Papi Rico's

Pretty good overall.  Nice family atmosphere.  Go there to eat and watch the Rangers.  BYOB.

I have eaten here a couple of times before and it was OK. Nothing impressive really for this local site. This weekend was different however. On Saturday 6/22 we stopped in, it was probably around 7:30 and a band was playing outside. The patio was packed and inside it was only about half full. I'm thinking, this should be an easy one.

Our waitress must have been new to waiting tables because the basics of service seem to elude her. We ate inside and while she tried, she just did not have it together. To her credit, there were only 2 waitresses working, one for the patio and one for inside. And with the business they were enjoying, it was easy to see they were all in the weeds. However, there were several people running around with Papi Rico's shirts on and some I did see clearing tables and the such. It seemed as though there were enough people, just that they did not have a game plan nor know how to execute such.  

Somehow our waitress managed to either lose our order or simply forgot to send it to the kitchen. I can understand if I see tons of food coming out of the kitchen but this was not the case. It seemed more like a case of bad management or management not knowing when to step in and lend a hand. We waited for well over an hour to get our food. Our order: a full order of nachos and a 3-taco plate. Nothing out of the ordinary for a Mexican restaurant.

The manager came by to apologize later while and offered to either buy us dessert or take 15% off our tab. I saw her do that to several tables, so this was not an isolated incident that night. Given the length of time it took to get our order, a 15% discount or free dessert was a bit under expectations. I have been in the restaurant business for over 30 years, so I know a little bit about the industry and how such an incident should be handled.

Also, this is a BYOB site so it was not like the volume of alcohol being served by the waitresses was a service culprit.

My 2 cents, if you show up and a band is playing, make sure there are at least 4 waitresses on duty, else I would go elsewhere.