El Patio Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Raleigh

Ok where to start. And to be honest, I’m not sure, and I’m not entirely sure they are either. El Patio is a Japanese Latin infusion joint, or at least that’s the take on their instagram. Honestly I’m not sure. There are “sushi rolls” (which I didn’t partake) as well as tacos and empanadas, but also a lot of stuff in between., that leans more heavily on the traditional Latin side., with some hints of Asian flavor. To put it simply, the menu isn’t intuitive enough to know and show this as what I would think of a fusion place.

So what did I have… well on their website it would be the Triangle Burger, though o. The menus it’s something different (name and what’s on it) altogether. Matter of fact looks like their menu in the site (which you can order from) and the in house menu are different. That’s frustrating. Anyway. So the burger, it’s a beef patty, chrizzo (sliced lengthways), couple of what I would think were cilantro lime grilled chicken breast slices, a piece of arugula, and a slice of “cheese”. All that on your typical burger bun. That’s it, no fries or other garnish’s (the sides are sort of a-la-cart, but it depends on the dish, some come with sides). My issues with the burger, well… was never asked how I wanted it cooked (it seemed like it was medium) which outside of fast food I’ve always been asked. One leaf of arugula? Just one, on a $20+ burger. And the cheese, no options (I suppose you could say yes or no) I’m guessing was cheddar? Is it something different on a different day? In the end was it a good burger… it was ok, I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. But was it worth the $20+ dollar price, simply no. For that amount and no sides is a crime.

Others in my party had the grilled chicken breast. It’s not a chicken breast, it’s slices of one, and a small one at that. Same chicken as on the burger. It does come with sides (a small arugula salad and yucca fries), no issues. The other had salmon fillets stuff with crabmeat, in a cream sauce. Came with mashed potatoes and arugula salad. The salmon seemed slightly overcooked to me, and I’m still trying to g to figure out what the cream sauce brought to the dish. Both were price slightly above the burger. All three were entries, all decidedly Latin in style and flavor.

The service. She was nice. But otherwise it was a miss. This is a small place, and at least inside, when we arrived, it was maybe 1/4 full with nobody at the bar (which for the size of the establishment is large). And it seemed like there were just 2 servers, and that’s your front of the house. No bar staff, no bus staff, no host. This was about 8pm on a Friday. Attentiveness and awareness could have been better. Just quick checks when you pass by, some quick water refills (I think I was asked once and that was before I put my order in). Simple things. Could this be a staffing issue, maybe. Could this be an experience issue, maybe. But it was a let down.

In the end. It’s an expensive place with service that while friendly, is lacking, and food that is ok but maybe not worth the price, and a theme that isn’t...

Keep in mind for this review we were the only 2 people in this entire restaurant

The food was the least of our worries, it gets so much worse. Read until the end.

Food:The appetizer “mofonguitos” was more salt than chicken to the point that it burns your mouth to take a bite from the amount of salt and everything was soaked in grease and fat. The 2 appetizers for our table of 2 arrived at the table 10 minutes apart after being ordered at the same time and we didn’t wish to begin eating without our friends revived any food yet and it took 30min total to receive drinks. Service: Even speaking fluent Spanish the waitress looked more confused to be there than I was, as Spanish is all she spoke. We ordered lemonades and appetizers and she proceeded to take all our menus so I explained that we had only ordered appetizers so she said ok and commenced to collect all our menus except for 1 for all of us to share. She had noted the 3 ordered appetizers down only to return to ask questions several times. 20 minutes after ordering she returns to inform us that they actually don’t serve lemonade and instead recommended their most expensive cocktails to which we declined and asked for waters that we received another 10min later. After asking for the check we waited another 10min while the waitress was sitting down eating, we walked up and requested it again. She hands us the check with an automatic gratuity already generated which went against the policy printed in their menu (please see photos). We requested it be removed and the waitress said it can’t be removed to which I pointed out the policy in she spoke to the fellow waitress and they said the manager wasn’t there and we could wait while they tried to call her. They then handed us a new check with 50% off everything for the inconvenience to which we handed them our card only for them to hand us our receipt with the initial price which included the gratuity that had initially been given to us. Very sneaky, deceitful and disgraceful business management. I asked them if it was some twisted joke only for the manager to be called again and saying over the phone to just give us $4 in cash out of the register. Never going there again is an understatement. 2 hours of our...

Food was fantastic but the service was AWFUL. Had a reservation but still didn't have anyone greet us at the hostess counter until 15 min after our reservation, even after we showed up 10 min early to no line at the time. The waitress didn't bring water to the table until we'd been seated for over an hour and had been served our food. I ordered a cocktail before we ordered food and didn't get it until we were finishing up our meals. When I asked the waitress about our drinks she would just say she didn't know where they were and that the bartender was hopefully working on them. I pointed out that every other table that had been sat after us had drinks and some had received multiple cocktails at that point so I didn't see why we still didn't have our drinks considering it had been over an hour at that point. The waitress also tried to give me the wrong entree and I had to correct her and had to wait another 15+ minutes for the correct order to come out after the rest of the table's meals (she tried to give me shrimp mofongo when I ordered steak). The food was delicious though once we were served what we ordered. The restaurant itself is very "insta-worthy " and focuses a lot of a unique presentation. They also have a DJ play in the evening that plays great club music but seemed a little out of place for a restaurant and made conversations at the table a little difficult because the music was so loud. Overall, I would highly recommend the food but something needs done about the service because it's an expensive restaurant and not that large of a venue and with the number of waitstaff working there didn't seem to be a good reason for the poor service. Also note that they add gratuity to all bills regardless of whether or not it's 1 person or a...