EL BAYU DE WELA SARA — Restaurant in Hollywood

I truly hope that the owners or original chef see this. I've written a review on yelp in the past in hopes they can see it and change. Unfortunately OVER a year later and it's gotten worse. I started going to El Bayu back in 2021. I was excited to see the chef's upscale take on traditional Puerto Rican food. The first day I ever went it was myself and many of my friends from la Isla and we were so in love with the food. It reminded us of home and our own Wela's and truly we didn't mind the pricing because we understood the concept of showcasing our food like fine dining. Fast forward 4 years later. It's like night and day. 2021 staff was Puerto Rican, warm, attentive etc. 2025...our table sat, and we were completely ignored. By the time the young lady attended she seemed so bothered that she ended up getting someone else to attend. (We were a rather large party so I understand it can be overwhelming but being a restaurant manager myself, the manner in which she went about it made it seem that the business we were bringing was not welcomed) We even asked if she could take a picture of us and with an attitude she took our phone and handed it to someone else and walked off. The waitress also didn't communicate well, she added extra charges to the bill and when addressed the waitress started stuttering and getting defensive. (We paid regardless as we saw the customer service was just not a priority which to be honest one thing about Puerto Rico is we love our people and we are open honest and warm, the opposite of all the service we received)

Moving past the service, the food is getting worse. My last visit the food was okay. Not like 2021 where you can taste the quality, now the sazon isn't there, the food is dry, to be honest at this point I don't think you can even call it Puerto Rican food.... Mofongo was dry and they didn't give us any sauce to go on top or even broth. Tostones were inedible. Arroz con gandules had no flavor....churrasco was very fatty and chewy (maybe the relationship with vendors is struggling as chef grade churrasco is always reserved for the industry and this level of churrasco is usually what you'd get at walmart).

For a restaurant that prides itself on the ambiance, decor and a tribute to their Wela, I think the Chef needs to rethink management and their team. A team is a reflection of its management and being that in 2021 the experience was incredible I know the chefs concept is still a plausible idea, but your leadership is running it into the ground. As this is my 2nd review discussing the concerns as a local Bori that wants nothing more than to support my people, their projects and businesses what is it going to take to re-evaluate your business. This restaurant no longer represents what it use to. Change your management, and I promise you it'll change everything that's been going down the drain.

I can't say I'll never go again because I HAVE HOPE. But I used to.go multiple times a year and now I'm finding I give it a try once every year because for the price I rather go to El Rinconcito in Miami or Casa Borinquen...

Brinca a 4.7⭐️ Going to drop this review in English. So here we go... Was going to check another spot but they were opening at 5:30pm so we took a slight detour to come here since we had a long drive back. First off, be patient looking for parking and yes you have to pay (metered). Surprised my wife as I took her for a birthday weekend getaway at the Guitar Hotel, great place by the way. Ok... the restaurant, the place was somewhat busy but we were seated quickly. The host was very accommodating for group of 5. Wife ordered the Piña Colada in the pineapple which was very good. I had the Acerola (Barbados Cherry) Mojito and I have to say was one of the best mojitos I've ever had. My son had the Soursop Mojito which was also good but not better than mine 😁. The virgin Mango drink and Parcha (Passion Fruit) were good as well and served in a frozen texture. Ordered the Taino assorted appetizer which was cooked very well with good seasoning. The mofongo balls were awesome. My only gripe was the carne frita and alcapurrias were alittle oily - they should've drained it completely before serving. Ordered the crab alcapurrias and those were great (and not oily either). I ordered the Shrimp Ajillo with rice and beans and yuca tostones. The rice, shrimp were great. The yuca tostones were alittle oily. The beans... they had great flavor and reminded me of the beans made from "el campo" - different from metro city in 🇵🇷. The slight constructive criticism is it was a tad watery. The Churrasco ordered was medium well and was spot on. The chimichurri tasted great. The mofongo with carne frita was very good with great flavor and texture. The pasteles was not my daughter's favorite but to her defense she really hasn't tasted one other than mine. While it was good, it lacked some achiote in the masa or needed more, which may have altered it to have 'too' much banana leaf flavor. I didn't mind it but the difference of the "el campo" recipe is noticeable. The chicharron de pollo had great flavor and well cooked. The server Joel (I believe was his name) from Argentina was great although me telling him it was my wifes birthday didn't give him much of a hint, except telling her Happy Birthday. I wasn't looking for a freebie but maybe singing to her would've been nice without asking. But my wife insisted she was not leaving without them singing Happy Birthday. Ok ok... I made the request to the host, which she pulled the staff to sing to her. They went the extra mile and gave her a small piece of cheesecake to an already stuffed wife 🤪 But... Now we can leave and she's very happy...🚗 😂 The environment reminded us so much of my beautiful island so yes... We will be back! Also, the prices were reasonable. Buen Provecho y...

I am not the one to write reviews unless I have something to say. I was very excited to come here as my friend is PR and theres not much authentic food around here. We made a special trip to come on New Years Day and traveled 45 minutes. The experience of coming in and being seated was subpar. The hostess didn't understand English and I do not speak Spanish. I needed help through my friend. Ordering was easy, however, the menu states 2 sides are included with each entree but some sides are considered 2. This is NOT clear on the menu or even labeled, whatsoever. I do not speak Spanish and our waiter(younger guy) spoke okay English. I needed assistance through a third party, my friend. This was yet another disappointing event. Everything had to be rearranged. Fine. I expected the 35 minute wait for an appetizer and 2 entrees because this is suppose to be an "authentic" experience. The food met my expectations. The last and final straw, was our overall table service. We requested 2 glasses of water and an adult beverage at the very beginning. Before anything arrived, half the water was gone because we were chatting for 35 minutes. The food arrives and after a quick taste test of each dish, all 3 of our glasses are empty. We moved the glasses to the edge of table and I kid you not, our waiter, the hostess and several other waitress/waiters walked by and NOT 1 person offered to refill our water or if we wanted another adult beverage. There was 1 large table and 3 or 4 other seated tables inside. All of these tables arrived before us and recieved their orders, meaning there was no new tables after us and during our visit, at least inside. At this point, we have been here for an hour. We had to request the check through a different waitress and I'm not sure where our waiter was. She was kind enough to bring us a check and we also asked her for a refill of water. We're both dying of thirst at this point. Anyways, we will not be back and very disappointed in the service quality. Please train your staff because service is an important factor in the dine in experience. This was not a take-out order. We...