Mary Lou's Cafe — Restaurant in Olmos Park

We had eaten here before, and the food was okay, as was the quick service. Good turn around with the orders. But this time ... This time was different. The service was slow even though they were not crowded. People who came in after we did were attended to before us by the very same waitress. She forgot our drink orders, the salt on the rim of my wife's marguerita had almost completely been absorbed by the condensation of the then almost room temperature weakly-made drink; and then, she had to be reminded of the beer ordered for me. We don't normally eat tortilla chips, but we do like dipping our spoons into the salsa served alongside them. It was good. But we were waiting so long for our food, most of the chips and all of the salsa was gone when our food (my wife's) finally arrived. My wife's food arrived, mine did not. Hers was cooling there in front of her for more than five minutes as she waited for my food to be delivered to me. Meanwhile, three more couples had arrive around us and not only had their drinks, but in two cases also had their meals... Same waitress. When I did finally get my food, it was barely warm, on a warm plate. My beer was almost gone by then. We were never offered water, even though we both had alcohol-based drinks. Our drinks were gone well before our food was.

I love spending time with my wife, I am lucky to be married to the most beautiful woman in the whole world, and she loves me; and neither of us will eat in front of the other if there is not food in front of both of us. We just don't think it is polite to do so. Even when we attend family gatherings, at various restaurants around town, or even in family homes, we won't touch the food in front of us unless everybody at the table has food, on a plate, in front of them.

When we had finished eating, and were simply sitting there for several minutes, my wife determined she had had enough and chased down our waitress so that she could pay the bill and we could leave. She does the moving about in these instances as I am physically handicapped and don't move well; balance issues make for an entertaining evening at times, just not in a restaurant. While we normally give a 20% tip and lots more if the service is better than expected (we have a long history of 50% and higher); this time, we gave a 5% tip. Naughty of us, I know. But it was also a parting gesture... We will never go back there again. Not to eat. Ever.

I did not mark them all the way down as I hope that our experience was a 'one off' kind of thing. I can only hope that others get better service, better food, than we did. But I won't test it, as I said, we won't...

Dont go hear!!!! Their ad on internet says they will take reservations. Not true. When a group of us called to have a birthday lunch we were told no reservations but ok to call one hour ahead. Then told ...no have to be there one hour before. So we did. Told them that there would he 20 of us and questioned ok for separate checks. All good according to host. We had a gathering there one month before and same group and same amount of people. Separate checks were acceptable and all went smoothly. Food problems with steaks and some of their tacos but all overall ok. So when we arrived early the host and hostess were very nice and accommodating. In the middle of the luncheon when the group had ordered the owner walks in with a bad mood them tells our waiter to come tell the group that it has to b on one credit card or cash. The Restaurant was practically empty and we could hear her bashing her wait staff. So we asked if we could speak with her in hopes to settle the situation since we were not told that it had to be on one credit card. We explained that some of these people dont know each other and awkward to have to ask for someone you don’t know to pay for you. Mostly everyone was paying with a credit card. When we try to reason with her she was horrible. She said she was the owner and she would not make an exception. She behaved so badly that her own waitstaff was apologetic and embarrassed. There are plenty of Mexican restaurants throughout the city that anyone can go to rather than Mary Lous. It takes good food and great customer service but she lacked on both. We were very nice with our approach and explained that we would have been prepared had we known and she made it clear she didn’t care whether she was losing customers as long as she could win. All at the luncheon agreed that they witnessed the worst behavior of any manager or owner they had ever seen. Panchitos and Tribeca Restaurants really down the street. They have never ever treated their customers this way and we have met there many...

Today I went with my mother around 3pm. The hostess sat us and she was very sweet and efficient. She left and we had another waitress, I think. At this point I’m not sure because we saw her maybe twice. We were not given chips and salsa, our food was delicious which is one reason we went back. But my moms sweet tea tasted old, almost dirty, we waited 20 minutes for a waiter to come by so she could order a coke. I wanted to order a second margarita and finished my meal before being asked if I needed anything. The bartender was fast, efficient as well, and also helping the one other waiter on the floor actually serving people. Around 4pm there were maybe two other tables and NO waiter was to be seen on the floor. I turned my head constantly looking for our waitress because I just wanted to go home, I saw two women come in and wait to be seated, and just looking for someone to seat them. I believe the manager or supervisor at the time finally seated them. I tipped the bartender. He is clearly a great worker and was prepping for a busy night they’re probably going to have. Our waitress finally came out, but she was texting on her phone.Aannnd went back to the kitchen. Finally a different waiter came out, my mom flagged him down and I gave him my card. He ended up grabbing our waitress and she checked us out. With that being said this is our second time coming here and we will not be back again. Nobody acknowledged or apologized for the wait. They were not busy at that moment , as I could tell by the texting waitress who ignored us most of the time.If anything I recommend sitting at the bar for good service. This place is expensive, considering the area I understand. But I’ll be honest.. you’ll get the same food and way better service on the south or west...