Las Tablas — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

We were celebrating my mother’s birthday and we’re excited to eat here because we hadn’t been here in years. We get seated and the highchair was extremely dirty and broken to the point it was wobbling and you can see the wood separating. It could have easily broke at any moment and 100% would have pinched my babies skin. When I finally got their attention I had already gotten a new high chair myself and they took the broken one, and just put it back to use it again! Now I’m not just making this review about a high chair…. There is more! So it took 20 minutes for the server to approach us.. for background we were a party of 10 and there was only 1 other table there so it was not busy at all. Now when the server approached us they came a poured water , didn’t ask us if we wanted drinks just poured water and before we got a chance to order they left. 10 minutes later the server comes over with a man and they proceed to take our order. Now never in the history of any of my restaurant experiences has it ever taken that long to put an order in!! Let alone with 2 people!! I don’t know if she was training or what but it took so long and she kept getting the orders in wrong and the guy was helping her and she had a question for everything! She Cleary couldn’t handle it. It took 15 minutes to get our order in. Not joking!!! 15 minutes! They didn’t even ask us if we wanted anything to drink we had to ask the server to add that in after she took 15 min to put in our food order and she couldn’t process it. So I had to tally up how many cokes and juice etc.. so she could easily figure out how to input because everyone telling their individual order was too confusing. Okay so our order is finally put in…. We still have hope maybe it’s a one off new person whatever. So as we’re waiting for our food my mother notices a hair in one of the hot sauces on the table ( I included picture for proof) that was gross! Then we notice so many gnats flying around in the restaurant to the point we were swating them away and killing them. So gross! Now I’m at the point I want to leave this restaurant and at that moment our food shows up. I’m like okay whatever let’s eat and make the best of it we just won’t come back again. I wasn’t even gonna write a review I was just gonna let it slide and not come back. Now back to the food. We got the food and they got 3 of our orders wrong but we’re quick to correct. We ordered the kids cheese burger and it is not for a child! The burger was huge and they gave my kid yuca fries and he did not like it. I was like whatever we will keep the burger and my son split the chicken nuggets with his aunt. I should have sent the burger back or at the least requested regular fries but I am not the type of person to be picky. We ordered it so we kept it. But they should have asked us about the fries the menu says burger and fries. Anyways as we eat we obviously need refills on our drinks.. and nobody came by to the point we were drinking the free tap water on the table. By the time we could flag someone we finished our meal. Now I’m not saying I saw the server walking by and just didn’t ask them, I’m talking about they were missing. In the back of the restaurant and when they did come out they immediately had something else they had to do then attend to us. I noticed that while we were eating there was people who would show up to pickup food only to be told that their order wasn’t ready… so these people ordered their food, waited the amount of time they needed to drove to the restaurant and got there waited 10 min for someone to see them and then get told their order wasn’t ready. They then sat down and I kid you not.. waited like 20 min for their food to be cooked and they were very mad. So back to us, we are done eating and then want our bill. Luckily the server comes around and I ask for it, waited 10 min and nothing. I ask the other server waited 10 min and nothing… so I got annoyed and I got up and asked the server who was behind the bar and he finally gave it to me. We left so fast. Will...

Service was the worst service we’ve ever received while dining out, we decided to bring my parents here for the first time since we loved it our first time, the drinks, and the food were amazing. We bragged and boosted to my parents how amazing the service to the food was based off our first visit, I’m so disappointed to say the least. Our second visit wasn’t the best, and was ruined by a waitress who had the worst attitude. My parents were the first to walk in, and were seated after not being able to find our reservations. We walked in about 20 min after my parents since they wanted to have appetizers and drinks ready when we arrived. Nobody tended to them, nobody came up to them and asked them if they wanted water, appetizers, introduced themselves to my parents. Nothing. Strike 1. We finally get there and my mom got up to ask who our waitress was, we asked about 2 times until we had a young lady with long black curly hair come tend us, right away with an attitude, no greeting it was “What can I get you?” I was kinda taken back and it left an awkward tension amongst the table…well we placed our orders for drinks, and food. Can’t complain about those, food came out before drinks, and everything was hot and delicious just as we remembered, drinks came out shortly after, and were also very good and because our waitress wasn’t paying attention to us, but her big table, we had to pre order drinks because we were afraid of not being tended too. $300 later and another couple came to sit next to our family of 5. What a difference in service from what I noticed from us. She asked them if they had ever been to Las Tablas before, was very friendly, I think I even seen a smile a few times, but with us, nothing. I was taken back, and very disappointed that my parents didn’t get to have the same experience we had when we went our first time. It was embarrassing to say the least. I love this restaurant, but I don’t hope for anyone to ever have to deal with someone like that, especially when they deal with your food and drinks, not sure where the bad energy came from, as we were probably the least difficult table to deal with, we knew what we wanted and came for that reason. We were celebrating my dads birthday and it wasn’t the best. Hopefully next time is different but that left a bad taste in our mouths, so not sure when we’ll be back. Let me not fault to mention, that we noticed other tables walked in after us and were getting exceptional service, really wish we would have asked for someone else, maybe that would’ve helped...

I really wanted to enjoy Las Tablas more than I did. As soon as you step inside, you are welcomed with the sounds of live salsa music and the smell of delicious meat being cooked; both things I loved. My wife and parents also enjoyed the atmosphere, and put us all in a good mood. I was really looking forward to have a delicious steak dinner, unfortunately, the high that dinner started out with did not go higher from there, and actually took a downturn.

Our friendly waiter got us water fairly quickly, and service was good at the beginning. We put in drink orders and an appetizer for the table (empanadas), and from there, we saw our waiter sparingly. My water was filled throughout dinner frequently enough, but there is clearly a staffing issue. I waited almost 30-40 minutes after finishing my meal to get my check, which is the longest I've waited. The salsa music only helped so far while I was waiting. No attitude issue at all, as everyone was great, which is good, however, definitely needed at least on more waiter/waitress that night.

The empanadas I tried were both good. The chicken was tasty, and the beef was tender and flavorful. I ordered a steak and pork entrée, with the steak medium, and the rest of my table got chicken dishes, with my wife a side of steak that she ordered well done. Considering this is a steakhouse, I expected a juicy, tender, melt-in-your-mouth steak full of Latin flavor. What I got missed this mark.

The steak was well the medium temperature I had asked for, with no sign of any pink, tender meat when I cut into it. In fact, the steak my wife got seemed closer to medium than mine, though, hers was still closer to medium well. The sauces served on the side were a must to combat the dryness of the bite. The flavor itself, though good, was over seasoned; again, the sauce here helping cut down some of the salt. The pork itself was overcooked and dry as well. My wife's chicken was tender and juicy, miles better than the steak, and my parents enjoyed their meals as well. It seems the chicken should have been my go-to meal. The drinks were decent, with the strawberry mojito being particularly good and refreshing.

Overall, my parents and wife enjoyed the meal, but I left disappointed. Considering how much my parents enjoyed it, we may be going back, and maybe the next time, it will be better as it could have been an off night. If it was not for them, albeit, the music was great, I would...