Los Agaves — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

Ordered my food at 4:30 today (5/23/20) on their website which hosts orders through Restaurant Connection. Placed my order to have a pick up for 5:15, we ended up arriving at 5:30.

When I arrived the staff by the to go counter ignored me for 5 minutes then finally I was able to get their attention. My order was not ready. Waited another 10 minutes and left with my order. When we got to the beach we realized the salads we were hoping for were not in the bag but instead enchiladas. We ate them and they were good but not great.

When I called to resolve the issue, the employee was incredibly rude and told me it was not his issue and to take it up with restaurant connection. I mentioned los agaves didn’t hand over the correct order and the order we received was less expensive than what we ordered. Anyways no budge and told me it wasn’t his problem. In addition he also put salt in the wound and said if I would have ordered it through los agaves it would be no issue. This is insane considering los agaves website automatically directs to restaurant connection and with the given climate most restaurants don’t take phone orders anymore.

When I called restaurant connection they were super friendly and willing to help resolve although they are actually not responsible for this and los agaves should fix it. She helped contact them and they ended up giving us a full refund.

Moral of the story, los agaves has terrible service and I will never go back. We have spent many meals there previously and have never had this poor of service. But we always leave there with the thought that why did we spend twice as much money as we could at an amazing Mexican spot in town. I mean who can argue that monies, carnavaca and pepeyes is way better. We feel like fools most of the time for choosing agaves and this is now the nail in the coffin.

DONT BE A...

My Critique.

This restaurant runs very poorly and service is confusing. Is this a Sit In restaurant, a self serve, or a Baja Fresh?

Entrance Upon entrance you are welcomed, seated, and given menus but you're expected to come up to the Register and order yourself. Note: if you're new, you may spend a good time on the table because there are no signs indicating to order up front. Staff doesn't notify you either.

Customer service Service is extremely poor. (Hence 2 stars) Considering the food prices they must be getting paid fairly, but their attitude says otherwise. Taken from multiple staff members nearly all.

Food Everyone in my party of 5 were satisfied with their food. Not surprised, satisfied. There is a previous review where a former guest waited Over an hour for their food. We received our food in less than 08:36minutes. This raises the question, how fresh is the food?

Drinks Great variety, however their Aguas Frescas are kept in dispensers inside the refrigerator. Are they same day fresh?

Bar The bar may not be their strength. Micheladas extremely watered Down. Imagine ice over beer with tajin chili powder and thats it. They also forgot about it and brought it towards the end of the meal.

Note to management: Please invest in your team. Look into ways and strategies to motivate and train your staff into providing better customer service. For many like myself who spent 100s in one visit, this is a deal breaker. You have enough staff to take orders at the table. If not, please notify guests or make it noticeable to order at the register. Please re-evaluate your bar service. These alone would bring a great and better customer experience. I did notice on a Sunday afternoon when other restaurants are at their peak, this was very empty. Perhaps others have noticed this...

I placed a phone order at 5:15pm on Tuesday evening Sept. 7, for 7:45pm pick up. That’s two and a half hours advance notice. I ordered the enchilada family meal deal, six chicken, six cheese enchiladas with rice and beans.

I arrived at 7:40pm as I did not prepay for my order over the phone when I called it in.

Approximately 6 employees checked in with me went to the kitchen returned and said, your order is almost ready. At 8:02pm I stopped the manager as he was buzzing by me for the 15th time without acknowledgement and I said, can you figure out where my food is? I placed an order for 7:45pm pick up, it’s now 8:02pm. He goes to the kitchen and returns with my order.

I didn’t have the energy to complain… I grabbed the food and headed home. Short 1.5 mile, 4 minute drive to Mission Canyon. On my drive I thought to myself… well at least the food will be hot as it just came out of the kitchen. Everything had to be microwaved. It was barely warm, as if it were sitting on the counter in the kitchen the entire time I was waiting.

Last time I ordered a family deal, it was the fajitas… no tortillas! How do you eat FAJITAS without TORTILLAS? Luckily I had some at home to heat up.

Quality is lacking at this location to say the least. Anything...