El Vez Fort Lauderdale

I went out with my family for my brothers birthday and we had purchased over $800 dollars in gift cards from YOUR website so we wouldn’t have to worry about splitting bills etc. Everything was going perfect , Our server was amazing but had noticed that the manager named sylvia since the beginning had an issue with our table ( i don’t know if this was racial profiling but the majority of our family is of color ) the night went along without issues until we go to check out, which again went through with no issues , our server thanked us for coming and gave us our receipt stating there was a 0 balance pending . Naturally we stay back to take photos because it was our family’s birthday , to our surprise as we are leaving Sylvia comes to us with a terrible demeanor stating that she cannot accept the gift cards that we used to pay and that she would need another form of payment , even though our server had given us our receipt showing a 0 balance. After receiving this news ( after a majority of our family have left ) we were in shock because we had used gift cards at the restaurants associated with the company before ( steak 954 across the hall ) . After 30 minutes of back and forth conversing trying to figure out the billing situation Sylvia then called her General manager AND the Security , only for the security to even state to us and Sylvia that it showed a 0 balance on the receipt and we shouldn’t have to pay 800 dollars once again ( not to mention we tipped the waitress $160 ). We continue trying to figure out what’s going on with the check to reach a final verdict that they will not accept our gift cards . We begin becoming tiresome of the situation and decide to finally pay the $800 dollar bill and told us to figure out the situation of the money we spent on the gift cards . I am very unsatisfied with this interaction and will definitely won’t be coming back to this location as long as Sylvia is working there . Very disappointed with my night spent here and hope this restaurant finds better leadership and management in the future.