Toscafino — Restaurant in Brownsville

Normally, I would give Toscafino's a 5 star review, but after yesterday one person, a server named Diego, changed all that.

I have been attending Toscafino's for two months now and immediately fell in love with the restaurant. The excellent customer service, the beautiful decor, the ambiance, the delicious food and beverages, the music, and welcoming staff always put me in a happy, relaxed state until yesterday.

Ahmed had been my server [who is always helpful and courteous] and there was a shift change. Ahmed was busy with another customer and I asked Diego [another server] to give me my beverage that Ahmed had chilling for me in the freezer. I also asked him to add a little more and he stated [with no reason] that he could not serve me.

I asked why not. You just served my friend, with whom I was talking, and she was here before I arrived. I am not loud [like some other current customers were at the time], I am talking with my friend, and unlike most people in here, I utilize Uber or Lyft whenever I go out for dinner and beverages. So what is your reason? You have only been on shift for 10 minutes, so you have no idea what I or anyone here before your shift has had for food or beverages. Even my friend, whom he served [who is NOT AFRICAN-AMERICAN] after he refused me service asked the same questions. She stated I have been here before she arrived yet you serve me and not her. That's not right. So I asked to speak to a manager.

In addition, Diego purposely refused to acknowledge me by ignoring me and speaking to every customer in my proximity except me. He even spoke with my friend and continued serving her. It was then that I realized that he refused to serve me because I was the ONLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN woman there. The other customers were white or Hispanic/Latino[a].

Mr. Alejandro.who is always helpful and welcoming, quickly came over to address my concerns. He apologized for my experience with Diego, gave me the beverage that I originally requested, and he stated he would speak with Diego. Both Mr. Alejandro and Ahmed told me that I am ALWAYS welcome to Toscafino's and apologized repeatedly for Diego's behavior and statements.

As stated earlier, I truly enjoy going to Toscafino's. Everyone [Mr. Carlos, GM; Mr. Alejandro, Manager; Mr. Natividad, the chef; Ms. Sonia, the chef; Mr. Ramon, server; Ms. Mayra, server; Mr. Ahmed, the server, and several Toscafino's staff that I have not named] are AMAZING!!! That is why I have been a repeat customer until my interaction with Diego.

There is no place for discrimination in any business, especially the hospitality industry. And it should be addressed and NOT TOLERATED. I will follow up with Mr. Carlos, the GM, with this matter in order to see how he will address this situation.

Quite frankly, I have NO DESIRE to return until Diego is terminated. Keeping him on staff would only tell me that Toscafino's is okay with discrimination and I hope that is...

I am very disappointed with the service which I received after going to this place. I went to dinner with my family on December 29th, Saturday night, and I ordered a separate meal to be paid on a separate tab. I gave my debit card to the waiter and he brought back the receipt. The tab for the entire party was paid with another debit card, which did not belong to me.

Later that night, to my surprise, I noticed that a transaction for 402.99 had been charged to my card. It is upsetting that not one employee from Toscafino, bothered to make me aware of the mistake. Had I not checked my bank account, I would not have known of the mistake. Don't get me wrong, the food is amazing, but the incident that transpired was extremely inconvenient. Why? Because I am now overdrawn in my bank account, and my rent will be late. Kudos to the impeccable attention to transactions being made at Toscafino.

Do yourself a favor and pay with cash when you go to Toscafino, because chances are you will end up paying for someone else's tab if you use your credit/debit card.

Oh, did I forget to mention the customer service which I received when I tried to call to ask about the mistake? Wow! You'll only be treated with respect and common courtesy if you are an active patron at their place of business. So good luck if you need to call back for any reason after you have already provided business there. I called three times: 1. On Saturday, December 29, 2018, at 10:19 p.m., I indicated what happened and left my information. I was told that the transaction was reverted, and that I would see the reflection at my bank on "Monday". Grant it, Monday was new years eve, so I decided to wait until Wednesday, Jan. 2nd, 2019 to call again if I didn't see a change in my bank account. 2. I called again today, Jan. 2nd, and I spoke to a server, and stated the situation again. I understand they are extremely busy, I get stuff like this happens all the time, I simply wanted for a manager to be notified and return my call. My informationwas noted again, and I was told someone would contact me. 3. I called again at 3:24 p.m., and I asked to speak with a manager, I was told that he was not there at the moment, and that I could leave a message.

At this moment my patience was non-existent. What I gathered from all of this, is that after I called on Saturday, December 29th, NO ONE notified the manager of the situation. I did not receive a call back from anyone. The third and last time I called, the individual was extremely rude and dismissive. I tried to explain the situation, and he indicated that he couldn't do anything about it, and that I would be wasting his time. Noted. So now, I'm gladly posting this review for everyone to see. Perhaps the Toscafino staff will take time to read it.

What's done is done....

This place is a joke. You will NEVER see me spend a dime in this dump again.

When our group walked in the door, this place looked great. We thought we were in for a treat. Man, we could not have been more wrong. I eat out regularly across the country and can not recall having a worse dining experience. The sad part is that the problems were not just front of house or back of house; it was across the board.

Back of House / Kitchen

Food did not come out together or even close. One kid got a pizza while the rest of us stared at her, starving, as we watched her eat the pizza for the next 20 minutes as we waited for our food. All red meats were well done. We had a steak and a couple steak salads that should have been medium rare, but were well done. One was burnt to a crisp. Out of our entire party (20+ people), only 3 dishes came out correctly. Grilled shrimp was replaced with fried shrimp, kids got frozen meatballs with their spaghetti, beets missing from salads.

Front of house / wait staff and service

Adding a little chicken to a kids $7 bowl of fettucini alfredo costs an additional $6. Seriously. We asked for the bill to be separated at the beginning and that did not happen. Parents even ordered for kids to make it as easy as possible for the waitress. She should have easily been able to keep the orders grouped together and entered into the system correctly. We got charged for meals sent back to the kitchen. I rarely send food back, but I have never heard of a restaurant charging a customer for a screw-up in the kitchen. It took close to an hour to get the bill straightened out. Working with the waitstaff and managers, this should have been a 5-10 minute ordeal to fix how the order got put into the system. WRONG! This was the most frustrating part. Back-and-forth multiple times for each family because the server could not get the correct items on each family's bill. Getting the well-done steak removed took 4 trips back to the register for the server and managers. At first, they were unwilling to remove the item at all. After we refused to pay, they were unwilling to remove the automatic gratuity. Then it was the tax.

Honestly, I'm surprised this place is even in business. If you're from out of town, don't be fooled by the 20% off coupon printed on your room key at a...