BarCode Entertainment Complex — Restaurant in Elizabeth

Went for AfroBeat brunch. The vibes are nice but I am not a fan of their practices. We arrived around 5 so it wasn’t busy. The eventbrite flyer said brunch was $50 per person for 3 courses. We ask if there were separate prices for the individual brunch items and the waitress knew nothing. She just asked us what we wanted even though we were concerned about the pricing. We put the order in and waited an hour for our food to arrive, and started questioning why everyone else who came after us received their food. After waving down the waitress she comes to tell us the kitchen isn’t serving brunch lmao. She had an hour to tell us that and she didn’t until we asked. 3 of us ordered off of the brunch menu and they brought over 2 comp margaritas lol. Then while we were waiting for the brunch that was never going to arrive we ordered a hookah which they only had one flavor and they wanted $30 cash which we didn’t know until after they brought it to the table. There is an atm but suppose I didn’t want to use my credit card and pay the atm fee to get out money. They need to have that info disclosed. 40 mins later the hookah coal went out and we asked the guy if we could get another coal and he said no that we had to pay $35 for another refill lmao. At this point I’m irritated because I’ve never seen hookah practices like that. The coal burned unusually fast as well. So now we were hungry and irritated. So our brunch randomly came out after being there for 2 hrs they didn’t even tell us they were still going to make it. The food was great though 🙄

Later that night we ordered a round of shots for 4 ppl. I was at the table behind with another friend and I told the waitress that barely spoke English that my friends wanted shots bc no one had came to our table in a hour. She brought the shots to their table and came to me with the $32 bill. I told her to take the bill to them since they’re the ones who wanted the shots but on her way there one of my friends at my current table took out money and gave it to her to cover the bill. The waitress still proceeded to go over to the other table and demand payment from my friends. We literally watched her. We thought she was telling them that our other friend paid but it turns out she asked for $30 more lmao. I couldn’t believe it.

So then we finally got our bill and my card back. I looked at the bill at it was just a number, no breakdown of what it was we were paying for or anything. I asked the girl to bring the full receipt back. We were charged $80 for two little pieces of salmon and mashed potatoes, $40 for chicken and waffles (looked like 3 little egos and two little pieces of chicken), and $5 for a 16oz Poland spring water and 2 margaritas for $12-13 each lol. The bill came to $193 which included their 18% service fee and 6.625% sales tax. At that point I was irritated because I asked the waitress in the beginning what the brunch prices were and she was clueless. Then the whole purpose of us going was because of the Afrobeat brunch that was advertised for $49.95 for a 3 course brunch and mimosa pitcher and that was not displayed on our bill nor did we have 3 courses. And I feel like they should’ve compensated us for having us wait for a brunch they said they weren’t going to bring out and brought out 2 hours later.

Aside from the jacked up customer service and policies that aren’t listed anywhere the music was fire. We stayed for 5 hours and it was 5 hours of continuous fire being played on the speakers. The ambience is nice and it is very warm. So I’ll give them that. But I went with 4 ppl. We paid $45 each to get in, ordered 2 hookahs for $60, 6 drinks for $60, paid $120 for small brunch plates so everything was about $500 for subpar service. It’s a rip off but if y’all like those types of practices then it’s the perfect...

This must be one of the most expensive clubs i ever went to, if you are a male you gotta pay $20 once you get in, they bring you to a table, out waitresses was really rude i think her name is Fernanda so make sure you stay away from her. the first thing she says is, you gotta spend $50 or you gotta leave, spending $50 was not a problem, the problem was her nasty attitude to us. We told her we weren't ready to order and she literally stayed next to us looking, we fell so much pressure that i ended up staring at her too( i think she understood how awkward it feels to be stared at so she left) i went to find a manager that could explain that policy that you gotta spend certain amount of money in order to stay in the club, no manager around, but this nice lady called Cielo explained to us that fernanda shouldn't say that to the customers (indeed!!) I worked as a waiter and as a bartender for over 8 years and i never did this to any customer, If you are a good server it must be easy for you to sell without pressuring people to order whatever you want them to order. We moved to another table and once she is back she approaches me and asks me why we changed tables (even though Cielo explained her the reason) so I told her that it was because of her nasty attitude, after I said that she was like okay whatever and she left. christian was our new server if I well remember) he was nice, the only problem I see is on the online menu says that tips are not included, but once you pay they give you just a card receipt with no items and no description, just two slots one for tips and the other one for the total. He charged us 20% tip without telling us, and i tipped him another 25% because I thought the tips weren't included ( like their menu says) that was very sneaky. I bought 2 drinks ($40 each one), an appetizer and a small margarita and i ended up paying $147 (Plus $37 tip for a total grand total of $184). They hate if you move from your table and stand by the dj, basically they tell you to move back to your table. This is so bad, not coming back here, i made sure i told all my friends to never set a foot on this place, just go somewhere else this is not worth...

Barcode used to be a good spot to party but tbh its really disappointing that customer service is just terrible !!! To reserve a table, they want ridiculous money !!! $600+ for a bottle is too much money considering that same bottle is prob $100 outside. On top of that you call and they misinform you saying if you want you can go and they can get you a table available without rsvp and order regular menu but when you go they offer you the table alllll the way in the back where having a table makes no sense bc its isolated from everything. Its as if you werent valued ( might aswell stay home ) You try to speak to the manager you get blown off, delayed finally get to speak to the “said manager” after like 2 hrs says hes gonna get us a better table only for him to ignore us again in our face. Mind you this was a live concert event and just weeks before that Id been there watching the Colombia game in which our group paid prob more than $500. For the money and Vibe theres alot better places to spend your night whether its party or soccer tbh … most artists go to multiple venues around the tristate so deff lost me as a customer. The place can be remodeled all you want with fancy things and everything but service is what keeps customers. Theres better service at smaller venues than barcode …. To name a few …. Fiesta & La Chiflada are wayyy better in every aspect and treat Customers very well along with other places ive discovered recently. Also have to mention the audacity for parking employees to put cones and “reserve” street parking spots to charge more than $20 for a spot when thats a public parking space is Absurd and wild !!!! Parking is hard as it is already and for them to hog spaces to charge ppl is ridiculous, you cant even get parking coming early. ( And for soccer the screen isnt even that big …. You have to watch the game on the side ad boards which are wide and offer poor view of plays bc the middle screen is for the tables rsvp $500 + Overall very very big drop for you guys, I wish Eddy G read this to seriously correct these issues because tbh the place is nice but the service...