El Tropico Restaurante — Restaurant in Florida

I have visited this restaurants many times and never have I had an issue with my food or service up until today!!! The waitress we had this evening we’ve never seen before, I figured she was new. We ordered everything very quickly because we order the same thing all the time. So let me get into what occurred… We ordered 3 empanadas (which come out pretty quickly) the waitress was no where to be found, then we realized that she was in the bathroom… the empanadas that had freshly come out went very quickly due to orders to go and other tables… the waitress came to our table to finally bring us our Sancocho which that even took forever to come out… when she brought the Sancocho I asked her how much longer would it take for the empanadas.. she said 5 min due to other orders. 2 mins passed and we finally got our empanadas, I didn’t even get a chance to eat my empanadas because my food came out right after. She never brought us our drinks. And we had to ask her 3 times for sauce, I asked for 2 sauces and she brought one. Once we received our food she never once came to the table to ask us if everything was okay or if we needed anything else. I asked for my receipt and realized that a 15% tip was added to our bill for just 3 people (Previous times tip has never been added). So I decided to speak to the sons owner, I asked if the tip is automatically added and he said yes. I then asked if our waitress was new, and he advised that she was not and asked if I didn’t like her service, my response was no. This is the BEST PART the waitress decided to get in my face with the menu to yell at me that since I had an issue with the tip that it was stated in the menu. I Gave her the same energy back since she wanted to be disrespectful. THE WORST SERVICE I HAVE RECEIVED AT ANY RESTAURANT!!!! This woman should be FIRED for the way she spoke to me in front of clients and her bosses. I would leave a 0 star if...

Overall we love this place and we will continue coming here. This is actually our favorite Colombian place. We live in Lakeland and don’t mind the drive because we know we will be satisfied. We always in Ute our American friends to this place and bring our friends and family that come in from out of town and we also like to come for family birthdays. Beside all the pros. The only cons I have would be that the owner became very stingy and thought more about money and profit instead of keeping the bigger piece of chicharrón on the bandeja paisa. It’s a VERY POPULAR DISH AND IT COST $25 which isn’t cheap and he made it smaller. I was pretty upset about his decision. I even asked the waitress to make sure they gave us a big piece and they disregarded our request. Not cool when you have customers that love your place. Don’t they want to keep us coming. There are other Restaurants closer to Lakeland and Orlando. I don’t get it. Also, their arroz con pollo was SUPER DRY and didn’t really have flavor. Felt like the didn’t care much in taste and just focused on quantity. It was a huge portion. And it was for my American friend who never been there. Also not cool. She didn’t really eat her food and just took it to go. I had to make her some guiso at home and brought it to her so she could eat her left overs. She texted me that day saying thank you for making my food 100000x’s better. This review is mainly for the restaurant and not the customers. Don’t be cheap with the chicharrón bring back the bigger slab on the bandeja por favor. And put a little more love on your arroz con pollo. At least the flavor. Or at least serve it with some extra guiso in the side...

If you want to get sick go there. We ordered the Pargo fish in the menu. They brough it and we were so happy to see how big it was. Price $42,90. My boyfriend gave me a piece and took a piece with a plantain and avocado. I looked at it and it was purpure inside and I told my boyfriend this fish is weird. Then, once I put a piece in my mouth it smells like old fish. Immediately, I took it out of my mouth and called the waiter and told her the fish was not good. She said ok, I will take it back. She took it but not the pieces in my boyfriend plate witch he left in the plate and did not eat. The owner approached our table and said that he goes fishing every other day and that the fish was fresh from yesterday. I told him to smell the fish because it was bad. He said it was not bad and I said well, I am not going to eat the fish and get sick. We hardly eat the other Bandeja Paisa plate we ordered and asked for a to go box and the bill.

The waiter brough the bill charging us for the fish of $42,90. I told the waiter why they charged me for something that was bad, and I didn't eat, and the owner and another person came on me with a disclaimer they have that says if you order a food you will pay for the food.

I told them what was that and they got aggressive and I proceed with the payment because they look like they needed the money desperately and I will not call the policy for this but, if a business has a disclaimer that they will show you after you order the food and don't want to eat their terrible food I think they are forcing people to pay for...