were amazing. My mother in law is in town visiting so I decided to take her here to eat and our experience this time was disappointing to say the least. When we entered the restaurant, we were greeted quickly and kindly and sat immediately. Finally, our waitress comes to us with menus and tossed them on the table. She didn't introduce herself and she just immediately asked "what do you want to drink." Having been there before, I knew what I wanted to drink right away, but my mother in law didn't know what she wanted right then and there. I was telling her what they had and the waitress grabbed the menu from her and flipped it to the drinks and pointed to where they were listed. She then just said "I'll just go get your drink" and walked away. I myself have been a waitress for 10 years, so I understand being busy, but being rude is unacceptable. She then returns to the table with my drink and a water for my mother in law. I said "she will take the iced coffee please" she rolls her eyes, and says ok and walks away. She then comes back with the iced coffee and just drops it off without even asking if she needed cream or sugar. When our food was dropped off, she didn't ask if we needed anything else - she just dropped it and walked away without giving any silverware. I had to ask another server for utensils. Not once did she ever come up to us and ask how our food was or if we needed anything else, instead she just dropped the check and walked away. While I was still working on my food, she comes up and asks if we need boxes, I kindly asked for two. When she drops the boxes, she reminds me that she had dropped the check. We felt rushed and did not feel welcome. Needless to say, I will only be getting take out from now on if I return. I would mention her name, but she never introduced herself. I would have liked to give more stars because the food and iced chai tea is absolutely amazing, but the service was horrible. Definite...

DO NOT RECCOMMEND THIS PLACE-- We came to Manitou Springs today and were looking for a good place to eat. Unfortunately, we stopped here first because the Mediterranean food caught our eye. Our server, was short dirty blonde hair, and very rude. When taking our order, she kept saying "I'm sorry?" In the rudest tone. My son was unsure what some of the items were and asked questions about them and her responses were short and rude. She took our drink order and never brought straws. She took our meal order and when my son took little extra time to order, she took the menus and brought them over to where they are placed and jut slapped them in there, shaking her head like we were wasting her time. It was 330 in the afternoon, on a Monday, We were there for 10 minutes, if that. I had to use the restroom and when I came out they were all standing around snacking and I said excuse me, and with no response, they stepped to the side enough for me to squeeze by. A dog walked by, outside and the servers went out to see the dog, seemed like they were more attentive to the dog than paying customers. All 3 servers went out and only one washed their hands, our server just sat down and started folding napkins. I had to get up, and ask for straws, rather than them coming to bring us some and the attitude just continued. We finally decided we were taking our business somewhere else and left. What a disappointment. If you can't treat people politely, find another job girl, this one just does not suit you, at all.

DO NOT RECCOMMEND this...

I am an organizer and influencer in social media, went there with a 8-10 friends after a long day of crazy adventures. My friends where there already eating, having a good time; I went to the counter to ask the server or host if we have to order in the table or at the counter because I just wanted a coffee and she screamed “I will be right there!”. I was like wow why are you screaming at me I just asked if you served here or at the table and she responded very aggressive that I needed to go back to the table. I just told her that I will, but wanted a coffee and I wasn’t happy with the disrespect showed.

After I went back to the table, all my friends were not happy with how the woman reacted, I told them what happened and I asked if the food was good. They said the food was not as good, some people didn’t finish their meal, it took them 30 min to figure out our checks since they don’t have a split system and the environment of the restaurant felt sad/angry/negative so we did not enjoy the experience. The coworker came to apologize which I appreciate but the lady that screamed at us should t be working there if she is so angry with customers. The reason the restaurant keeps getting revenues is because of the customers, treating customers poorly will never be the way.

This review comes from an mba and owner of different restaurants in Denver. Will...