Muchacho — Restaurant in Southlake

Where to Begin ? I have been coming to this restaurant for sometime, bringing in family, clients, friends, dates, and it has always been okay, the Restaurant is absolutely beautiful,, the bar well stocked very high-end product . food has been off and on but what restaurant is perfect, well about three months ago we started coming back and i noticed that there was a VIBE and sense of appreciation towards guests, the food was absolutely spot on , drinks were special from Andy knowing what we liked and have tried. started making us really awesome craft cocktails outstanding really. a place where we can dine again with out being rushed and looking to flip the tables the second our dinner was delivered. I started asking questions about what was going on and found out that they had hired a new Manager his Name is Ken Neary and the direction on the training of staff is very noticeable, the way servers and staff approached our tables was extremely noticeable, i cant tell you how many times the Hostess never say goodnight, thank you for coming in, hope to see you soon. after arriving a few time the Hostess Ariel was on it directing the flow of people and making sure everyone was comfy with what they ordered making sure to say good night and please come back to see us, I'm sure Has to do with the way Ken Neary has been training his staff. wait staff seemed to know the menu better when my guests asked questions, they answered with certainty and it wasn't uhh let me check on that or I don't know. well they do know now and it seemed to hum along with all staff members. impressive actually, the food has been good but for some reason it has been OUTSTANDING ! they must have one heck of a Chef guiding his team in a positive direction as well. It seems like the front of the house and the back of the house were working as a team !! its about time. even my guests had made comments about the service, food , drinks, peoples knowledge of the menu, courtesy to guests when we left. I don't know where this New General Manager came from But HUGE SHOUT OUT to Ken Neary Great Job taking the Rains and guiding people and directing a restaurant the way it should be ran. I'll Take 3 of him please, great job sir and outstanding way to bring your team together and really care about what they are doing and the value of having guests repeatedly coming back to eat and drink again. as long as this keeps up we all will be back and I know my friends have brought friends there as well and they gave me the same response OUTSTANDING on all levels. so if you want to have a WOW Factor and a Meal that you will never forget or just sit at the bar and have some Apps and drinks GO HERE ! we will be back as long as this ship is being steered into a place where we get the same service and food & Beverage every time we come here. JOB WELL...

While I rated this 1-star for the service, please know that this rating is for the front of the house, who was absolutely atrocious for the dinner we had on Friday night. Peter our server on the other hand, single handedly saved the night, but that doesn't excuse that outright pathetic service from the front of the house. I'll elaborate in my review below.

Now when it comes to the food, Muchacho is great. The Ahi Tuna Taquitos are simply amazing and something you absolutely have to try. We've been to Muchachos many times over the last couple of years and they typically don't disappoint, but after how badly our night started on Friday, 3/9/24, I felt compelled to leave a review so that the front of the house learns how to do their jobs properly rather than hurt Muchacho's overall business.

So Muchacho offers reservations for dinner which we typically take advantage of - and it was no different on 3/9/24. The difference this time around? The two women who were hostesses at the front of the house couldn't be bothered to do their jobs properly. Ask me how I know? Well, if you have a 6:45 reservation - not a walk in, not someone being added to the waitlist - but someone with a bonafide reservation, you'd think you would be seated at 6:45 right? Explain to me how 4 different parties, two of whom had LATER reservations that we did, get seated and yet we're still waiting in the front for our reserved table. When I ask these two women why other people are being seated ahead of us? I get this lame excuse about how certain tables have certain configurations - yet our party of 4 is somehow the odd configuration out of the bunch. But it gets even better.. these clueless hostesses decide that rather than admit their mistake and make things right, opt to seat us in the outdoor area at a table that wasn't cleaned and was missing chairs! Make that make sense! No apologies, no interest in making things right - just a pathetic attempt and sweeping things under the rug. What a joke and what a sad excuse for customer service when it comes to the front of house for a restaurant that sets the tone for the rest of the night.

Thankfully Peter our server and Chris, one of the managers that night, did their best to right the situation. They moved us to a better table and Peter was awesome in taking care of us - it still didn't absolve the downright awful way that the front of house decided to treat us. I hope they see this review and use it as a training opportunity to get some lessons in customer service - Muchacho is going to lose customers if this is the kind of customer service people come to experience from the front of the house hoping that the servers or managers save them when they drop the ball so abysmally.

You can have the best food and ambiance, but if the service is terrible, it...

Customer Service FAIL!

I came here on a Saturday night for dinner with my lovely wife and we were both excited to try a new (to us) restaurant which smelled wonderful from outside. Problems started after waiting 30 minutes outside, receiving a few text updates counting down our wait time, I received a final text message indicating 5 minutes was left until our table was ready and just 1 minute after that the hostess stepped outside the door called my name and said "I've been waiting! You should have come inside already" in a very condescending tone. That in itself we normally would let slide chalking it up to a busy Saturday night but it was just a sign of things to come.

We settled in and started to explore the menu and discuss different items that caught our eye. The waitress was pleasant however came to the table several times to ask if we were ready to order our entrees before our drinks and even the chips & salsa had arrived. It was obvious she was trying to rush us out before we even ordered. Mind you it was still almost 2 hours before closing. This started to be seen as a theme of our visit since shortly after our Queso appetizer arrived, like two bites in, our entrees arrived as well. Which brings me to the next customer service failure. Now that the annoying job of serving the customers food was done, what seemed like the entire staff was now free to set up 2 tables over from us workstations to complete their side work, loudly clanging silverware and rolling napkins like we weren't even there. No seriously like we no longer existed. Then only after their side work was done did our waitress ask if we'd like a second drink. To which I informed her that the manager was bringing me the check.

Extremely disappointed to pay $50+ per person for a service level I would expect to receive dining in at McDonald's after they've closed.

It's too bad because the food was good, I would have liked to come back but the customer service left...