Suya Joint Boston

Food 5/5 Atmosphere 5/5 Service 1/5

Food was great. I ordered the Egusi with fish and my fiance ordered the Fresh Okra with goat. We also shared an order of the Gizodo. Everything was flavorful and tastefully spicy (as requested). The portions were also fantastic. We each had enough left over for another meal the next day. Though, we both had stomach pains for a couple of days afterwards but I cannot confident say that it was due to the food here. Atmosphere was fun. They have a DJ and the restaurant is nicely decorated. The hostess and waitress were very friendly.

The service is the reasoning for my low rating. This was the WORST dining experience I've had in a very long time, by far. To start, before we ordered, I read that they automatically add on 20% gratuity (for any sized party) to help pay the staff a living wage. I understand tipping culture is common in the US but, to rely on your customers to pay your staff a living wage through tips sounds odd to me. I'd prefer to have the menu prices increased than to have tips automatically added. Additionally, tipping rewards servers for their service but if it's automatically added , the servers may not put in as much effort. The food took FOREVER to arrive. Both my dish and our appetizer arrived at the same time, a whopping ~50 minutes after we placed our order (shouldn't the appetizer come first, much sooner?). We both always wait until we have our dishes before we eat and, unfortunately, my fiance didn't even receive her dish until 15 minutes after mine. We almost got up and left, having only had water for nearly an hour with no updates. The most infuriating part of this wait was that two parties arrived after us, a party of 1 and a party of 3. Both parties ordered after we did, but both parties received their order before us very quickly (about ~10-15 minutes after they ordered). Additionally, the party of 1 actually FINISHED his meal and LEFT, and the party of 3 were finishing and PAYING for theirs, all before we even touched our food. I would understand if they were short staffed and everybody in the restaurant was waiting for their meals, but it doesn't make sense to me why people ordering after us would receive their food much much sooner. While we were waiting for our food, one of the servers cleaned up the table next to us by picking up a napkin off the floor and used it to wipe down the table. When we received our bill, they added on an additional $0.25 for each dish that was "spicy" and they also charged $3.50 for the goat on my fiance's dish. I have NEVER had a restaurant charge a fee to have a dish made spicy, ever. It was not a special order, it was not a specific request. The server asked us, "do you want it mild, spicy, or very spicy?", and we answered. They also charged $3.50 for the goat in my fiance's dish. Again, NOT a special request; the server asked, "do you want chicken, fish, or goat?", and we simply answered. They charge for everything and none of these charges were explained to us beforehand. It just feels that they were charging for everything and it left a bad taste in my mouth. My dish was soup-y and when packing the leftovers to-go, we were given a styrofoam clam-style takeout box. I asked for something with a more secured lid so the soup did not spill during my drive home and the waitress told me they did not have any more. This was upsetting because from my seat, I had direct view of the take-out preparation table and can see the worker packing orders to-go the entire time, using the exact style of take-out box I had requested. Odd.

This entire experience made me feel both confused and angry. I re-traced our entire time there and asked myself if we had done anything wrong to upset the staff and if there was a reason for being treated so poorly. I was hesitant to write this review because I always want a small business to succeed but I couldn't ignore the terrible experience I had. While the food was good, I will never be going back and cannot recommend anyone else to visit Suya Joint.