Restaurant Cocktailbar Santiago — Restaurant in Mainz

This was the worst experience in my life. It's pity I can't put zero stars. The manager of this place was extremely rude and treated us terribly. It was my farewell party and he made me cry. I initially reserved the table for 12 people, 2 people canceled 10 minutes before we came to the place, so we asked for a table for 10 people. Unfortunately, just 6 showed up on time. Manager attacked and offended us within first 15 min and said he has to take away the tables for other customers. However, there were other empty tables! We anyway apologized that other people are late and said that we understand if he wants to move some tables from us. He said he'll give other people a bit more time to come and when other friends came, he started to shout at us again and said we have to change the tables. We agreed, even though we were 8 people sitting on the table for 10 people and there were other free tables, the big ones!!! He started to grab our personal things without permission and throw them on the other table and also our glasses with wine and water and put it randomly on the other table, so we couldn't differentiate our own glasses. Then he came to us 3 more times and loudly personally offended us and said in any other places we would be kicked out, which is absolutely not true and is extremely rude. We didn't do anything wrong, we agreed with him all the time and we apologized in the beginning. You CAN'T treat your customers this way!!! It was my farewell party and he made me cry! He never apologized. And guess what, our initial table stayed empty for the rest of the evening. The manager kept shouting at waitresses (poor girls) and was behaving completely inappropriate. If I was the owner of this place and saw something like this, I'd fire him immediately. It was the worst...

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for foods and drinks ⭐️⭐️ for service

We love the food. I ordered Rib Eye Steak and I love it! One of the best steaks- for that price range - I ever had. The drink was okay, I ordered Daiquiri, it's like a Slurpee so be aware of brain freeze. I like the range of offers that they give.

I called and they said they have a place but only until 8 PM. Fine, we arrived at 6:40 so it's alright. Everything came fast from the entrée, drinks, and main dish.

Everything went well, from the call until ordering the food - the young waitresses are friendly (the girl with the mask, the young guy, and a girl with braided hair) up until when I asked to bring a cake to our table cause it's my friend's birthday. But the senior waitress was so grumpy. It's like I am asking her for money when in fact I'm there to spend money. (we spent around 160 EUR++ and 7€ tips at the end). While almost finished the lady who was rude to me came to our table and wanted to take my friend's plate while he and we were still eating (time 7:45 PM) and we said no.

The icing on the cake is when the birthday cake (lava brownie decorated with heavy cream) came at 7:50 PM, we ate quickly, and at 8:05 cause I checked the time the same lady came and "remind" us in German with a straight face and unfriendly intonation "you know that your time is only until 8:05, right?". THAT WAS. It's not like we've been reminded 2 or 3 times and didn't listen, but that was the first "reminder". We got up, paid, and still gave tips -considering the service of the cook and the other waitresses-.

Why only 3 stars, I think she can remind us of the time without being mean :)

That's all for today. Have a...

Ok as Latinos, Santiago is an ok-ish restaurant by German standards. To call it Cuban is a stretch. It's more like a Latin fusion restaurant, because there is Peruvian, Mexican and Argentinian food. (Maybe more) We are missing some stables of Cuban cuisine, with the number one ropa vieja, then moros and tostones. If there is no rice with beans, I mean come on.

Entradas Pepperoni Verde con ajo and aceitunas. Standard Pepperonis and olives. Mediocre at best.

Main Lomo saltado The meat was soft and juicy. The rice was really good. The sauce was a looooott of soy sauce, like a lot.

Carne Habana escpecial The rice was really good. Overall it was a tasty dish and I can recommend it. I ordered it without the cream.

Dessert Torta de chocolate Which is actually a choco brownie. Nothing special, not made in the restaurant.

Helado frito Nothing fried with this dessert. Big ball of ice cream with cornflakes crust. Fine.

Overall the service is nice, the ambiente is good and the food is tasty.

It's a bit lower rating because expectations about Cuban food.

PS. If the card reader is broken, get a new one. They cost nothing anymore and any POS provider gives them out...