Bob & Earl's Cafe — Restaurant in Trinidad

My gut churns as I write this review. This is in part because I vehemently dislike having to give poor reviews, and in part because reviewing means I have to remember the awkwardness of the experience. Raz tells me I'm being generous in my 2-star rating, but since I'm pretty sure zero-star reviews aren't actually counted, I'm reserving the 1-star position for an experience of outright customer-abuse or actual food poisoning. Neither of those things happened today, but that's the only way the experience could have been worse.

We needed breakfast on the way home from Colorado City, and we left well before anything in Colorado City was open, so our first option for food was really Trinidad. We were pretty darn excited when we went deep into the back-roads of town and crested a hill to find a completely packed parking lot. It's usually a great sign when you find where all the locals are eating...

Today not so much. Our first impression was good, lots of diners happily eating as we walked in. There was no handy sign telling us whether to wait or seat ourselves, so we waited... and waited...

After about 3 minutes of standing awkwardly, one of the 2 hostess/servers confirmed that we were a party of 2 and that the table near the door, freshly vacated, was going to be bussed and prepped for us. We thanked her, and waited some more.

Five minutes or so later, that same hostess/server actually bussed the table. During the intervening time, we stood awkwardly at the doorway, knowing we were blocking the entry, but not certain whether to sit at the unbussed table...

We sat when invited and reviewed the menu, choosing a couple options from breakfast and one from the lunch menu, which we were informed would not be available for several more hours after ordering. I don't recall notation on the menu that lunch options were not available before a certain hour, but I chose to forego that argument.

Raz ordered the Incredible Breakfast Burrito, and specified the "large" size. I ordered the Corned Beef Hash and Hashbrowns sides a la carte. The "Incredible" burrito was aptly named for its lack of credibility as a breakfast burrito. The $9 "large" option contained a single egg, a pad of hashbrowns the equivalent of 1/2 the standard plating a la carte (we measured), and a single strip of bacon chopped into smaller pieces. This was placed on the other half-portion of hashbrowns and smothered in the mildest green chile sauce we can currently recall having tasted.

I took some of that sauce and mixed it with my Hash for a meal that was reasonably good. Mind you, I gave up the greater portion of my hashbrowns to Raz, because his meal, while significantly more expensive than mine, was significantly smaller.

The awkward waiting commenced again then, as our server had not furnished us our ticket, and had disappeared, possibly to the rear dining room, possibly to break. Raz eventually went and stood at the counter until a line formed behind him, at which point the other hostess/server came to settle our bill. Of course, she had to track down our server to do so, and thus we got to feel awkward all over again. Seeing the popularity and the high rating of the place, it's hard not to feel personally slighted by the experience, or assume that they just don't serve our kind...

I'm a local. Been to Bob & Earl's many times, and it's always been hit or miss. Tried it again this morning, and I will not eat here again. We waited an hour & a half for food while I watched customer after customer come in, order take out, receive their food, and leave. Wait staff was not friendly or apologetic, and I overheard them numerous times talking negatively about the kitchen staff. While we waited, we saw patrons leave without paying when they asked to speak to the manager and were left waiting at the counter for five minutes. After an hour, I asked to pay for our coffee and leave, but they convinced me the food was coming right up. We waited another ten minutes after that. The hashbrowns were mush and pancakes and French toast were burnt. Bacon and eggs were fine. My husband's "ham steak" was a shriveled medallion of dried out meat. When I complained about the burnt pancakes, they brought me another stack of burnt pancakes. Apparently the woman who brought them to me was the owner, so at that point I felt it unnecessary to complain to someone giving me burnt food. In the end, they took 15% off the bill, which was more than I expected considering their unapologetic attitude....

As so many reviewers have already said, this place is a slice of Breakfast and Lunch Heaven. I loved the Smothered Burrito, one of the customer favorites, and my side of onion rings were crispy and hot. The wait time for your food, if you slide in after all the tables are mostly full, will be a bit long so bring a book or get an appetizer to hold your table over until the real fun begins. One of our group had some pie and ice cream to start.

By the way, the portions are huge and I had to take half of my burrito home. Two meals for the price of one! Also, the wait staff here, especially the young man who coverd our table, are amazing. Even under the intense pressure of multiple tables ordering and getting their food delivered, our guy was able to fill 3 different requests by one of our diners. He zipped into the kitchen and was immediately back to our table with no time lost to forgetting or putting another table first. Top, top service.

The atmsophere is what you might guess, jovial and loud. Hungry diners going-for-broke and happy...