Uncle Julio's Raleigh — Restaurant in Raleigh

I’m so sad to be writing this review. My husband and I have eaten here many times. The first time, we had such an amazing experience all around that it immediately became one of our favorite date night spots and I left a 5-star review. I even chose this restaurant to host an event last summer. I love the signature drink: The Swirl. Unfortunately, the last several visits have been a huge disappointment. They seem to always be understaffed, the drinks take forever, and the quality of the food has diminished. Tonight, we decided to give it one last shot, but it was the nail in the coffin. No one was at the hostess stand when we came in so, we walked over to the bar. The bar was closed because the bartender was a no-show, so we were escorted back to the hostess stand to be sat. There were only about 6 tables in the entire restaurant. Our drinks (one of which comes out of a machine) took longer than our appetizer to make it to the table. The shrimp in my tacos appeared undercooked (one shrimp was translucent and grey). The rice was either undercooked or had hardened from sitting. My husband’s steak was cooked nicely but the entree was overall mediocre. Our waitress was sweet, but she made the mistake of dropping off our check as soon as we finished our entrees and without asking if we were done. We had only had 1 round of drinks and we had just finished with our entrees. My husband had pushed his empty drink glass to the edge of the table to signal for a refill. It was date night and we were planning on a second round of drinks and a dessert. Yes, we could have said something, but at this point we were frustrated and ready to go. It was only after we had paid our check that she asked if she could get us anything else. Too late. I’m mostly writing this review because I’m sad this place is not thriving. It started off great, but my husband and I decided tonight will be our last...

We chose Uncle Julio's for our salon suite holiday dinner this year. We made a reservation for 10 and were greeted and seated at our scheduled time with no issues. We had a great server by these name of Morgan who did a wonderful job taking drink orders and trying to keep us comfortable while we waited MORE THAN 1 1/2 HOURS for our food to arrive!! We are also thankful for Stephanie who was our table side guacamole chef bc without her we would have surely starved! There was a front of the house manager of staff that never came to check on our obviously irritated table until I asked to speak with him. He came over what seemed to be reluctantly with an emotionless stare as I explained the issue. With no empathy he said he'd see what was going on. After another 20 minutes our food started arriving. I recieved a "sizzleless" cold veggie fajita. You should never be able to touch a fajita iron as soon as it hit the table. Needless to say everybody's food was terrible. Half the table myself included sent our food back which extended the already 2 hour wait time. By the time the food came most of use couldn't enjoy it and had to take our food to go. The manager never came back and only offered a Pinata for our issue which we declined bc how can we enjoy dessert when we hadn't had dinner?? Needless to say there was no compensation for any of the food which by the way is upper priced for "tex mex" and no apologies or explication from the manager. We are thankful to Morgan who was full of apologies and tried to do as much damage control as she could.

In short I wouldn't recommend Uncle Julio's at Crabtree for parties larger than four. It seem that larger parties seem to shake up the kitchen staff and management simultaneously and results in extremely long wait times and poor...

We ate at the Raleigh location this evening and it was not up to par to other Uncle Julio’s locations. Three of the four people in our party had quesadillas. They were room temperature, the cheese was hard and the chicken quesadilla fajita meat had absolutely no flavor. Someone in our party ordered a vodka drink and it took 20 minutes to get. About a 1/4 of the way through dinner our server asked if we wanted to put in an order for a chocolate piñata. When we said no, we were immediately asked if we wanted to go boxes even though we were still eating dinner and it was clear that everyone still had a lot of food on their plates. Later in the dinner, while we were still eating, we were asked if we were now ready for to go boxes. After our meal was done and we were finishing our drinks, some alcoholic, the server and a bus-person just barged onto the table to start clearing the entire table, including trying to take the drinks we were still drinking. They cleared the entire table like we were not there. I have experienced being rushed to finish dinner and leave at other restaurants, but I have never encountered the behavior I experienced at Uncle Julio’s in any restaurant I have ever dined at. I saw this exact table clearing behavior being done to another table even though the patrons still clearly had alcoholic drinks in their hands. I know you want to turn tables fast but to start pushing us out the door early in the meal is not welcoming. Uncle Julio’s is not cheap, and if I can expect this behavior on future visits, you lost my business. It was an unpleasant evening and the table was not happy about how how we were treated. There are plenty fine Mexican restaurants in the Raleigh area and we can take our dinning $$ elsewhere.

Best part of the meal -...