La Choza Náutica — Restaurant in Elizabeth

Tasty food with a terrible customer service. I went to this place because many people recommended it as the best Peruvian restaurant in Elizabeth, NJ and I can say terrible mistake. When we arrived to the place the two people “host and waitress” were texting in the cellphone (this behavior was the same during all the time that we had for dinner) totally lazy workers. We ordered two plates: A Chaufa de Pollo (delicious) and a triptico (ceviche, rice and fried calamari). The chaufa arrived in a big plate and the host/waitress didn’t bring any plate to share. My fiance went to the counter to ask for plates and these guys were texting all the time... so my fiance took the plates from the counter and we started eating. We asked for water and after I went to the counter to ask again for water, they brought the water. I won’t give more details for the “service” because at that time I already knew what was the system. So I went to the counter and ask for some boxes to take home the left over. In a rude way the guy asked how many do you need? (But he continued texting) he went behind the counter and he brought three boxes and two bags and gave them to me (but he had the phone in his hand all the time). Big surprise when I took the plastic boxes and the bag: a small cockroach between the plastic boxes. Terrible moment! Well I don’t know if one of the ingredients of the tasty flavor of this restaurant is the little cockroach that was in the plastic containers. Unfortunately terrible experience! Very bad service (I am pretty sure that there is a lot of people that would like to work hard in this place) and a tasty food that could...

Warning: This restaurant operates on illicit business practices that charges customers an automatic gratuity even for a group as small as 4. DO NOT PATRONIZE THIS BUSINESS. This restaurant placed an automatic gratuity charge on my bill for my family of 4, where we had taken my grandmother to celebrate her birthday. Unbeknownst to us, I generously added a tip, not knowing it had already been automatically charged to my bill. When I called the restaurant the very same day to resolve, they told me the owner would call me back. And never did. I followed up multiple times requesting to speak with the owner directly and left several messages. I even proposed they keep the tip I generously left (which was greater) as a courtesy on my part and refund me the automatic gratuity that was charged without my knowledge. But it seems every time I called, I could only reach the server Claudia, whom conveniently for her is the person who was on the receiving end of the double tip error. Rather than refunding me for the error, the restaurant has decided to try to keep my money. Unbelievable the extent to which people will be unscrupulous and greedy instead of doing the right thing. Because of this, I’ve had to take matters into my own hands and file a formal complaint with my credit card company and the Better Business Bureau to report this business’s illicit practices and to demand my refund. As a fellow Peruvian, I am disgusted that they would do this to my family, considering how they are the very locals who would patron them. Never again. This is the epitome of dirty tactics in a business that prioritizes money...

A below average experience. For starters, they don't allow you to order the whole rotisserie chicken on weekends for dine in. Second, they don't have tilapia ceviche, despite it being on the menu.

Now on to my dining experience: after I was told I couldn't order the whole chicken, I explicitly asked if I could order TWO half orders of the chicken. Waitress said, yes of course. When the food came out, the French fries portion was ridiculously small. Barely enough for a child. We had to order a second portion of fries on the side. Second, we asked about our second order of the half chicken. The waitress was a little rude accusing me of never haven ordered two. I insisted that I did, and she kept insisting I didn't. I dropped it, and told her to forget the second order of the half chicken. Finally, we ordered the sea bass ceviche, and it didn't arrive to our table until we were almost done with the chicken.

The only redeemable part of dinner was the chaufa, but even that wasn't enough to make up for the poor service and odd menu restrictions. On top of all that, it was a Saturday night, so of course they had music blasting throughout the restaurant at full volume. There were only 3 other tables filled, no need for that level of volume when the restaurant is barely full. Not pleasant at all.

I will not...