The Border Mexican Restaurant

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

Aside from the story below, our food was lukewarm, took forever to get, we were treated as an inconvenience at the bar and the owner was as rude as his staff, below follows the story of the Border and why we wont EVER go back. For the first time EVER, I was cut off in a restaurant, and I only had 2 drinks!!!! My girlfriend and I decided to meet for dinner, I arrived first, the patio was full, mostly with a large party, I told the "host" that we would wait for a table and sat at the bar. The woman behind the bar cutting limes completely ignored me and went out of the bar. Another girl came back about 5 minutes later and asked if I was waiting for a patio table, I said yes, she started to walk off and I said "can I get a drink while waiting?" She acted as though I was asking her to go out of her way, but poured me a beer. As I was waiting, the host (later I found out was the owner) told a girl that had come in after me, that he must have known, that I was waiting for a patio table but he would seat her first before me. I was ready to leave at that point. My friend showed up, took 5 minutes to get her a jumbo margarita, then we were finally seated on the patio. There was a party of at least 25 people on the patio. They had obviously been there a while. There were tons of empty pitchers, glasses, mugs and shot glasses on the table. I have been in the restaurant business for 15 years and I notice things like that. I also noticed the 75 health department score and the dead cockroach in the hallway to the bathroom, but those are things I can overlook sometimes. It took the server 10 minutes to bring us menus, we ordered queso and another 10 minutes later a different server came to the table, told us the other girl was too busy for us and she took our order. I asked her to leave a menu as I needed to take food home for my roommate, she did not leave the menu. We both ordered a margarita at that point. Our food came, we ate, I still had margarita to finish, my friend ordered a 3rd. The waitress said "NO you cannot have any more" as this is going on, the large party is getting another round of beers, pitchers and shots. I asked to speak to the manager, he said that we just had a more responsible server than the party did and that he would not serve us anymore, that she had drank a pitchers worth of margaritas. I asked him about the guys in the parking lot that were part of the party drinking in the parking lot, which, is illegal, since he was quoting legality to me. He said that the party was different because you couldnt see who had what, cuz they kept moving around. My friend and I drink, more than we should, we are well aware of our limits, when we shouldnt drive, and we both know that she was not drunk after 2 margaritas and a full plate of food. I was livid, that is all I can say. We talked to a girl that was with the big party that I knew, she said they had been served way more than 2 each. I will NEVER go back there, we have been there before and never had a problem. I am telling all of my local friends not to go there, it is currently my facebook status. I cannot believe how rude and terribly we were treated, no one around us had any problems, seemed as though we were the designated target for the night. Horrible, horrible, horrible experience.

A

A Private User

If 0 stars was an option, that would be my rating. We (used to) go to this place frequently and always suffered from their waitstaffs unattentive (lack of) service, but after last night (3/26/10), our visits will cease. Aside from Los Bravos, this is really the only Mex joint in the neighborhood, which is why we visited. Their watery, neon green "dollar store mix" margaritas, re-used oil-flavored chips, and overpriced/underfilled quesadillas wont be missed. Their made-at-the-table Texas guac -- which was what we always came for -- will be missed but after watching them make it, its not rocket science. We also recently found out Papasitos has the same stuff, better quality, cheaper price, and minus the rude attitudes. Adios, The Border...adios 3 females + 1 male met at 6pm and had a pitcher of margs, Texas guac, cheese dip, and split a chicken/steak quesadilla plus a verde/shrimp quesadilla. An hour later, we ordered a second pitcher. At 8pm, I paid $26 for pitcher #1 and left to take my guy home. There was about 1/2 a pitcher left. I came back at 9:30 to re-join my girls. The girls were still working on pitcher #2, and I had the last 1/2 glass. The girls had ordered another cheese dip and fajitas in the 1.5hrs we were gone. Another guy - who had not been drinking - joined us at 10pm. Our older waitress -- who is the only one there that ever knows how to do her job well -- was off shift at 10, so we cashed out our $65 tab for all the food plus pitcher #2 with her and left a $15 tip. A young waitress came over and we ordered a third pitcher. She hesitated, then left. Upon her return she informed us she had spoken to her manager and we couldnt be served because we had already had two pitchers. Let me revisit the math for you: 4 people... 4 hours... two pitchers... a boat load of food… and a 5th party joining us. I have never been so insulted in my life. I asked to speak to the manager, and he came over with attitude before we even had a chance to say hello. I explained to the two of them that I had just returned, plus our new friend had just joined us, and we should be allowed to order a pitcher. When I mentioned I had been absent for 1.5 hours, the waitress actually said "oh, really? I dont think so." They conceded and said they could sell us a half-pitcher, but at that point, we were over their hospitality. When I asked for the owners contact information, the waitress laughed in my face. When I asked her if she thought it was funny, she said yes. We are all late 20s/early 30s moderately conservative working professionals that are employed by a Fortune 500 company HQd here in Atlanta. We are respected, well-behaved, professional people. We live locally in Smyrna, and taking a $10 cab in the event weve consumed too much is ALWAYS an option. We do not condone drunk driving. I am still offended and will be writing a letter to Virgilio Padilla, owner. I am very disappointed in these guys... .

TA

Tabatha Roberts

We are not the kind of people to fault a business for one bad experience, but we had a TERRIBLE experience with this restaurant today. Our food order came out wrong, couldnt get refills on our chips or drinks (I had to walk to the bar to get refills on both), and were then spoken to very rudely by staff. My fiancé ordered a coke and I had water. Twice, when I was out of water and waiting for a refill, I drank from his glass. Now, my fiancé drinks a lot of soda and goes through his drink pretty quickly. On the third refill that he had been waiting over ten minutes for, I asked a girl if he could please have some more coke. She spoke to me very rudely about how "they know" and if I want coke then I have to pay for it. I then assumed she misunderstood because of the language barrier and explained that I didnt need a coke, my fiancé just needs a refill, and she continued to tell me "we know" and I need to pay for my own........? Because of the way that she spoke to me, I assume that because of how fast he empties his glass, they assumed I must have been sharing the coke with him and trying to not pay for two sodas. But, again, this couldnt be clarified because of the language barrier. Five minutes later, still no drink refill and my fiancé approaches the same lady again and said that he didnt appreciate us being spoken to so rudely and there must be a mistake because I didnt want any of his drink, he just needs a refill, but he would buy another coke if it just meant that he could have a refill of his drink. Most of the staff is standing and listening at this time and they keep saying things in Spanish but not looking at my fiancé and the lady just turns around and WALKS AWAY! ANOTHER ten minutes later and our original server finally brings him a coke. This whole time, weve been polite and calm. We ask several people if we can speak to the manager and its like suddenly no one can speak English at all and they literally ignored us when we asked. And let me say, these servers are masters at avoiding eye contact so you cant get anyones attention when you need something, which is a problem we were having long before the drink spectacle. We asked someone for about the sixth time if we could speak to a manager and they said that there was no manager and no one was in charge. Okay. We paid for our food (and still tipped) and left with a business card from the register. Planning to give Mr. Padilla a call tomorrow afternoon because I hope he has a higher standard for his business. We loved this restaurant before today and came here at least once a week because the food is so good. Weve never really had great or accurate service here, but we assumed it was because we came during high volume times. That was not the case today as there were only a few other tables occupied and I really hate that weve now lost our favorite local Mexican restaurant.