GUIRA Y TAMBORA — Restaurant in Boston

We had a very unpleasant experience at Guira y Tambora and here’s why. Starting with the reservations. We inquired about a reservation for 15 people and we were told that they don’t make reservations. Then another lady told us that they do make reservations but only if we were willing to spend $250 or more. Also they didn’t take a name for our reservation and just hung up. When we arrived there were only 10 chairs, and while we waited for the others to arrive we weren’t offered water (which is complimentary in most restaurant in Boston) also considering that we were under the blazing sun in the patio. Our waitress wasn’t very attentive, we had to flag her down every so often and we had to keep reminding her to pick up our empty glass/plates. Throughout the whole lunch we were being rushed almost as if they wanted to kick us out which was very unpleasant, and we all felt that way. Lastly, we left the waiter a decent tip consider that her service wasn’t that great. The manager that was wearing a pink shirt that day came out with a very disturbing face and rudely urged us to pay her 18% tip which wasn’t deserved. I don’t think I’ll ever go back. They are only attentive and well mannered to the customers that are there regularly, and it shows.

Tuvimos una experiencia muy desagradable en Guira y Tambora y les voy a decir porqué. A partir de las reservas. Preguntamos por una reserva para 15 personas y nos dijeron que no hacen reservaciones. Luego otra señora nos dijo que sí hacen reservas, pero solo si estábamos dispuestos a gastar $ 250 o más. Además, no tomaron un nombre para nuestra reserva y simplemente colgaron. Cuando llegamos, solo había 10 sillas, y mientras esperábamos a que llegaran los demás, no nos ofrecieron agua (que es gratuita en la mayoría de los restaurantes de Boston), también teniendo en cuenta que estábamos bajo el sol ardiente en el patio. Nuestra camarera no era muy atenta, teníamos que avisarle de vez en cuando y teníamos que recordarle que recogiera nuestros vasos / platos vacíos. Durante todo el almuerzo fuimos apurados casi como si quisieran echarnos, lo que fue muy desagradable, y todos nos sentimos así. Finalmente, le dejamos a la mesera una propina decente, ya que su servicio no fue tan bueno. La manager que llevaba una camisa rosa ese día salió con una cara muy inquietante y nos insistió groseramente a que le pagáramos una propina del 18% que no se merecía. No creo que vuelva a volver. Solo son atentos y amables con los clientes que están allí regularmente, y...

Note: the 3 stars are for the food only. If planning on eating here with your small kids, DO NOT COME HERE! We came Memorial Day as a family for some good Dominican food. The inside of the restaurant was almost empty so we sat outside. Almost all the tables had their chairs on top of the tables and weren't setup properly. There were about 4 or 5 tables filled with patrons and I didn't know why they hadn't made all the other tables ready. We barely got to our table and waited, and waited, and waited for a waitress. Finally someone came and took our order for drinks, we ordered some waters. I guess ordering water indicated to them that we were not going to spend money on liquor or a hookah so they took their sweet time. A different waitress came to take our food order and we told her that we never received our waters. We finally got our waters and waited for our food. We wanted longaniza with yucca appetizer but they were out of longaniza. Around us, a few tables had ordered hookahs and were smoking near us. We came with our three girls (8, 5 and 1 month old). Waitresses were in an around those tables regularly and we barely got our waters. We finally got our food, which was really good (don't have anything bad to say). We had ordered the mofongo guira y tambora (plantain, pork and shrimp), mofongo with fried pork and fried chicken with white rice and beans for the girls. Everything tasted good. After we ate, my wife left with the baby to breastfeed and I had to wait more than 5 minutes for my waitress to come bring the check. What irked me the most is that all other waitresses were constantly going to the tables with the hookah rentals and beer. The waitress knew that I was frustrated and she apologized for the wait, and I told her that they needed some serious work on customer service. If you're planning on smoking some hookah, drinking, and listening to some good music come with your friends but if you just want to spend a nice day with your family, go else where. I didn't take take pics I was too hungry after waiting and frustrated post a...

Food is not that good, ordered the Salmon with coconut sauce and the coconut sauce was good but the salmon was a joke, a whole brick they served me. When I presented the situation, they told me thats how its made, I said I could do a much better job myself, how can it be made this hard? They said "Yeah that's how its made here." If they were going to serve this quality of food, I am not sure how people are still going to this place when there are much better options around the area. I was going to let it slide and asked them to replace the meal with something. Restaurant 101 is the guest that is not happy with their dish, simply replace the dish to ensure customer loyalty. But they got that wrong, they said if I want to replace it, they will charge me for the horribly cooked salmon dish and whatever I was going to replace it with. I know for a fact they are using the Atlantic Salmon bought from BJs that comes in a bag with 6 of them and they used 1 for my dish, didn't bother to fire up another Salmon neither nor suggested it. Simply told me "Sorry, that's how its made here, just eat it." Horrible practice. Whoever is controling quality control there needs to be replaced immediately or this place will sink (maybe then they would have fresh seafood).

My wife ended up getting the Mofongo and her food came out cold to the point she did not eat it. They do nothing for the guest but just take your money and smile at you serving you horrible quality food and back it up just by saying "That's how we make it." I wouldn't put it past them if food dropped on the floor and they picked up and blew some dust off and still serve it and if customers complained they'd say "I gUeSs tHaTs HoW iTs MaDe HeRe. SoRrY."

Save your money, save your appetite. Literally past the baseball field there is a corner store that serves Dominican food in the corner that serves 100x better food and its fast and cheaper.

I normally don't write a negative review like this, but this experience has to be known. Either they get their act together or shut this place down and put a real...