Marimba Cafe — Restaurant in Hackensack

This is my first time dinning here i have heard amazing things about this cafe on tik tok but unfortunately my experience was not the best I loved the fact that is a small business and the owner is Colombian just like me I am all up for supporting mi gente you know . I had placed a food order with the owner I wanted the avocado arepa and she asked me if it was okay that it had an egg on top so I felt great that she made sure of that , but I waited 30 minutes and my arepa never came out my girlfriends food came out and when I waited long enough I went up to the counter and asked about it and the girl said she didn’t hear me ask for that in my order but yet she was aware I did order it . That was one of many things that went wrong I had asked for water prior to sitting down and was never given to me but after I asked about 3 times plus my water glass was dirty as well . As I was leaving I wanted to give it a 3rd chance because I loved the atmosphere and vibe but I asked for a Milo latte hot and the owner was the one who charged me for it waited 20 more minutes for it and the girl making the coffee said she didn’t have a ticket for it once she made it she made the wrong coffee and gave me iced latte instead of hot like I asked I didn’t want to say anything else because I was over the bad service to be honest . I am a server/bartender and have been a part of the management staff to several restaurants and I know what it is to be in a hectic busy environment but I know also that we need to deliver great customer service and make sure the customer leaves with a smile . I am not the type of person to makes reviews about restaurants often but today I was really disappointed because I was not acknowledged as a paying customer that just wanted to support a mi gente Colombiana and their hard work . Please take this a constructive criticism and make sure you are able to have a full staffed establishment so there is not much room for errors . Very disappointing ☹️. Thank you...

I can tell that my experience was not as pleasant as I expected or as shown on Social Media. This was my first time visiting this place, almost all the tables were occupied and already served by the time that we arrived, reason why I don't understand why our food took so long to be served, we ordered 2 coffees, a pastelito and a avocado egg arepa. First thing I noticed is that they don't use a tray to bring the order to the table, they need to go back and forth to serve everything. Also one coffee came first, the other one after (I ordered the "famous Coquito Coffee" and it was a regular ice coffee with cream and a few coconut flakes and cinnamon on the top) doesn't not taste like coquito at all. Also we needed to go twice to the counter to ask for our food, we got first the pastelito and like 20 minutes later the arepa, which means that by the time the it arrived the pastelito was already cold (we were supposed to enjoy the coffee and meal together). They even gave us complimentary pastelitos because they noticed we were not having it a pleasant experience, that was very considerate and appreciated but that wouldn't have been necessary if we had received adequate service. The place has potential but needs to improve to offer faster,...

I happened to walk past this place on my way to my car from the post office. It looked so cute and I never seen it before. The service was great- the guy was well informed and he had a happy and pleasant attitude (I can’t tell you how many times I walk in somewhere and teenagers look miserable 😞) . The attitude represents the ambiance- it’s a big open space- not to cluttered, very relaxed, very carribean and great vibes. The one thing I have to say is it was 85 degrees today and they had the door open so it was a bit was a bit warm there, hence why I didn’t stay. I would like to work there but maybe in the winter cause I can’t stand the heat. The food- I had a freshly made passion juice which was so cold and fresh! I asked for a ban de yuca- and I regretted not getting more food. It was wooooo good! The cheese was fresh the arepa was so warm and soft… I haven’t had a pan de yuca that good in a long time. And they take Apple Pay! I would definitely be...