Latitude Zero — Restaurant in Bayonne

get ready to READ As a fellow Ecuadorian, I am just overall disappointed. When you walk in the establishment you can tell they invested a good amount of money into the business. They only have their menus on iPads, the photos of the food on the iPad menu are high quality and look very appetizing. The bar top was nice and big, and fully stocked. However the service, presentation of the food and its quality was just very disappointing to say the least. They should invest their time in training their staff to be more attentive to the customers, also the staff should learn the menu and be able to explain (and SELL) a dish to the customer. My waitress was rushing my table to order and when she realized we were there to relax and enjoy our meal, I feel she was as annoyed and did not even look in our direction for the remaining of our time there. Also, I’m from NYC, where water is almost automatically served on the table. But the waitress did not even OFFER OR ASK if we wanted water. When serving an alcoholic beverage (we ordered two sangria pitchers) it is just the smart thing to offer your guests WATER. She didn’t offer tap or bottle. I was just amazed. The presentation of the dishes looked very sloppy. This is not someone’s grandmas house, I am paying for an experience I would like to be able to photograph my plate (🤷🏻‍♀️ that’s just the world we live in today, sorry not sorry) The plating just gave very….DEL CAMPO. After that whole experience, I get my bill and see GRATUITY is INCLUDED. So after the 2-star service a $40 tip was automatically included. I could’ve asked for it to be taken off my bill so I can give my OWN tip, but I just wanted to leave so she got her...

I’ll be honest. I was pretty disappointed. I saw the reviews being high and I saw a TikTok showing this restaurant having the best Ecuadorian food, so I had high expectations with the willingness to try the meals. As an Ecuadorian, I felt so ecstatic to see my cultural food being shown with high ratings. However, my experience was mid. I might be biased because my family can make some of the dishes and the meals I ordered lacked that authentic taste.

Pros: upon arriving, got seated fairly quickly. Loved the music when it was cumbia and the musician with his saxophone. Meals on menu definitely gave Ecuadorian theme showing humitas, maduros con queso, ceviche, etc. Presentation of the restaurant was nice - similar to fine dining. Thankfully, they weren’t strict with dress code because I wore a gym outfit with a cap on and sneakers.

Cons: seating is a bit tight and close to other tables, so if you like personal space, would not recommend. Waiting times for drinks and entrees were too long in my opinion. For example, it took about an hour from ordering the appetizer to finally get my dish - would not recommend coming here when you’re hungry and short on time. They already include 20% gratuity, so regardless of service, you’re already paying them a good chunk of tip. Food was alright. It wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t bad. It could be better. One bathroom stall was out of order, so there was a line for the women’s bathroom. There is no parking lot. Only street parking.

Overall, would I recommend...

We came here based on some great social media promos, I love Ecuadorian food plus my wife is from Ecuador- I have eaten some great food when we visit Ecuador. I traveled about 25 minutes to get to this place, 1st when we sat at the 2nd level in the rear of the place, it was hot and room was full of smoke from the kitchen. Our clothes smell like the kitchen when we left the place. There where some flies roaming around to the point that we had to cover our juice so the flies would land on them. The Bola soup for my wife never arrived after we where served they finally said that the waiter dropped her soup and there wasn’t any more. The Chaulafan that my daughters shared tasted bad- it was overpowered by the soy sauce. We ordered humitas (not that good either) the only good thing about it was the melted mozzarella. My Hen soup want bad but not the best either. We orders side of Plantains, side of sweet plantains and 4 small juices. To top the bad experience off they also force clients to pay 20% tip plus 3% for credit card use. I hope for the sake of this place the real cook was out sick because the food was lousy. Just before we left the table to the side of us called the waiter because 2 of there Pork Chop orders where still raw( not cooked properly). For 2 main dishes, 2 small sides, 2 humitas and 4 small juices $127.00. Save ur money and the trip, there are plenty of other good Ecuadorian restaurants- social media is driving people here, what a...