Baltazar’s (for lunch)
Yesterday we had lunch at Baltazar’s, the new(ish) Mexican seafood fine dining restaurant, located on the west side. It was excellent! I’d only been hearing good things about the place, with the only caveat being "it’s expensive."
The restaurant itself is very spacious and clean. Warm wood and latté colors, some marine-themed artwork, and an open architecture are all very inviting. The location on the west side is decent, too, though they could really use more parking.
We only saw the lunch menu, but there were twenty-something items on it, ranging in price from $10 to $15. Plenty of seafood, also the usual other meats and a vegetarian dish or three. I had the lobster enchilada ($11) which was very good. My wife had a chicken mole dish with some very sweet and chocolaty mole sauce (not spicy like La Rosa’s).
Service was good, but a little "laid back," as my wife said. It wasn’t slow, really, but they didn’t seem hurried, and the only time we really had to wait was for them to pick up the bill.
Overall, excellent. And they’re easy to find, too: the corner of 14th/Century Drive and Knoll Avenue, next to the old John Dough’s location (whatever happened to John Dough’s, anyway?).
They don’t have a website (yet) that I can find, but I do have some other pointers for you: the Bend Oregon Restaurants review (also a lunch review) and the review from The Source Weekly.
Baltazar’s
1465 SW Knoll Ave.
Bend, OR 97702
(541) 382-6622
Hello fellow friends and parents,
I am writing to tell you about something that recently happened to me which
was very disturbing and unpleasant. I recently dined out at Baltazar’s
Restaurant with my friends the *** and the ***. We had a sitter
for S and J, and brought K because he was only a few months old
and slept most of the time. Three different staff people there were very
unpleasant to us because we brought the baby and treated us very rudely
despite the fact that he slep the entire time and never made a peep.
Baltazar himself made it a point to come over to our table to tell T and I
(and I quote-) that "they do not specialize in children" so we had to put
him on the floor since there was no highchair to set his car seat into.
A few weeks ago, I was encouraged to write the restaurant a letter because
of how rude they had been to us so I finally got around to it this week.
After asking for approval from the MOMS Club of Bend board members to use
letterhead, I wrote to Baltazar describing our experience and asked him to
consider purchasing one highchair to accommodate parents with a small child
who may dine at the restaurant.
Baltazar called me today and made it very clear that he does not want any
children in his restaurant. In fact, his exact words were, "We are not
going to buy even one highchair because we don’t want them (kids) here."
When I suggested to him that Bend was a family friendly community and that
by treating patrons disrespectfully for accidentally bringing a child into
the restaurant is actually not good for his business and he was shutting out
a corner of the market, he asked me if I was threatening him, told me he
would sue me and then concluded the conversation with a "GO TO HELL YOU
FUCKING BITCH."
I was completely stunned and shocked by having been treated this way- but
after being harassed in the restaurant for having a sleeping 8 week old with
us, I guess I should not be surprised.
There are many other establishments in this community that would never treat
their patrons in this manner- and I hope you will consider joining me in
finding alternative dining options where people are treated with dignity and
respect, whether or not their children are with them.
As I told Baltazar, I completely support restaurants approaching customers
who have unruly children, or whose children are disrupting the dining
experiences of the other patrons and politely asking them to get the
situation under control or leave- but blatant rudeness such as his
demonstrates poor business etiquette. If Baltazar’s policy is
anti-children in their restaurant, they should post a sign at the door
stating, "No infants or children allowed." It would save an unknowing
parent such as me the harassment of being indirectly told multiple times
while dining there that my child was unwelcome.
Please share this message with others you know. As for Tom and I, we will
never again dine there again and hope you’ll join us in demonstrating that
behavior such as that will not be rewarded with our continued patronage.
Thanks,
Concerned parents
I won’t be going there. We’ve got two small children who are well behaved, and welcome at other restaurants.
My wife, myself, and hopefully anybody else within earshot will never, ever go to this restaurant again. I had a similar experience the first time at Baltazars last December.
After receiving a gift certificate for my 40th b-day my wife and I decided to give this place a second chance just a few weeks ago…big mistake! The service was not only slow and full of excuses and attitude, but Baltazar (aka: the Lizard King) himself refused to comp one of my drinks (the drink I ordered just because my food was taking so long) to try to make up for the lousy service.
I don’t know how this place is going to stay in business…..maybe it’s for the better.
Anonymous
I have had better service and food at McDonalds. Kids will be your future customers, well not Baltazar’s because their days are numbered in Bend. It hurts when you shoot yourself in the foot. I think i if they would like to continue doing buisness in Central Oregon they should consider relocating, try Christmas Valley or Burns.
http://www.hoteltravelcheck.com/bend/baltazar-restaurant-bend.html
After reading the complaints about parents bringing their children to Baltazars, I will never go there, and these complaints have circculated though everyone at my work ( a very large company, whose head quarters cover Bend), and everyone has said they will not go now….talk about shooting themselves in the foot. You can’t treat locals like that and expect their business to stay around.
He needs to go away. If he ever spoke to my wife with his foul tongue I would break his nose!! Boycott this guy.
We went to Baltazar’s for a birthday celebration on a midweek night. There were 10 of us. We had drinks and chips and one more person arrived. We ordered a second beverage. We were given menus and were waiting to order when our waitress, not the owner, arrived at the table. She told us that Baltazar had told her to tell us that she would not serve us because of this one new person. "The plates are too big". This was not explained to us when we arrived. Baltazar never came to explain his reasons, in fact would not make eye contact with us. We felt that if this was an issue, it should be the owner who came to discuss it. We stopped him on our way out the door but he just blew us off. We went on to Cascade Lakes Brewery, down the street, and had a good meal and great service.
We swore off going back, but about a month ago, going out to dinner on the westside, our restaurant was closed, so reluctanhtly went back. Food was good (huge servings), nice facitilties, staff seems pressured. Baltazar was nowhere to be seen. Maybe the guy is a little bit of a loose cannon, for whatever reason. I won’t go back