Del Rey?

What's the story with Del Rey? Can that place actually survive? I never see any chatter about it on the forum, the food is mediocre, and the location is unfortunate - all the way on the low-traffic end of the Broadlands Shopping center. I've been a couple times and they never seem to be very busy. They make a decent margarita and have a fair bar setup, but they don't run it well. I went in during the third round of the NCAA tournament and the bar was populated by a single waitress eating dinner, with all the TVs tuned to telemundo.

Curious as to whether anyone has had similar or better experiences. Personally, I put the over-under on their survival at 9 months unless they make some changes.

 

The food is better at Del Rio, the restaurant in Leesburg that they founded as well. But if you want awesome margaritas, and a really interesting twist on Mexican (I call it Caj-Mex) go to Border Cafe in Fairfax County. The original is in Harvard Square, MA. If you are from Beantown, you most likely know about this great min-chain!

 

We went there a couple of weeks ago for the first time - and the last.

Service was ABYSMAL with it taking almost 45 minutes to get our food. Tough with kids. We had also ordered one margarita, on the rocks with salt. The waitress brought it out without salt and spilled half of it all over her tray. No apologies, no offer to replace it. Just walked away.

It took another 40 minutes to get the check. Kids never got their popsicles that the other children were offered in the restaurant.

The food was "okay" but not worth returning for.

 

Again maybe i'm just lucky but I have not had any problems with the place, I find their lunch buffett to be very good (and usually very busy), and all you have to do is ask to get the tv's changed, it worked for me

 

I went to Del Ray once and it was TERRIBLE, went there again a month later and it was even worse. The service was nonexistent and IMO Taco Bell has better Mexican Food.

I won't make the mistake of going there again.

 

Ditto. I went there twice and the food was awful both times. It is hard for me to believe that Del Rey is owned by the same people who own Del Rio. Del Rio is 100% fantastic. The food there is really authentic. We've never had a bad meal there and the staff are super friendly and attentive. Anyway, hope Del Rey gets this feedback and changes their menu and recipes because right now, it is pretty awful.

 

The first time we went to Del Rey we talked with the woman who owns it and she said that they wanted to offer authentic Mexican food, not tex-mex. I think that might be part of the problem. I haven't had anything bad to eat there but I wasn't very impressed, either. I agree that the service wasn't very good. Well, actually, the first time the service was okay but the second time not so great. When the place is empty and the service is bad you know something is wrong.

 

we had a real bad meal/experience there awhile back. food was bad, service was horrible and we were overcharged. waitress didn't speak english so we gave up and left. moes or baha fresh would have been a lot better, quicker, cheaper.

 

Ditto. We went once and won't go back. The food just wasn't good.

 

Del Ray is NOT owned by the same people that own Del Rio.

 

Del Rey is owned by the people who started Del Rio but they do not own it anymore. It's also the same people (their son-in-law) who own Manhattan Pizzaria.

 

That explains a lot!

We have gone to Del Rey once, that was enough.

 

We went to Del Ray once. I ordered the chicken kebob dish. The chicken was raw in the middle. They took the meal away and I ordered something else. It took forever for the new meal to come out, they never apologized, and didn't offer any compensation. The service was extremely slow overall.

I did order again using the delivery service. It was a different story. The food was great and hot when it arrived.

 

Keep this in persepctive... you are getting burritos and fajitas for less than $10....The place is family friendly with Chips and Salsa etc.......

The food and atmosphere are completely appropriate for what the place is..... and that is a cheap family night out for mexican....

 

That would be a fair argument if there weren't dozens of family-friendly options for eating around here. There are plenty of reasonably priced places to take my family where the food isn't sub-par. I'd just assume drive to Chevy's in the Dulles Town Center for mexican.

The point is, I really wish they'd get their act together. The best family-friendly restaurants are the ones that appeal both to the kids and to the parents...Glory Days is a great example. They could do tremendous business if they figured that out.

 

We love Rio Grande in Reston Town Center, also they have a great brunch! Best mexican around, in our opinions. My husband is picky as he grew up in Tucson AZ and knows authentic mexican food! We disliked Del Ray for dinner. Terribly long wait and OK food. They do have a great lunch buffet though.

For cafe we like Hard Times Cafe in Herndon. I hear EUROBistro next to the Birkenstock store on Eldon in Herndon is EXCELLENT. They were closed for lunch on Saturday, though. Only open for dinner that day.

 

gotta say we never gave Del Rey a try, the negative press here DID influence us. but their chicken flautas at Broadlands Live were so tasty- we are definitely heading there soon to see for ourselves how the service and rest of the menu measure up.

 

I guess no one has had the "Enchilada Lover's Delight" I order that every time and I always leave with a full stomach and a smile on my face The chips and salsa are very tasty as well. I can't say anything about the rest of the menu but all I can say is there must be some illegal substances in that Enchilada Lover's dish cause it is so darn tasty I don't really want to order anythign else. Oh yes and you can't beat the price. Some little leaguers were selling some card and it gets me 14% off there as well. I always eat my Mexican there no need to go anywhere else. I would like to know if anyone else has had that Lover's dish as well cause I think I am in LOVE and want to know what others think of it. THANK YOU DEL REY for making my Mexican night a night to always remember!! Keep them coming!!

 

I guess Del Rey is like the Titanic, where it's slowly going under along with the captain and the crew.

 

I think their presence at Broadlands Live was a great idea. I had never been to the restaurant, but the food at Live was good. I'll give them a try.