NOCHES DE COLOMBIA ENGLEWOOD — Restaurant in Englewood

Given the fact that I've visited this place multiple times in the course of the last couple of years, it has surprised me how unprofessional it has become. In the last 2 weeks, I've experienced bad attitude and mal service from the waitresses and the place in general. First instance, I sat down with my mother to eat with her during the middle of the day which in all truthfulness, was very empty. Due to that, I had expected good service and phenomenal food but got the contrary. Waitress had given me the wrong soda and demanded that it was the one I had ordered, whereas any other restaurant I've been to, I would easily would get it replaced. I let it go just to see how the whole time there with this waitress would end up in. And you guessed it, it ended bad. When we ordered our appetizers, I had told her if I can get the pink sauce that they have but also gave me attitude for sauce. Sauce. Whatever, what really did aggravate me was when it came to the entrees. My mother and I had given her the same order: "pechuga a la Hawaiana", or Hawaiian chicken. Mind you we weren't on the page for the chicken, we were on the page for the seafood section because we were still doubtful on what to get. She took the orders and went to the back, when a while later she came back with "lomo a la Hawaiana". My mother's order came with tostones which were easily a day or two old from sitting there because I could easily kill someone with it of how hard it was. We asked about it and with the nasty attitude told us "That is what you pointed me to, you had the menu opened to that page and for the tostones, those are fresh". We insisted to get a change of the entree but insisted that she was right and that we were wrong. Given experience not only going to various restaurants throughout the east coast, but also working in one, it is of the restaurant's fault and the customer should be getting what they ordered. Her name is Jennifer by the way. My next instance was recently, as recent as yesterday. I went with my parents to take them out to eat, just to give the restaurant a second chance. Once again, the lack of training and professionalism was through the air. For this waitress, her name is unknown but what is known is that I got worse service than before. Before we sat down, I had gone to the bathroom to wash my hands and come back. I had told my mom to get me some appetizers (empanadas, pandebonos, etc.) for once I came back. The waitress had told me to wait, that she had a lot to do. It was barely 3pm and the restaurant was empty, another instance where what there is to do is little to none so the service should be decently better. I never got my empanada neither did my mom get her pandebono, only I did. Apparently I never ordered my empanda neither did my mom get her pandebono because "its better to have it at the end, you don't need it now since you gave your entree". My mother asked for it at the end, she never got it at the end and she had forgotten to bring my mother her soda too. She did get my entree right but after telling her to get me pink sauce twice, I had a feeling they had something towards the pink sauce. Never did she come around to see how things were rolling and if we needed anything so a tip was of no need. And for last and least because at this point, there's no reason to go back: today. There's been instances where I've gotten old food but every time I've called and gotten it replaced. This time I didn't, the guy gave me attitude and told me "those arepas are freshly made, sorry you cant bite into them haha". Did I laugh? No. It's something not to be laughing about but to be fixed upon the second it was spoken about. It's sad how a restaurant of such large growth can be so unprofessional in such a short amount of time. What I advise to those going there: check, check,...

So the first thing I noticed when I came into this is that the temperature was perfect. It was a really hot day outside and as I walked into this restaraunt with my friend I expected it to be freezing cold. I specifically appreciate this because I wear t-shirts year round.

The Decor was pleasant and cozy with dark wood and red to contrast with pleasant spanish music to add a tad more finesse.

We sat at the bar and the manager/owner, Sebastian came over to greet us. Besides the bar, there were many different other seating arrangements including outdoors, booths and tables for a variety of occassions ranging from romantic dinners to groups of friends getting a large area to hang out. The place as a whole was very open with no seperators or walls throughout to make it seem smaller.

It was my first time there and he gave us complementary sangrias. I've tried sangria from 4 places in NYC and this was my 5th. I'd say this is the best out of the 5 sangria bars I've tried. Besides sangria Noches De Colombia has a good assortment of other alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages.

I ordered the 'Pechuga a La Colombiana which was a delicious dish of grilled chicken with white mushroom sauce and a side of beans and platanos. The chicken was nice and moist yet throroughly cooked. Now, I'm not at all a fan of any kinds of mushrooms, but they blended so well with the sauce and chicken that I barely noticed anything but a suttle hint of mushrooms. The platanos were amazing especially when I found out that they were baked and not fried. The texture was exactly what I was looking for and they tasted amazing(good enough to just get a plate of platanos by themselves).

The portions were really big(for me at least), but no different than that of most other restaraunts. I had no issue with this as I took the remainder of my dish home and enjoyed it for dinner. Service was nice and quick for the amount of other customers in the restaraunt and although the plating wasn't that of Gordon Ramsey's standards, I did find my plate nicely arranged.

For the amount of food we got and the quality of the meals, I'd say that our $32 check was more than fair and the money was well spent.

I highly recommend this place to anyone in the Englewood, NJ area and am glad to say that this is my new FAVORITE...

I have been going to the Noches De Columbia in englewood for the past 4 years and a half. Me and my bf used to go there at least every other weekend. We used to love this place. The ambiance and staffs were amazing. The food was always consistently delicious and fresh. Then COVID-19 happened and we didn’t go there for 6 months until our last visit there on Sept 5th. When I tell you I was disappointed I’m not kidding. The Noche De Columbia that we used to go to was nothing like the one we walked into that day. We went inside and was looking around for someone to sit us. When we finally got seated it was on a dirty table which we had to be moved. We sat there for 3-5 mins before waving someone down to bring us a menu and order a drink. It took 10 mins for us to get our drinks. When we finally ordered our foods (appetizer then main) we sat around for another 15-20 mins before getting our main order. Our appetizer never came until we were half way through eating our main dish. Which at that point we said that we didn’t need it anymore. Our server never came to our table to check on us for any drink refills NOTHING. I guess now that tips are automatically included in the bill (which is a new policy) now the servers doesn’t feel the need to provide great customer service anymore. At this point we just wanted to finish our meals and get out of there. I was planning on getting a tres leche cake because it was my birthday weekend. But at that point I was so over this place and wanted to leave. When we finally got our check we were being charged for the appetizers that we didn’t eat. We had to go back and forth with servers to get the issue fixed. In the process of trying to remove the appetizers off our bill. They ended charging another customer’s bills to our card. Not at any point did any point did we see any management around to better the situation. We used to LOVE this place and I mean LOVE. But after witnessing this new change/horrible customer service. We would never set foot at Noche De Columbia anymore the way it is now. What a shame. A GOOD PLACE RUINED.

Update: Whoever the owner is, he’s on top on things. Because when I went back after my horrible experience I had a much better...