El Jardín Restaurant & Bakery — Restaurant in Boston

Compulsory 18% tip for poor service and average food. My dish came incomplete, with only a 2-inch piece of morcilla (it had been ripped off the whole unit of morcilla and looked like it had been bitten. We complained and were told we should be grateful the waitress had managed to source a little bit since they had ran out of morcilla for the day). My wife asked for a soup and an ox tongue dish. The soup was so small and the tongue dish had two tiny pieces of tongue swimming in a plateful of tomato sauce. It was ridiculous. We asked the waitress for tap water and she said they only had bottled water and brought four bottles of it, so they could charge for the water.

The bathrooms were a mess, dirty, no towels or air dryer to dry your hands. This restaurant was closed down by the city a last year or a couple of years ago because of not meeting sanitary regulations (it’s public information anyone can google) and reopened under the new, current name with a more ample seating area and a better layout inside. However, the floors remain as greasy and slippery as before, which is a hazard for customers, the bathrooms unkempt and the service as poor.

The waitress never came to bring the bill so we had to pay at the counter but they have a system where you don’t see what they are inputting so you don’t know if you’re being charged correctly. Only at the end, after you have paid, you get the itemised receipt. There’s where I noticed the 18% tip charge, which I didn’t know about when I left the 15% tip I wanted to leave. I went back and complained and was told it’s compulsory and they refunded the 15% I’d left but I wanted to leave 15%, not 18% and they said it couldn’t be done. The man at the counter register was so rude.

One star only for the pandebonos (fluffy cheese bread) they sell. They are the...

Yesterday I was with my 15 friends eating at this place, we were celebrating a birthday, none of us had been to this place or tried Colombian food before, we can safely say that the food is wonderful, we ate everything there from the bread bonus, quesadillas, soups, empanadas and desserts. The quality of all the products was very good. The girl waitress who served us was very formal and attentive from the moment we arrived, she showed great care in serving us and suggesting meals that we liked, she recommended everything from vegetarian to gluten-free dishes. To start, she recommended that we try some appetizers and we chose some very good tostones with Guacamole and hogao. The food took about 20 minutes to come out, it was too long, all the dishes are very big but very delicious, we had to take some home. When we mentioned to the waitress that my partner was having a birthday, she asked us if we wanted to sing to him and give him a dessert, something that we loved and completely fascinated us, all the waiters came up and sang happy birthday to us in Spanish, something that I thought was wonderful, The dessert was delicious, it was a Brownie with ice cream and decoration of fruits and strawberries with roses. After this the waitress offered us desserts, we tried the passion fruit one and the tres leches one, also very delicious. Before leaving, the waitress suggested that we try taking the local bakery to eat today for breakfast. She recommended the pandebonos saying that they were her favorites. In general, the entire experience was great from the food to eat there or take away to the service, it is a good place to recommend and enjoy with loved ones. You won't regret going and seeing the pleasure...

I am a regular client of Casa Colombia in East Boston because I’m a Colombian and their food is delicious, true to our cuisine not only in flavour but also in portion sizes (quite large, so two people can easily eat from one portion). I have been going there once-twice a week for the past two years, less often since the pandemia started, and I think three stars is quite a generous rating because, although the food is truly tasty, the place is truly dirty. You can see it in the most basic things: before the coronavirus, you were given cutlery that you know has been in the dishwasher but still bears small speckles of previous meals; also the floor and chairs were not clean and you could still see pieces of food that had fallen from previous clients’ plates; worst of all, the restroom! The restroom is never clean, smells of urine every single time, many times does not have soap for hand washing, let alone paper towels or a hand dryer, and only occasionally is there toilet paper available! You can see old stains of urine from when other people “have missed” and the smell reeks into the dining area because it is right next to the bathroom door. I once had to beg the waitress to get me some soap to wash my hands while I was still in the restroom and she couldn’t find any so she brought the dishwashing soap from the kitchen and poured a bit on my wet hands, and not with an apologetic attitude but rather annoyed I had requested soap! So, as much as I’d like to love a business that brings authentic Latin flavour to the diverse cuisine of Boston, I’m afraid health and safety...