Sunset Cafe — Restaurant in Panajachel

Not only the food is basic, and generally it has a bad service, but this time they really blew it. So I don't recommend it at all.

This is a report on how employees of Sunset Cafe in Panajachel, Sololá, Guatemala Harassed and Threaten me and two friends after complaining about the bad service:

On September first 2017, at 4:30pm me and two friends arrived at Sunset Cafe to show our guest from Cuba the Atitlán lake's beautiful view. We barely view the menu and asked for drinks, then the check came and we gave the waitress two credit cards in order to pay. She said that it was impossible to do so. We told her "we didn't know about that, you didn't explain to us anything about payments or restrictions in advance", but she insisted it was our fault and responsibility to know that, and that she didn't have to tell us anything because it was written down on the menu and that it was our problem. She was hard on us and abusive. "Their policy" was: not accepting two credit cards to pay one bill, not even one credit card on a bill less than Q100. They didn't give us "factura" [ticket], for the taxes.

We considered it a bad service, so my friend asked them for the book "DIACO" [from a government's agency] which all the customers are allowed to ask in order to make a complaint about a bad service in a Guatemalan's commerce, all the shops must have it for the clients.

They gave us nothing. We waited, and no one seems to care about. The lady cashier, seems to be the person in charge, so I asked her for a supervisor, but she immediately yelled me "there's nobody, unless you want to go to Sololá [the village] and find her". At that moment no one else besides the staff was there, neither other clients. We were all alone. The lady went mad and everyone around her started to follow her lead, surrounding us and yelling at us saying we were making problems, and that we weren't welcome at that place. She keep yelling at us:  "WHO IS TREATING YOU BAD?", "why do you want the book?", "YOU ONLY WANT TO MISLEAD PEOPLE!", "YOU ARE THE ONES WHO ARE TREATING US BAD!". A waitress yelled to us: "NO ONE is giving you NOTHING, because we DON'T HAVE A BOOK, so GET OUT!". Like an enerved group they were intimidating, humiliating, and threatening us in different ways. The security man said: "SI NO SE LARGAN, HASTA SIN LLANTAS VAN A QUEDAR" [if you don't live now we'll flat your tires], he tried to take my friend's phone because he was trying to record what was happening.

We feared for our lives, because in my country people can get violent, in the village's streets you don't have to make any complaint or so because locals could get extremely violent specially to Guatemalan tourist.

I have the responsibility to report this problem, so people can be aware of this place, that is known in our community for the bad service and food, for years, and that it's also a NO SAFE place to be.

Sunset Cafe Restaurant: "LA CAIDA DEL SOL", INVERSIONES NATASHA, SOCIEDAD ANONIMA....

If I could put less than one star I would. I’m writing this review in hopes the owner of the restaurant will see it. I arrived on Friday afternoon with a group of 11 people. They were seating just one other group at the restaurant and no other people were there. As they were getting our table ready and half of us already sitting down, a female waitress told us that they could not serve us due to four out of 11 of the party bringing beverages from the outside that they had purchased prior to arriving to restaurant. We tried to explain that we could put the drinks away and how unusual it is for them to complain over drinks probably worth about $10 at most compared to the amount we were planning on spending for a lunch for 11 people. The waitress refused service and asked us to leave. We asked to speak with the manager but they reported that they were not around and could not be called by phone. Shocked we left. Luckily we went to the restaurant only a few steps next door called Hotel Posada de Don Rodrigo where we were provided with excellent service and delicious food. We spent $250 US dollars at this restaurant. I am not saying it to show off. I am saying it so the manager of Sunset Cafe can see the profit they lost because of the waitresses they have hired and if they did that to us, then I am sure they are doing it to other potential guests and losing a lot of money for...

BAD FOOD, BAD SERVICE AND EXPENSIVE. BELOW STANDARDS OF HYGIENE. The Chicken fajitas were tasting so bad, asked my friends to try it before I said something to the waiter and they all said it was bad food. It tasted like soap and the smell was like a string chemical. We returned it, explained carefully and very nicely to the “manager and waiter” why I couldn’t eat it and they sent a guy to our table, he stood infront of our table and without introducing himself said that we couldn’t return the food so I asked him “excuse me sir who are you?” He said was the guard and with a very intimidating face and attitude he forced us to pay the bad food. This guy came to our table with both hands inside his jacket like hiding a gun and was very rude. We got so scared that we paid and left. The woman at the bar stated she was the manager but didn’t do anything, the waiters said they also tried the food and they all agreed it had a terrible taste. I wish public health could take a look of this place. The staff and cook agreed the food was tasting bad. My stomach was not feeling...