Vida Garden — Restaurant in Englewood

I was super excited to go to Vida Garden for my birthday but I was extremely disappointed once I got in. For starters, we waited on line for 3 hours, which I personally would not have cared much if the service was worthwhile, but it wasn't even in the slightest. Once we got in, we were place in this tight spot in the corner for a group of 8. The seating is small and the chairs are uncomfortable. DON'T expect true lounge seating. Secondly, there was a wait for hookah. We waited 45 minutes to receive a hookah. How do you run a lounge centered completely AROUND hookah, just to constantly never have enough of it for your customers. My friends have gone there before and have had the same problem so this isn't a one time thing. Third of, our waitress messed up our order after we had discussed for 10 minutes straight since she couldn't understand what we wanted. We asked for TWO orders of empanadas (total of 6 empanadas since its 3 per order). She said she finally understood and would send in 2 orders. For some reason after we had discussed just two orders, she sent SIX orders of empanadas (18 empanadas total) that we had to pay for. The worst part of all was seeing how management handled a customer that was sitting right next to us. Mind you, seating is pretty close so you can hear everything going on next to you despite the loud music. The hostess sat down a group of 3 men right next to us and let them know that their waitress would be there soon. In the meantime his two friends went to the bathroom so he was all alone at the table waiting for them to return. One of the managers walked up to him aggressively and asked him who sat him and why he thought it was okay for him to just be sitting down at any table ( which wouldn't make sense in the first place because he would have to go through the bouncer first but ok.) The customer was confused at first and explained that the hostess had sat him there with his two friends and the manager did not believe him. He then called over the hostess and asked her and she said yes and then reprimanded her as well for absolutely ZERO reason since he was at fault. He then proceeded to say "sorry bro" and tapped the customer on his chest. That was extremely unprofessional of MANAGEMENT to do and to address the situation without knowing the full details in a such an aggressive manner. Needless to say, from the beginning of the night til the very end, it was a disappointment for my friends and I. You'd expect better service if you as a customer are expected to be spending a good chunk of money at their business. Save yourself the headache, the wait, & the disappointment and go somewhere else. Trust me, this place is to be avoided...

Non-Latino Review . We'll I only took 1 Star off because it's not that this place is bad, it's that the concept is ridiculous in my opinion. I guess this is geared toward the Latin community and maybe this is what they define as interesting or fun. Firstly it's way overpriced let's get that out the way. A group of us went there for my friend's Birthday. We arrived at around 9:30pm. We were told we can only do cocktails until 11pm after that we would need to leave or opt for bottle service. Fine. We opted for the most expensive package given that we were a group of 12. We kindly asked for them not to bring bottles over with sparkles and signs and all that excitement which we all found ridiculous. We were ignored, the bottles and food came with fireworks... the amount of appetizers that come with the package is ridiculous, when it's listed as for groups of 10-14. Please have a meal before u come here. For all this money we paid. Some of us didn't even taste a piece of any appetizer. I ate one chicken wing... if you are a taller person the chairs are super uncomfortable because they are too low and hard. . . There is no dance floor... so it's not a club and no real food so it's not a restaurant? It's just a lounge? Chairs not comfortable enough for lounging. I dunno what it is. . . As I said. Maybe it's just not for me. It's not like any lounge I've been to. The staff were nice and attentive even when telling us we had to leave if we didn't do bottle service it wasn't said in a rude way. The one wing I did taste was good. . . We had a few cocktails before we did the bottle service and they were A1. (Pricey but good) bottle service also doesn't come with enough premium chasers for the cost. For 12 ppl we got like 2 ,or 3 cans of red bull and like 4 cans of pineapple juice and 2 pitchers of some tasteless cheap thing (dunno what it is) it was just filled with ice and watered down... Security guards at the door are top notch. The lady was super fun and nice and so was the guy. . . If ur not into Latin music... then its also not for u... I dunno if this is the case every night. We went on a Saturday night. As stated maybe this is for a specific type of people , who wanna male social media videos of the bottles coming in with dancing girls and fireworks. The people who want to belong.. . There are cute photo spots too. If this was one of my usual reviews this place would have gotten 3 stars , but I gave it the extra star because maybe it's just not my type of scene. Ohhh I forgot, I tried hookah for the first time. It was...

Pro. DJ ',s awesome mix of music. Kept everyone on their feet. Decor

Con: Drove over an hour to check out this establishment. Upon arrival, my friend was given a hard time over his dress pants due to the pants having a drawstring. Two different security guards felt his pants and gave him the ok. As we entered the hostess did the seating. shouted " Dress code" security acknowledged, "he's good". She then rolled her eyes and had an attitude over it and with us. We let it slide and were escorted to our seats around 930pm. Took over 15 minutes to get a waitress and menus let alone drinks. The waitress comes and apologizes we again let it slide. We order a dish from the menu that read 4 empanadas and also ordered guacamole along with two drinks and hookah. Took an eternity waitress kept apologizing. Food comes out and it's only 3 empanadas, not 4. The guacamole was a joke as well. We then agreed on buying a bottle and inquired about moving to a lounge table instead of a tabletop. We were ordering $250 bottle and were notified we had to buy $500 or up bottles to sit there. However, we are observing most people with lesser prices ones. We bring this up to the waitress she stutters on her words not knowing what to say. She takes our bottle order and takes off to inspect about seating. this was about 1045pm. The waitress comes back 30min later! We let it slide. She moves us and we inquire where was our bottle. She said she's so busy but will bring it out now. We waited until close to 1245am for our bottle. For security to tell us we have to leave reason being Vida was closing soon. It was 120am. We had a bottle that was still pretty full. When trying to explain the situation security claimed it's nothing they could do about it. So we spent $250 for 2 drinks! Gives scam vibes. Also while my friend was given hell for his outfit there were so many men with gym outfits, beach wear along with sweats and sneakers to say the least. It's tragic to say we felt discriminated against due to our darker melanin skin color. Dissatisfied with this location and how we were dealt with. Will not be returning. Do...