El Agave Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Wichita

The only reason this is getting 3 stars is because the food and drinks were good but service on the other hand needs a lot of help. Our party of 7 walked in and stood at the host stand for at least 5 minutes but was probably close to 10 before ANY staff came up to speak to us. We almost left because of how long it took to even be greeted but a customer behind us who had ordered drinks from the bar told us a lady would be coming. Were told 20 minute wait but luckily got seated after 10 more minutes of waiting. Once we got sat we all ordered drinks. One girls drink got handed to the wrong person while another girls drink never arrived at all. We finally order food and two people get their meals, a couple minutes later the rest of their table gets their food except for one person. That one person sat at the table for over 10 minutes without food before the server came back. One of our guests said “two things, one we’re missing a taco salad..” and before she could finish the second thing we needed the server said I have it and then walked away from the us and eventually came back with the food we had never received. When she came back, we told her the second thing we needed. One of the other girls at the table ordered a side of rice which never came but was on the bill so we had to ask for it to be removed. Eventually the original server just disappears and a new guy comes over asking how everything was. At that point we just asked for the bills and left. All of us ordered flavored margaritas but some of us got charged for top shelf and other got charged for flavor margarita. The people charged with top shelf were never asked if they had a tequila preference and only ordered the flavor without ever saying top shelf. We all collectively agreed the food and drinks were good but service was a mess. We tipped 20% because at that point we weren’t even sure who our server was and if they were just having a bad night but the service was bad enough that one of the guests apologized to the table for offering this place up to dine in at. The whole front of house seemed to be very disorganized and no sense of urgency. If I had a choice of Mexican food I would consider choosing this restaurant again but certainly not this location of the chain. Also both of the girls who had missing food were not even offered an apology or any attempt to make it up and the guy that ran payment took about 10 minutes before returning the credit cards back...

Let me start off by stating that El Agave is our go-to Mexican restaurant on both the east and west side of town. They've always provided good service and good food. I'd say we probably visit them monthly, or so.

However, today wasn't their best.

We visited El Agave after the double-overtime win by WSU, so 2pm-ish on a Sunday. Very few customers in the front dining area and it took several minutes for someone to come to the front podium to seat us. It wasn't the hostess that seated us but rather one of the waiters who has served us before. Unfortunately, he wasn't our waiter.

Once we were seated, it took several more minutes to be greeted by someone, who did take our drink order. He wasn't our waiter. Our waiter visited us a couple minutes, took our drink order again, then disappeared. Several minutes passed by and we received our drinks. By now, we'd been in the door roughly 20 minutes. We had drinks & chips. No silverware or napkins. Again, there were more workers in the restaurant than customers at 2:30 in the afternoon.

We ate some chips and needed drink refills however, our waiter was no where to be found, so we asked one of the guys busing tables to refill our drinks, which he gladly did. I had to ask the hostess for silverware and napkins.

Our waiter brought our food and disappeared. I got the taco fajita salad and my wife ordered their nachos over rice. Pretty easy. Our food came out and it was not up to their normal standards. Incredibly salty and incredibly wet/runny. Neither of us finished our meal. My wife wanted to take her leftovers home in the hopes of doctoring it up into something more palatable. We had to ask/remind our waiter 3 times for a to-go box.

Needless to say, this was not their best effort during a very slow time of the day. The guy that was busing tables that got our drink refills got the tip. The waiter didn't get anything and I felt obligated to document our experience.

I"m sure we will visit them again and we hope to have a better...

No bueno. First and last time customer here. The only thing worse than the food was the service.. The restaurant itself is decorated nicely. Good atmosphere upon first glance. That is where the positive experience ended. We were seated and the wait began. Fifteen minutes or so later, a random server plopped a bowl of chips and salsa that can only be described as "sad tomato water" on the table with only a single word. "Hi." He scurried away. 15 minutes later, our server took our drink order. 10 minutes passed before salsa boy returned, awkwardly carrying 3 waters. He sat them all on the far edge of our table, spilled a bit, looked directly at the small puddle on our table, then left. I assumed he would be back with napkins, but that was that. 10 or so more minutes passed before we were able to order our food, and then it was back to waiting. When we finally got our order, it was overcooked and flavorless. How did they manage to miss the mark on nachos? We ate our food (I'm being liberal with the usage of the term "food" here...) and stacked the plates on the edge of the table to signify the fact that we were done. More waiting, After being held hostage at our table for an eternity, trying desparately, yet unsuccessfully, to get the attention of our server, he finally dropped off our check with barely a word. Good thing we didn't have a dessert order. The best part of the dining experience was leaving and vowing to never return. Taco Bell offers better Mexican cuisine than this pathetic excuse for a dining establishment. How food so bland gave me heartburn is a mystery . You could not pay me to return. Negative 10 out of 5...