Maracas Restaurant — Restaurant in Florida

I understand that they get busy, and may not be quick to serve customers, I also understand that they're a Spanish restaurant, which was the main reason why I went there. I completely get that some of the people working there may also be/speak Spanish and maybe for some of them I assume speaking English isn't required.. which was not a problem for me. (A little backstory...I get mistaken for Latin/Hispanic a lot, and when I inform people I don't speak Spanish they get upset and think I'm lying..it happens all the time...which doesn't bother me for the most part.... Unless it's a place of business like Maracas where the employees showed their distain towards me when I didn't speak Spanish...this isn't the first time a place of business has shown visible disgust towards me because I don't speak Spanish, and I take it personally... because I'm being judged and discriminated against. I grew up with many Spanish influences namely food and music which I love, but I also love the people. My kid is half Guatemalan. I have plenty of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan cousins, my nieces are Puerto Rican and Mexican respectively, my sister in law is Dominican. But unfortunately I'm not fluent in Spanish at all and that's on me...I know some words... But if I could speak Spanish fluently then I WOULD.) But as soon as the cashiers realized I wasn't speaking Spanish, the attitudes I got from them was atrocious. I paid attention to the way they treated the other Spanish speaking customers and it was like night and day. I was trying to get some dessert and a drink, I smiled at the lady at the register because she didn't seem happy to be there...(I've worked in customer service so I understand that too) and told her what I wanted. She spoke to me in Spanish and I said "sorry I don't speak Spanish" her entire attitude changed...she glared at me and immediately picked up the phone that was ringing.. turned her back and walked away from the register. I thought to myself maybe she doesn't speak English.. (which like I've said before wasn't an issue for me..) But I became irate, and understandably so because it still wasn't warranted for her to react to me that way...A couple minutes later a guy came over and proceeded to help me, I told him the situation, but he also looked at me and spoke to me with an attitude. I almost walked out.. however my kid was with me and really wanted flan.. so I had to be the bigger person. I still decided to purchase the dessert and got out of there quickly. Needless to say the dessert was really good, but not worth going back for again, especially if they're going to treat me the same way.

Note to the owners of Maracas: Not all of the patrons that come into your store will be Spanish speakers or bilingual. You should have a meeting with your employees and explain that to them, also teach them better customer service, and to be more understanding and sympathetic to those of us who aren't previlaged to speak Spanish fluently. Also the way you respond to certain reviews that are not happy with your place of business is a clear reflection of the way your employees treat customers, and you're only furthering the discord with potential customers who would like to come back and give Maracas another try. As a business you should be able to accept criticism and try to be better, also try to improve the morale of your employees by setting a more positive example when you are confronted with a low rating, instead of getting defensive and being extremely unprofessional when it doesn't look good for your business. Thanks and have a...

Food is good, service is poor. If you order from the food already made and sitting upfront your experience is fine. However it's a seat yourself place where 99% of the time there are no seats or limited seats/ space available. Today was the worst I've ever experienced in my many years of eating here. I got to the restaurant before 6:30 pm ordered my food shortly after. My husband decided to get an order from the already made food to share with my 3 yr old. I ordered a plate from the "kitchen" as they call it. My waitress came by several times to say our food would be out shortly then she asked if she should bring my husband's food out first before mine since his is already made and I said yes. My husband finished his food, I fed my daughter and it was now 7:30 when the waitress came over to apologize for the delay in my plate. When I asked how much longer, she went to check the kitchen and said my ticket was still hanging up and my food hadn't been started yet. I Asked her to cancel my order and asked to pay the bill. She took our payment and we stood sitting about 5 mins getting ready to leave when the same waitress serves the party of 6 next to our table who arrived 30 mins after us there plates all from the "kitchen". I then asked to speak with a manager, because how can a party of 6 get their food and mine wasn't even made yet when I asked to cancel and that party had arrived 30 mins after me. When the manager came over he tried changing the story that my food was almost done when it was cancelled (not what the waitress told me when I asked how much longer) but at this point I'm furious and felt lied to. My order was definitely forgotten about by someone and no none wanted to take ownership for it and apologize for the mistake. It's impossible that 6 plates can come out 5 mins after I cancelled mine from ordered 30 mins before the 6 orders. I don't recommend eating here unless you go two hours before your hungry. I left without eating dinner and spending 1 hr 30 mins here. Another couple overheard my conversation with the manger and walked out. They were seated for 20 mins without being recognized, brought drinks or ordered taken. I'll never go back there again. If they can't handle the amount of orders to the kitchen either hire more cooks or close...

It’s a shame that I had to delete the good review that I had posted here. We have been to this place many times, more than I can count. Dunia usually takes care of us. Today is the second time we come and we get someone else. I’m not the type to remove a review and post something negative, but today Vicmar (going by the name on our receipt) she completely messed up our order. Number one my husband always orders the churrasco and he loves it here, he says medium well and she repeated “well done” my husband which is very particular with his steak tells her “no, medium well” not over cooked! Well, he got a chewy churrasco…it was so bad he took 2 bites and we had to send it back and split my steak sandwich. Also had to tell her that whoever put tajin seasoning or some seasoning on the fries needs to ask if that’s ok with the customer. I hate tajin and the makes the fries over salty! We used to love the fries here and never again. We asked the server to bring fries without the seasoning for me and kids because we had ordered sandwiches. She only brought one for 3 of us….And then to complete the bad experience, she forgot to bring my Cuban coffee. She even asked what kind of sugar I wanted, I said brown. I know she was listening. My son asked for a pineapple shake and giving the benefit of the doubt because we asked another server that brought something, that one was not our server and she most likely forgot or didn’t care because she was not serving our table…..our server was too busy going to her Toyota mini van outside giving some other employee some bag with food or something that her job was not a priority. Needless to say, as much as we love the food and empanadas here, we will not be coming back again. This is the second and last time we come here and are treated like they don’t care about...