Agave & Rye Troy — Restaurant in Troy

We’ve been here a few times and had carry out even more and have loved it, but our experience last night was really disappointing. We walked in with a party of 12 at 5 p.m. and were pleasantly surprised to be seated right away, but the dinner only went downhill from there.

Our server Jozlyn seemed annoyed at us from the moment we sat down. My husband went to the bar to order a round of shots as a surprise for the birthday girl, and Jozlyn actually scolded us for that, saying that it’s common courtesy to order them from her. I will admit that my husband should have ordered from her and could have still done it as a surprise, but he’s never worked in restaurants before and honestly just didn’t realize that ordering at the bar takes away from the server’s sales and tips. It’s not common knowledge at all - that’s industry knowledge that she needs to work out between herself and her colleague, the bartender, who happily took the order. Speaking to a customer about that is completely unprofessional and made us uncomfortable around her the rest of the dinner.

And the dinner took 3 hours - from 5:10 to when we left at 8 p.m., which was really just ludicrous. We didn’t get our food until nearly two hours after we sat down. We were a large party, so I understand the kitchen may have taken a long time but she took so long to take our orders and there was so much time between visits that I think she was overworked or just didn’t care about serving us. She missed one person’s order and by the time she came back to check, the person just opted to eat her boyfriend’a fries instead.

We watched her at the POS for nearly 30 minutes after we asked for her checks, so my guess is she hadn’t split them already and perhaps isn’t familiar with the software - maybe she hadn’t worked there long. When we got our checks, we noted that 20% gratuity was included automatically, and we were so sick of being there that we just paid and left instead of expressing our unhappiness to a manager or asking for the gratuity to be adjusted.

I understand the stress of working a large party - especially when you have at least three other tables in your section (that we noted). In fact, half of the people at our table have years of serving experience ourselves, and have a great amount of compassion for folks in the industry. But there is a difference between being overwhelmed - and asking your manager for help, acknowledging the slow service to your customers, and just being nice to them - and not caring. I wish a manager had noticed her ridiculous turnover times and stepped in...

Update: 8/19/22: ordered some tacos to go for carry out. We had a friend in town visiting and wanted to try this place. We ordered online, it said it would be ready in 20 min. Showed up 20 minutes later and my entire order was ready, special requests were correct and the tacos were amazing. It would appear they have worked out the kinks that were holding them back from having good service. They resolved my only real complaint I’ve had with them. Happily, I am bumping up my review from 3 to 5 stars. I’d totally recommend them now.

Original review: I have had a few different tacos from here and they were all very good. Yes, it is pricy for 1 taco ($6 and up) but I can eat one and call it lunch. (For comparison, I spent over $9 at my last trip to Taco Bell and only got 1 meal, no extras, no upgrades. So you can spend that or just over that here and get immensely better food) It is definitely worth checking out and I highly recommend giving it a try. I have not eaten in yet but the inside of this place looks great. 5 stars on food an atmosphere. So why a 3 star review? This place has a long way to go on takeout service. And from what I hear, overall service in general. Unfortunately I have yet to speak with someone at the takeout desk when I call in to order. When I show up, there’s usually no one at the takeout desk. Online ordering does not allow the use of a gift card, you need to call it in and now you’re back to the no one at the takeout desk issue. It’s issues like this that make me think management and staff are still trying to get in sync at the new establishment, trying to get staffing right and so on. I fully believe I will be changing this review to 4 or 5 stars when that happens. I’m rooting for this place to succeed but so far have had too many small frustrations for a solid review at this time. One thing that does scare me is all of this is happening with the restaurant at COVID capacity, I pray it doesn’t get worse when full capacity is...

Today was the second day Agave & Rye was open to the public, so I'll be generous with my review, especially given the fact I'll be returning to sample other menu items. After a 2.5 hour waitlist, our time came to be seated. I ordered an "Epic OG Margarita" for $18, expecting something epic. The margarita was exceptional. But was just served in two pint glasses due to glassware being unavailable. I ordered an appetizer (pick three chips and dip - $15), three "epic tacos", and my wife and kiddo got some food too.

My tacos:

The "plain jane", is Agave & Rye's execution of the typical taco - ground beef, white cheddar, lettuce, sour cream. What the taco lacked in flavor was made up for in size. I make more flavorful "plain jane" tacos with seasoning packets from Kroger. I would not order this again.

The "Rooster" is this restaurant's execution of a spicy fried chicken taco. The plump and juicy tenderloin-sized piece of chicken had breading that lacked flavor, but left a bit of heat to linger. Tasted like Cayenne pepper, and not much else. The meat laid atop a bed of mac and cheese that was lukewarm, pasta coated with a grainy sauce. In general, this taco also lacked flavor, but the saving grace was the dollop of sweet pickle relish that adorned the top of the chicken. I would not order this again.

The third taco was the "Swipe Right". This taco had grilled chicken, salsa, white cheddar, and spicy and sweet bacon. This taco had a very fresh flavor, and was my favorite of the three I tried. I would order this again.

The atmosphere was loud and party-like, and the service model borrows the Brazilian steakhouse idea of "flip your card to green if you need service, flip to red if you dont need anything."

After my meal, my wife (ate an $8 burger), and my kid's $10 meal, we were out the door for $86, tip included. Steep price for some mediocre tacos, but perhaps this place needs to hit their groove. Need more samples to make a...