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2 TODAY: Que Pasa, 305 North 18th
01/21/2008 1:00 AM by John M
Two things on this MLK Holiday: Que Pasa should be opening (@M and 25th Streets), and there is a meeting about the proposed development at Cedar and Broad (7PM @ American Tobacco Center community room).
Photo above is a detail from the original photo by creechdawg 4/25/07.
what are the lunch and dinner hours for Que Pasa
I just got back from having a Cuban Sandwich. It was lime roasted pork on Cuban bread and was tender and flavorful. It came with baked plantains which were amazingly good, kind of tangy and a little sweet. I would have liked a cold beer, but that will come with time. I am not positive about the hours, but they open at 11:30am each day.
What! After all this time, no ABC license?
Any word when we will be able to enjoy our favorite alcoholic libations there?
No ABC license? This surprises you?
I hope this restaurant does well. Good luck!
Oh, yikes. I REALLY want this restaurant to do well, but after leaving there just now I am concerned. They were having a really hard time keeping up tonight. People weren’t getting food they ordered, others weren’t getting food at all. The servers looked very overwhelmed. Every table seemed to be having problems. We waited by the door to be seated for about 15 minutes (the only people standing there) before seeking out seats ourselves (maybe it’s self seating?). We moved to the bar to make space for a larger group. We got bread about 10 minutes after that. Another 10 minutes later we found out they were out of food and were sent away with a coupon for next time. In all, we spent over 40 minutes there without a server. We did get water and a coupon. Hopefully they were just overwhelmed with a bigger than expected opening day. The man we spoke to said they didn’t expect so much business today. The neighborhood supported them so much they are out of food! People are clearly excited about this place opening. Customers overall seemed pretty good natured about the opening night issues. We’ll definitely return and hopefully eat next time! The menu, by the way, looks great and the smells coming from the kitchen were fantastic.
We were there before you, but not by much I think. I was able to get a yummy Lechón and the mashed sweet potatoes were delicious. Not everyone at out table was quite as lucky, though — there were definitely some waitstaff related issues going on.
We were there around the same time as John. Service was slow and they did seems overwhelmed maybe opening night jitters.
Everyone at our table tried to get something different so I can vouch for the Lechon, the chicken and the steak (sorry forgot the actual name of the dishes), also the plantain spiders were great.
I hope the neighborhood continues to support this new eatery once it gets all the bugs worked out.
Isn’t it a bit early to be making some of these service-related observations? It Was Their First Night.
I went for lunch yesterday (with two other people) and none of received what we ordered. We didn’t complain, though. We just ate what they brought us and it was delicious.
So glad this place is finally open. Don’t sweat the running out of food and the service issues. Every review I ever read about opening night for every restaurant has the same issues. Remember reviews for Kitchen 64. (This is why I stay away until the newness wears off a little bit.) They’ll iron it out, get their ABC license and hopefully be in business for quite a while. If I recall correctly, Sumo San didn’t start out with their ABC license fully in place. And now what would that be without a Saki Bomb!
A restaurant’s first night is an awful time to be making any judgments about it … especially when it comes to things like service. These things take a little time to work out. The only thing that you might (and I stress “might”) be able to determine from the first night is whether the food is any good, but you’d still expect the food to be better as they work out logistics. Give them some time (not an infinite amount of time, but “some”). It sounds like Que Pasa has some promise.
It’s not unusual for a restaurant to not have their ABC license on openign night. Again, this is probably a logistics issue (the need to have all the other licenses delivered at alomst exactly the same time and on a day when the ABC agent is available … and on MLK day, I’m sure he wasn’t).
We asked and the waiter said that they were not expecting to get their ABC license for 2 months.
I agree that the first night or even the first month is the worst time to try a new restaurant. I had worked in enough restaurants (years ago) to know. Unfortunately I had forgotten this until the moment our party walked in the front and stood for several minutes while three staff members avoided making eye contact with us as they passed by. Therefore I wasn’t surprised at the slow service, ABC issues, and food running out. I was surprised however, to find out that the only waiter on the floor had never waited tables before until that night (I overheard him tell this to the very unhappy customer behind us). Inexperience wasn’t the problem as much as indifference and bad attitude. We were 6 people, and our waiter came with only 3 entrees, then asked if anything was missing! Apparently he didn’t think it was a problem that half of us had nothing in front of us, nor did it occur to him to look at his ticket because we had to repeat our order all over again. Eventually we were all served something, but never got our beverages, appetizers, or some of our sides. We pointed this out to the waiter when he brought the check, but he denied these items were on the ticket although they were written very clearly in his own handwriting. He abruptly walked away and we were forced to circle the missing items and take the check to one of the owners who quickly resolved the issue. During all of this I looked over to see one of the staff sitting at a table chatting with his friends. We were also there when Kristin and her husband came in and were blatantly ignored, but she was very nice despite their shabby treatment. I’m sorry, but there’s absolutely no excuse for not having at least one experienced server on the floor or ignoring customers. We really want this restaurant to succeed, and we’ll give them another chance, but Que Pasa has a lot to make up for.
Just to be clear, I want nothing but good things for Que Pasa. Trust me, I made my comments as postive as possible. I realized it was their first night, thus my *extreme* patience. Not getting seated or told to sit, never getting your order taken and not being told they were out of food are not overly picky service gripes. First nights are no doubt always tough. Having been a waitress myself years ago, this honestly seemed particularly bad. Archie bunker, I can’t say if the food was any good – I didn’t get any. Like I said, I’ll certainly return. My post wasn’t meant as a criticism as much as a concern for a place that I’d like to see stick around.
Well, let’s hope they read this blog and can get to work on addressing the areas that need work.
I gotta say, though, I cannot fathom why it should take 2 more months to get an ABC license. And, yes, I’ve done it several times.
My husband and I had opening lunch there. My mother came from the southside to try it out with us. We loved it!
Of course there were kinks, as to be expected on opening day. (It’s not a well-established chain, but a wonderful neighborhood joint – what makes city living so great.) Our waiter was friendly, and as my mom said he’ll get the hang of it, especially working for tips.
The 3 of us plan on going back this weekend with my father.
I certainly hope all the neighbors will be patient and supportive customers as our friend gets this beautiful, delicious restaurant rolling.
John has been trying to receive his ABC license for quite some time now, but unfortunately not all neighbors are as excited about this establishment as we are. There have been a few objections to him receiving his license and the two month delay is due to him having to wait for a hearing because of those contesting the license.
The service was having a few difficulties last night but again don’t go to a restaurant on opening night and expect perfection. My date and I were just discussing how we had been to J’s on her first evening of serving dinner and how disappointed we were, but just a few weeks later were raving about the place!
I’m excited that they weren’t expecting the crowds last night!! I’m glad we could all come together as a community and support Que Pasa!! It has so much potential! The food was excellent!! I look forward to going back soon!!
Congrats Neighbors. Have spoken with you and understand a lot of your frustrations to get to this point. Will see you soon and bring friends.
Alicia and I stopped by for dinner with another couple and had a great time. The food was really good, particularly the plantains! I can’t wait for it to warm up so that I can walk to our new neighborhood eatery (and hopefully watering hole).
First let me make it clear that I am the father of Beth one of the two people opening “Que Pasaâ€. I have been helping there were ever I could every day since opening. We never expected the number of people that visited the restaurant opening day and we would like to apologize to all of you who received poor service and to those who could not get any food. I would like to thank everyone for your patience and let you know we have solved the wait staff problems. We have still run out of some foods on different days and all food late Wednesday evening. We are working on that problem; it’s hard to guess how many people are going to visit on any given day. As time goes on we will have a better idea how much to prepare.
As to the ABC license one neighbor complained about serving alcoholic beverages at the restaurant. That means it had to go before a judge, that happened on January 3. The judge has 60 days to make a decision and then either party has 30 days to appeal that decision. If Que Pasa is granted a license by the judge they cannot serve alcoholic beverages during that 30-day period. If the neighbor appeals then it has to go before the full ABC board. I’m not sure how much longer that will take.
We are interested in your comments and suggestions and hope that you will continue to support us through these difficult first few months.
Thank You
Howard
vegetarians take heart! the black bean soup today was fabulous…as was the apple & walnut salad.
howard, please add a few more vegetarian items and I promise to eat lunch as often as i can. Maybe you could try a cuban sandwich with pepers, cheese and avacado? Or get creative with some marinated/grilled tofu?
my dining companion suggests you offer an”early bird” special to help even out the dinner time “crunch”. maybe give folks a free salad if they arrive before 6:30pm? just a suggestion (i don’t eat dinner till 9pm, so don’t worry ’bout me gobbling all the greens.)
keep up the great work…the decor is absolutely lovely!
Yeah, I was disappointed that there weren’t vegetarian options. And I hope he was wrong Elaine but our server told me that the black bean soup was not vegetarian so I didn’t order it.
Regarding the ABC piece Howard mentioned is there a way for neighbors who are in favor of QP being granted a license to write the judge or appear at the hearing in order to support. I find that in situations such as these those that complain regardless of how small their numbers get more opportunity than those that support. There are many in the neighborhood that would love for your license to be approved because ultimately that will provide your business with more opportunity to succeed. Please let us know how to help!
i second that loz
I will third that, please let us know what we can do. As a neighbor, I would love another option to walk to have a beer!
meta: This discussion is referenced in this week’s Style Weekly.
I’d like to thank all of you for the support we have received. We have worked out some of the issues that have been mentioned in this blog. We now have more wait staff and all have at least some experience and are being trained for our menu and in-house procedures. Our electronic order system has been installed and is in use we are still a little slow with it but are improving daily, it has eliminated the mixed up in orders almost entirely.
We are looking to add some more veterinarian dishes as soon as possible. For everyones information the black bean soup contains no meat or meat products.
We are open for brunch on Sundays from 9:30 until 2:00pm with eggs, waffles, blue berry muffins (fresh baked on premises) and other breakfast items.
Thank you all and we hope to see you soon and PLEASE let us know if we do something wrong that way we can correct our mistakes.
Howard
We made it back for lunch today and I finally got my Cuban sandwich. All was good and yummy and warm on a rainy afternoon.
i am having a heck of a time finding the phone for que pasa. any help out there?
try (804)402-7502
is there a phone number for this place?
i can’t wait to try one of those veterinarian (sic) dishes 🙂
Had dinner at Que Pasa this past weekend..the food is good…the appetizers are overpriced. We got two and the amount of food you get for the price is ridiculous. Looking forward to them getting their liquor licence. Staff is polite…everyone seemed to be a little on edge but I guess that is expected for a new establishment.
We had dinner there last night and we will definitely go back! The atmosphere was great – fire in the fireplace and love the dark wood. The food was very good – we had the pork and ribs. The mashed sweet potatoes were scrumptious and the dessert was yummy! Our waitress was friendly and though she did get our bill mixed up, it was easily corrected. Hope this one succeeds – we’ll be helping!
Had brunch there today, real nice. Started with really great fresh and hot blueberry muffins, truly great. Not real ethnic but still a good brunch – Eggs Deltaville with lump crab, price $9.95. Eggs Benedict was $7.95. Sign out front announced brunch from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. – I hope someone else went, we were the only ones there at 11:00. Staff was friendly, but not in your face, and efficient. Liked the fire in the fireplace, too.
I’ll go back and try the lunch one day soon.
My girlfriend and I had dinner at Que Pasa tonight. The heart of palm salad was ridiculously good, especially with the oil and lime dressing. We also had a side of sweet potatoes with our pastalillos? that was amazing!
I went to que Pasa for the first time last night for dinner. The inside of the restaurant is beautiful and has a great atmosphere. I was disappointed that they were out of all but two entrees. The service was great and the server was very gracious about it, though. One constructive criticism is that the bread was served cold. My preference would be a warm, crusty bread. Or, even just warm bread for that matter. Another constructive criticism is that the dessert we ordered was not homemade (by homemade, I mean from scratch-not a box cake and box icing). I would really like to recommend Que Pasa to friends, but I can’t see doing so until the food shortage issues are worked out. I will continue to support Que Pasa in the mean time and I hope that they are able to work out the food issue soon.
I went to Que Pasa’s last Friday night for dinner with some girlfriends and our whole experience was wonderful! The restaurant is beautiful and the food was amazing. I could eat the black beans and the mashed sweet potatoes every day! The bean dip with the tostones was new to me and delicious. The waitstaff were all great. They were very knowledgeable on the menu and extremely attentive. At the end of the evening, John the owner brought over a fabulously chocolaty piece of cake that was homemade and chatted with us awhile about the restaurant. It was a very enjoyable evening and we all will definitely return.
The long awaited ABC license arrived Monday morning!!!!
As of Monday evening some beer has been put in a new bottle cooler and other drinks will be added as we have time to get them.
There was a nice crowd last night (4/15) and the doors were closed at 11:00pm. Just to let everyone know the requirements for the license are closing time Sunday through Thursday is 11:00pm and Fri & Saturday it is 12:00pm.
As of today there are 10 different beers in the cooler with light versions of 2 of them and
I’ll try to remember all of them: Bud & bud light, Michelob and Michelob light, Corona, Modelo, Bass Ale, Red Stripe, Guinness Stout, Rolling Rock, & 2 other I can’t remember the name of but one is a brown ale.
I think there are 8 different kinds of hard liquor. Bourbon, Triple Sec, Tequila, vodka sorry I can’t remember the others. I’ll get brand names of everything and update this later this week.
Thanks you everyone for your support.
Howard