Uncle Julio's - Chicago

Great food , excellent service, I'm recommended 100

We celebrated my husband's 50th birthday on Saturday evening. We had to wait about 30-40 minutes beyond our reservation time (we had 7:15 pm reservations) since the earlier seating were not finished yet. Once we got to our table to wait staff was pleasant and attentive. Once our food was served, they forgot 2 of the 7 orders, but it was quickly recified and the manager came out to ensure that everything was complete.

We had a reservation at 6:45 and we were seated around 7:15 and got our food after 8pm. This would have been fine except we had three kids, 8 and under, and that was just too late. The restaurant was busy but they could and should have brought the kids their food first. Second, the kids ordered off of the kids menu and at least two of the 3 meals came with pico de gallo within the taco and quesadilla . . .its not listed as an ingredient on the menu so why add it to a kids meal? we love Uncle Julios and will certainly be back but this time was not a huge success.

Uncle Julio’s is one of my favorite restaurants. I also used to work there (many years ago). This review only reflects this single dining experience. We were seated right away. My husband and I both thought the salsa tasted like it had been soaked in dishwater. It took 8 minutes to get the servers attention. He replaced it and it tasted normal. We were served white rice with peas instead of the Spanish rice and beans that we ordered. When we asked, the server said they ran out found it odd that he didn’t tell us or give us a choice before the runner just served the white rice. Finally, pulled a long grey hair out of the sour cream (which was sitting on the fajita plate) right as server walked up to table. Server asked if it was okay to just take the sour cream plate. We said fine I’m not easily grossed out as a customer but as a server?? I would have been horrified and immediately taken the whole plate away notified the kitchen manager and put in a rush order for new fajitas. Not once did the server express empathy for anything that had gone wrong didn’t even attempt. We gave him 20% because I guess anybody can have a bad night. I’ll go back to Uncle Julio’s but only because I know the quality of the food and service is typically much better. If it had been my first visit I never would have returned. I don’t intend to ever be served by that guy again. Really disappointing experience.

I've eaten at Uncle Julio's several times, as my children enjoy its ambience. However, the service gets worse and worse and worse. This time our food arrived 61 minutes after we entered the restaurant, which is utterly unacceptable. And there was no sense of any manager present to address the issue. I will be taking a break from this restaurant for some while I'm very disappointed.