Rumba Cubana — Restaurant in Jersey City

After years of giving Rumba Cubana in Jersey City the benefit of the doubt, today I’ve finally reached my limit. We’ve been loyal customers since the day they opened — supporting them throughout COVID, celebrating countless family gatherings, and recommending them to everyone we know. But despite our loyalty, the service and care we’ve received in return have been consistently disappointing, and at times, downright dangerous. Several years ago, we had a troubling incident with a waiter who showed a complete lack of professionalism. We had a college graduation celebration dinner. However, our table was served without utensils or napkins, and when we politely brought it to his attention, the waiter disappeared and we were ignored. We received no service at all during that visit. I escalated the issue to management, only to be told that they couldn’t afford to fire the waiter due to being short-staffed. I even provided video evidence showing our untouched table settings, which was later used in a staff meeting. Despite that, things never truly improved. Since then, nearly every time we’ve ordered takeout, something has been wrong — missing items, incorrect orders, or worse, the inclusion of ingredients we specifically requested be excluded due to severe allergies. On one occasion, a sandwich was served with pickles, despite clear instructions not to include them. A family member suffered a serious anaphylactic allergic reaction and had to be rushed to the hospital. We’ve spoken to multiple managers over the years — Leo, Selena, Peter, Ariel, Steven, and Christian — all of whom have tried to make things right. And while we appreciate their efforts, the problems persist. At this point, it feels like either someone in the kitchen is deliberately sabotaging our orders, or there’s a complete lack of care and communication behind the scenes. I even stopped coming to Rumba for nearly a year, hoping that time away might make a difference. We truly tried to give them yet another chance and only because Lorenzo he is an amazing waiter and always took good care of us when dinning in , but when ordering take out, nothing really changed our orders are still wrong It’s the same cycle — missing items, dangerous ingredients, no accountability. It’s incredibly disheartening to realize that after all our years of loyalty, we are not treated like valued customers. I can no longer justify supporting a business that continuously gets it wrong and puts my family’s health at risk. This review has been a long time coming....

I came in for dinner on Sat, Nov 16th to a buzzing restaurant to celebrate my mother's birthday. Peter Metaxas and his team were very attentive and welcoming. I usually rarely take the time to write reviews, but for this experience, as well as many before at RC Jersey City, I want to share my gratitude for the consistency of great service, food, and experience every time at RC JC.

Some great aspects that I observed: -Hostess were very attentive and accommodating of all reservations and walk-ins. Their greeting makes for a great start to the experience for the night. The ambiance, level of lighting and music level were perfect; enough to be able to dine, have a conversation with your guests, but still have that music make you move after taking that first delicious bite of food. -The synergy of the RC staff teamwork and collaboration. All the staff were moving and doing something. Everyone has defined roles, but you can see where each team member helps one another. RC is a beautiful running engine. The food and drinks come out in a timely manner with proper time in between appetizers and main course and dessert. Managing the timing of when food is 'fired' to the cook line is critical to ensuring food comes out hot and that all food comes out together....and that's exactly what happen. -Managers being very hands-on and checking in with tables. Leading by example is really what separates RC from other restaurants. Sometimes the dinner shift gets busy and seeing how Peter Metaxas and Steven Ruiz not just oversee the overall restaurants flow, but getting involved in the nightly grind supporting their servers and staff is amazing to see. You can see the staff feel confident that they have the right team and management around them to provide the excellent service to their guests.

My wife could not join us for dinner on Sat, but she made sure to go there with her girlfriend the next day after being a little jealous of our great experience on Saturday...lol

My wife and I love to bring all of our friends to RC JC as the experience from the time you walking into the restaurant until you walk out is top notch.

I'll be going back very soon.

Thank you very much to Peter and the team for making this a wonderful weekend for me, my mom, my wife, and for our family...

Sadly, some of the food at Rumba Cubana in Jersey City was subpar, of inferior quality as far as texture and flavor.

We had the Enchilado de Camarones in Red Sauce with the Mariquitas de Plátano which was okay but not outstanding.

The Pollo a la Plancha was overdone and dry, difficult to chew; also tasteless. Despite asking for low sodium the Chef could have used herbs and spices in substitution for the salt and pepper but this is irrelevant and overruled by the major issue that was the hardness and dryness of the chicken filet.

The side salad for the chicken dish was a House Salad that looked amazing with various types of leafy greens, avocado, cherry tomatoes and more. The second salad was an avocado one.

The worst part was the salad dressing: it was old and had a strange bad taste. When asked for a better salad dressing the 2nd choice was a bad or worse...I was absolutely puzzled by the inability of this restaurant to offer a simple high quality oil and vinegar for those two great salads. It's the lack of attention to such a small but important detail.

Finally, the Child Burger with french fries was okaysh.

The prices were decent but when compared with the quality of the dishes I just mentioned there was a discrepancy. The two types of wine Pinot Grigio and Rosé were standard.

The bill came without including the Leafy Green Salad price which was the right thing to do ( we felt it was pointless to expand the talk about the avocado salad being spoiled by the salad dressings...) and as far as service is concern despite the waiting staff preference to communicate in Spanish I give them a 5 stars because of their demonstrated effort and professionalism in attempting to meet my standards with the salad dressing and the back and forth. Also, the staff showed an excellent demeanor.

The ambiance also gets a 5 stars too because of the cleanliness and background music and oustanding dècor.

The Rumba Cubana in Jersey City is looks very appealing to me, overall.

So. My suggestions for the restaurant is to work on the quality of the food being served. Presentation wasn't that bad. It should be...