Lula's Latin Cuisine — Restaurant in Bergenfield

Muy Mal !! Terrible wish i could give 0 stars. Avoid at all costs unless you speak Spanish bc they will be racist to you even if you are overly nice.Sorry in advanced If my review is long winded, only continue reading if you want a long story and/or feel my pain about this place.

Oh Yeah in terms of food, it sucks! Salty skirt steak, dry chicken, worst pickiest empanada ever (didn’t even know that was possible lol), old rice from bottom of the pot, even their beans weren’t good. The only thing this place has going for them is the croquets and they were mushy instead of crisp bc they are fried.

Most racist staff ever. Worst take-out experience in me and my wife’s entire life! I spent $50-75 about 6 times already and each experience keeps getting worse. Note have never left a review for a restaurant or any business whatsoever and this was so bad that i will post this and also make sure everyone i know, hears about this. (Especially after reading the reviews from other people!)

My prior experiences were terrible but not like this last one. They included: of course the staff and OWNER not understanding me saying menu items (as they appear on their online menu and regular menu). Very long wait times despite not being busy. There was such a long delivery time past their estimate and when i called to ask if they had the correct town (bc i live 3 minutes away) they would reply with a simple “yes” and hang up which lead to me calling back like 30-40 mins later and the same thing happening. I came to grips that this was normal for them. But nothing compared to the order from last night when i sent my wife.

I understood that they didn’t speak English and i was okay with that because i wanted to have Spanish Cuisine and some rice and beans especially (which a 6 year old could probably make). So i originally wanted delivery which didn’t work out so well. I called their phone a few times and waited for countless rings.

So i decided to make things simple for them. I sent my wife in with a written list of our order anticipating that they don’t speak English. It was written identically from their menu to try to avoid confusion.

The very unfriendly cashier gave my wife the look of death and could not understand the order and then consulted another waitress and neither of them could read it ! They then gave her a hard time about even writing down her order and were laughing and making jokes with each other, as if my wife did something wrong. She remained nice and then when they asked her the items she said simple things like “croquet, rice , beans, skirt steak , chicken and empanada” how they couldn’t understand those words completely perplexed me. My wife was still being overly nice which the favor was returned by angry stares and laughing.

This food was from their own menu ! To put the icing on the cake, they told us it would be 15-25 mins. So instead of us risking them feeling rushed and going back in 20 mins we went back in 40 mins m.

The food still wasn’t done and then to put the cherry on top of the whip cream, so to speak, the clerk asked my wife to see the paper again which seemed like she was mocking us at that point. Why would they need the paper if they couldn’t read it in the first place ?

I will forever be bamboozled about how an entire staff could be so hostile when filling a 50 dollar order. They tried to make up for the wait time with a small cup of black beans (which we only asked for red).

They should do what Chinese restaurants do and have a check list menu so people who only speak English can order and will not be ostracized. They could even do what Vietnamese restaurants do and put a number on all of the food bc that solves the whole language barrier. We were trying to be overly nice for them not understanding our countries language and we were the ones that were treated badly smh. Next time I’m taking the ingredients it takes to make all of their food and doing it myself for a fraction of the price and without the torment.

Can someone who speaks Spanish please translate this to...

The food is good for the area but I've had better. The main issue is the service. Omfg, just about evertime I've gone, I had to wait for someone to wait on me...no, wait, acknowledge me when the restaurant is has no customers and 4 employees standing there or doing minor things. It's as if they have two speeds, slow and stop. If they are so unhappy with their job, why work there? I do remember a new girl who started working there. I believe she was Columbian and had worked at restaurant in queens ny who was very attentive and attending the customers while the others just dragged their feet. Its unfortunate because it's the only decent dominican restaurant around the area. I do recall a time when I called in ordering take out for delivery. Ordered a cuban sandwich and a large chicken soup and some other things. Needless to say, the order took almost 2 hours and when I got it, there were two small containers of soups and a regular sandwich which was is what they considered a cuban sandwich; American cheese, no pickles a slice of ham, mayo..their rushed attempt of a cuban sandwich. Called the place and told them about the order, the soup came in two containers because they ran out of chicken soup and didn't have enough for a large so they gave me a small chicken soup and a small tripe soup in which I didn't want in the first place. When calling restaurants I usually ask for the soup of the day. So to avoid making changes in total, they gave me two small soups to form a large. The cuban sandwich they had no comeback and they kindve laughed. They apologized but didn't offer a solution. I went to the place and complained and they gave the right order at least for the cubansandwich....

I came in at 730 Pm at night. Our server only spoke spanish which was very hard for is to communicate since we only spoke English. They ran out of their special which was the Lula Chuck Steak and they ran out of the beans which was disappointing. The waitress got us our drinks when our meals came and forgot my friends Lemonade until we almost left. The portions were good for a meal but not for the price. The meat was fresh but the rice was not. Our rice arrived cold like it has been sitting there all day. We order a side of maduros which tasted amazing but the lady bought it on a plate with hair the first time and i asked for another one. When she bought us the replacement, there was hair on the plate again. I just told her to take it off the bill and i dont want it but she bought me another plate of madutos because she didnt really understand me. We ordered tostones which they forgot about and the owner had to tell them to cook it right away but we were leaving already and had to take it to go. I believe it was the owners that started assisting us at the end who were very nice but the service was very poor. The portions are not worth the price. I was disappointed overall after reading all the wonderful reviews. I will not come back to this location. I do not recommend coming to here to eat after our horrible experience especially if they are serving plates with hair on...