La Fortaleza Carlstadt — Restaurant in Carlstadt

I have been to this location about 6 times. It’s our go-to to celebrate birthdays. Ive always had good experiences. My party of 4 attended to celebrate my husband’s birthday tonight. We had a waitress I didn’t get her name but she had a Colombian accent and blonde hair. When we first arrived she told us about the special drinks, they were very intriguing my husband went on to order one which was $31 dollars we were fine with it. I ordered a seltzer water for my son, the waitress claimed that the souvenir car cup came with the drink because the restaurant decided to give them away, she never disclosed the cup was worth $15. I asked her to bring over one water, it took over 10 minutes to bring said water. When she brought it she brought two water bottles I was fine with it. My sister in law ordered the birthday special for my husband , she asked for a tres leches. They took an additional 10 minutes for the birthday special to come out. When they brought out the dessert they brought a platter (la Catrina) we didn’t ordered this but since it was brought to us we consumed it. Once we asked for bill, I went to look over at it and I saw I was being charged for a $15 for a guacamole I did NOT ordered or consumed , $15 for the kid cup which apparently had free refills but she never disclosed the price of the cup or the fact that it had free refills, and I was charged $35 for the Catrina which again we didn’t ordered. I called over the waitress and told her to removed the guacamole we had never ordered or consumed. I told her how she never disclosed the price of the kid cup or the fact that it cost $15. And last that I had never asked her for two water bottles. She said she would removed the guacamole and that she could remove the waters but she had to ask the manager about the cup. I said ok go ask the manager because you never disclosed the price of it, in fact you made it seem like it was free. She came back without talking to any managers and the charged was gone. She was trying to over charge us hoping we wouldn’t notice in order to get a bigger tip. Needless to say we left very upset. I told her ,”I know my sister in law asked for a tres leches and you brought out the Catrina $35 but I’ll pay for it since we consumed it” This is a restaurant, there is no need to be shady and add extra charges in order to get higher tips. My bill was over $300 and after she corrected the “added charges” it dropped to $285 and that’s only because she got 18% automatic tip($41) which I wished could’ve been removed given she try to play us. I hope management reads this and checks how many other people she has over charged. People come here to have a good time no para que les traten de ver la...

I am writing to share feedback regarding a recent visit to your Fortaleza location. As long-time patrons who have always enjoyed your restaurant, we were disappointed by the service we received during this particular visit.

We traveled nearly an hour to celebrate my godmother’s birthday, an occasion we were all eagerly looking forward to. Unfortunately, the service provided by our server, Maria H., did not meet the level of hospitality we’ve come to expect. When attempting to order alcoholic beverages, we were informed that only physical IDs were acceptable, despite all members of our party having valid digital copies of our New York State licenses. The birthday girl, my godmother, had left her ID in the valet-parked vehicle, and Maria insisted it be retrieved before serving us. While we understand the need for ID verification, we were disappointed to see that another table, seated after us, was not asked for identification at all.

After this interaction, I informed Maria that, given the service and the refusal to serve us alcohol, we would not be leaving a tip. Unfortunately, this seemed to have led to a noticeable decline in her service. She did not check up on our table at all throughout the evening. We had to repeatedly ask for basic items such as utensils, napkins, and drink refills—requests that should have been anticipated without prompting. Furthermore, our food took approximately 40 minutes to arrive and was served only lukewarm, not hot.

At the end of the evening, we spoke with the manager, Carolina, who was attentive, empathetic, and professional. She listened to our concerns, apologized sincerely, and provided a discount on our bill, which we greatly appreciated.

We hope this feedback will be used to improve the overall guest experience. Fortaleza has always been one of our favorite restaurants, and we would love to continue supporting your business—ideally with more consistent and higher-quality service...

Father's Day. After this day I do not see myself visiting any of the Fortaleza Rest. This location used to be my favorite out of the rest. The staff are trained to offer you an upgrade with everything you order especially with the drinks. The menu is very limited, and the prices do not match what the plate brings. We ordered two fried Red Snapper and they were not available on this day, instead of the fish my 86 years old parents ordered the pork shop which were very hard and dry. My 15 year old ordered their new Alambre Fortaleza which he did not eat. (believe me he enjoys eating good food, but this one :-( We, also order two sopa de mariscos (Fish Soup) when they arrived I couldn't take it any more and spoke to the manager Jorge who tried very hard to make right but there were too many customers complaining about the wait on the food and the quality of it. We were offered churros on the house which I wanted my parents to see how they bring it to the table on a little churro cart, but the churro cart was old in need of replacement. The staff encouraged me to write this review because they want the owner to protect their jobs. It seems to me that the Chef had left, was off or the owner just wanted to make money by leaving the dishwasher to cook and letting the Chef go which is a common practice in this kind of restaurant. To the owner: Please hired a Chef, replace whatever needs to be replaced to represent your beautiful restaurant and keep it clean specially the restrooms were you have your staff go to and have conversation about how tired they are etc. Hope you pay attention to...