Pao De Mel Bakery — Restaurant in Hillside

My father felt like he was being taken advantage of because he doesn’t speak Portuguese.

I debated writing this review because I genuinely like this spot but as of late I feel like some of the employees/owners are a little shady.

My father took my family here for a Brazilian lunch. We ordered a couple of x-tudo combos (comes with a soda and fries). Burger was great, we got guaraná as the soda, my mom ordered some pão de queijo and a cheese empanada, my sis ordered a sonho. My dad and I liked our burger but the rest not so much.

Then the bill came and he paid. Till he realized it shouldn’t have added up to that much.

Red flag #1 they do not give you an itemized receipt, they just tell you a number.

Red Flag #2 nowhere did they disclose that the guaraná wasn’t part of the combo and was solely for Coca Cola. So they up charged the combo for guaraná. If they would’ve told us that from the beginning that’s not an issue but because they didn’t and nowhere is mention that plus they didn’t give us an itemized receipt, it feels shady.

Red Flag #3 Tip, look my family and I always tip but this isn’t really like a restaurant, more like a store with an eating area. We normally tip because we like the cashier that takes care of us and she treats us great. Can’t say that for the rest of them. When my dad paid, they did not inform him that they added a gratuity to the bill already which they call a table fee but since we didn’t get an itemized receipt and nobody had told us that, there was no way of knowing, so he paid for tip + the forced gratuity without even knowing. Reminder this isn’t a restaurant they deliver your food on paper plates and baskets and you clean up after yourself.

After all that we talked to the girl that takes good care of us she fixes the bill and we finally leave. My family has zero intentions on coming back and I’m pretty sure that’s not gonna change.

And if you don’t speak português do not go. Nobody will understand you. I speak it so it wasn’t the end of the world but I am curious to what would’ve happened if my...

Went to NY and decided to head up to NJ, stopped by this place to eat some Brazilian food/snacks, which I love, but was very disappointed. That’s not what Brazilian cuisine looks or tastes like. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m from Massachusetts and there’s a lot of Brazilian bakery/restaurants, so they tend to be really competitive, which makes the food taste much better… but this place? Such a disrespect to the Brazilian culinary, not only the dishes but also the snacks, were not fresh at all, tasted like something made 2 days before. And they also made fun of my friend who’s a vegetarian, she doesn’t eat anything with meat but can eat dairy, when she asked them about options without meat, the lady just laughed and said she was only able to eat salad. Which is stupid since we clearly said “no meat”, not “no cheese”. Me and my friend both speaks Portuguese and we are very used to Brazilian places, she knows that not everything has meat. Anyways, that lady had not manners, it was really disrespectful. Food was cheap, but still not worth the money, we were starving and we didn’t even finished our meal, because it was bad. Service was ok, until that lady opened her mouth to say that about my vegetarian friend. Overall just a bad experience. Before I went there, I read this review online about them, and it said “best Brazilian bakery in the area”, and now all I can think is “if they’re the best, I don’t ever wanna go see the other ones”. I guess they can fool people that doesn’t know how real Brazilian food...

I’m only giving this place one star because it’s close by and their soups are decent. But I have grown so sick of the customer service in this place. If you don’t speak Portuguese they ignore you, roll their eyes when they see you coming and are just plain rude. I’ve experienced their rudeness so many times but I use to suck it up because it’s the only place close by that makes decent soup and my three year old likes soup for lunch. Today I had enough. Not only were they rude to my ten year old son when he didn’t understand them but when I came in to verify the price because their soup is usually $4, they ignored me, when I they finally answered me they said it’s $5.34 because it has shrimp, with an attitude. I said “ok I’m just asking for the price.” I stand there with the extra dollar in my hand and my arm extended towards them and get ignored some more. I say “ ok who has the money?” As my son had already paid them $5. Lady who takes my dollar rolls her eyes and looks annoyed. There’s a bag on the counter and I ask,” is this the soup?” Another employee from behind the counter yells, “ YESSSSSS.” Now if I didn’t have to drop my kids off at school i would have told them how tired I am of them right then and there. I’m going to start driving an extra 10mins to the next soup spot cause this place is not worth the horrible...