Raul’s Original

We recently went here for a high School get together with about 40+ people on a Friday night, my usual review night. They were informed of our intentions and gave us a room dedicated to our group. We gathered at 5pm, the crown drifting in over the course of an our or so.
There were lots of chips and salsa in squeeze bottles. The salsa was actually the best part of the night. It was hot enough without being overbearing and the chips were fresh and in a big enough basket we were not dependent on our disappearing waitress to have them replenished.
It took quite a while to get the waitress to take our drink orders and even longer for the dinner order to be placed and eventually served. There were only two waitresses, one of which was elsewhere most of the time as the other was running her tail off.
Sadly, we were sitting with our backs directly against the entry to the kitchen and there was lot of noise. This added to the clumsiness of the staff who dropped multiple plates on the floor and shattered glass and food all over the backs of our legs as they came out of the kitchen. As if it took long enough to get one meal out, now add this to they delay.
Once our food finally arrived, about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the time there, it was a sad disappointment at best. Phil ordered a Chimichanga which looked like it was deep fried in dirty oil for 3 times the normal cooking time. It was so dark brown it looked like it was covered in Mole’. Rosealyn’s Cheese crisp was anything but crisp, more like it was soaking in an oil bath before arriving at the table. My Green Chicken Enchilada’s were seemingly tasty at first but I paid for them in the bathroom the following day for hours on end as they ran through me like a scoop of Draino. I love Mexican food and can handle the hottest but his recipe’s did me in.
Getting the check was another delay. It was 8pm when we finally got out of there, not a moment too soon.
The bottom line here is it was good to see and meet some new and old friends but I would have rather done it somewhere else. The restaurant was ill-​prepared for our arrival, the food was sub standard and the after effects were more like a visit from Montezuma, something I would prefer to do without. Sorry Raul, your just not cutting it.

I have to agree with Bill, I was at the same event. It was Agua Fria Homecoming and we all wanted to go to the game. We wanted to give Raul’s a boost and bring in business. Raul was well informed of the crowd we would bring into his business. He was glad to have the business, but he didn’t staff accordingly.
I have been there on other occasions and the food was good and so was the service. On this night, however, Raul did a miserable job of staffing and serving the crowd. His excuse… he had another big party come in unexpected. That is NOT an excuse as far as I’m concerned. He knew we were coming, he had the count of 4−35−40 people and 45 showed up. He should have staffed for our group and had enough to handle the usual restaurant.
Sorry Raul, I like your food, but you failed miserably with you «Owl Alumni» who only wanted to get together and give you the business.
Guess we’ll go back to see Mike at Raul & Theresa’s, he has always managed to handle our crowd.

Correction, I went back again and the salsa is pretty good. This place is A LOT better than Raul and Theresa’s. Don’t get me wrong, they are good too but this place is without a doubt the real place. Check it out for yourself, real authentic. I ordered the green chili burrito along with a cheese enchilada… beans and rice are awesome as well.