El Tule — Restaurant in Lambertville

EXCELLENT food, TERRIBLE service. The service used to be a huge highlight of this restaurant. I had written reviews in the past about this restaurant...and my reviews were 5 stars and I would have given more if I could. But we hadn't been there in about 2 years or so and we just went back again. The food as always was AMAZING but the service was some of the worst service I had ever had. First it took our server over 15 minutes to even come over and the only reason she did come over was because we called her over and asked if we had a server. (we also heard several other tables complaining about this while we were there. The waitresses excuse to one in particular was that she was busy...keep in mind there were literally about 3 filled tables in the whole restaurant at this point) We went for locals night which is a four course meal. Our meals came out all scrambled..me having been a waitress in the past, I have NO idea how the meals ended up coming out so terribly...my main meal being one that didn't come out until about 15 minutes after everyone else's. Also, our waitress forgot to bring out our chips and salsa until after our second course came (well...when three of us got our second course....the other one of us had already gotten their 15 minutes prior ? ) AND they didn't clean up any of our empty bottles or garbage the whole time we were there.

It really is a shame...this place has great atmosphere and amazing food. But the service was so terrible. I worked as a waitress for a long time and am always understanding...especially if a restaurant is busy...but it wasn't that busy at all and as the night progressed I was trying to figure out what was going on...to try to find a reason, but there was no reason or excuse I could see. She was nice enough...but just TERRIBLE at her job. The place is expensive and the managers need to make sure that their staff is providing the best service they can. Keep up the good work with the food and please discipline your staff so that they can provide the service that should go along with the prices...

We had the Ceviche Limeño Aji de Gallina Bowl for lunch. My fiance is Peruvian and was very excited to try thier version of food from his home country.

While the food was possible and edible we are only leaving three stars because we were fairly disappointed in the final product. The ceviche while good he decided had too much onion his words were sufficient should be about the fish tasting the fish and enjoying the fish and not the onion.

Aji de Gallina Bowl.... First off there were multiple ingredients in the bowl that were not listed online nor on the order online menu it doesn't tell you that there's an egg it doesn't tell you that there's an olive at least not anywhere that we could see it also didn't tell you about whatever the green chili sauce is that was sprinkled on top. That would have been okay except for the fact that once we started eating the chicken we realized that they had used mustard to achieve the traditional yellow color instead of just relying on the yellow of the peppers. This ruined the flavor of the dish for us as all we could really taste was mustard in certain bites and mustard is not an ingredient that should be used when making this dish. They're also appeared to be a white sauce on the lettuce underneath though that could have just been how it was layered.

Normally my Peruvian fiance eats everything and is not very picky at all but even he couldn't finish my half of the bowl that I couldn't eat due to the flavoring of the mustard and whatever was in the lettuce.

All in all we decided that if you are not used to Peruvian food and don't know what to expect this food would be rather good and enjoyable. As people who know what this traditional dish should taste like and we're expecting a more authentic taste it was rather disappointing. We are not trying to bash in the restaurant just give our honest opinion and review.

We hope to someday try the Mexican side of the menu in the future as we are not as used to Mexican food as Peruvian and hope to find something enjoyable...

We've eaten here numerous times due to convenience and for the okay, not exemplary food. It is close to the hotel we stay in, has some vegetarian options and we like to eat outside so it checks those boxes. This visit, it was raining and we ate inside. It was my birthday and we had a 6:30 reservation on a Sunday in October. We arrived at 6:20 and were seated. We ordered and requested that our entrees not come out immediately after the appetizers. We know that they constantly rush the food here every time no matter the day. We were informed by the snarky host (we are from NYC, so we are familiar with attitude and snark) that the kitchen closes at 7:00 so the food will all come out when it's ready- basically implying eat and leave. We were not informed previously that the the kitchen closed at 7, when we made the reservation weeks ago. Appetizers: the elote/ guac was a mushy mess. My husband really liked his ceviche. Before we were halfway through apps, our entrees arrived. Our entrees sat there getting cold. The coliflor saltada tacu was tasted like an entire bottle of soy sauce was dumped in and was totally unimpressive. My husband's dish was satisfactory. We were rushed into ordering dessert, a dry, inauthentic version of tres leches cake that tasted like sweet sand. A candle had been requested for the cake. It arrived unlit, was then lit by the same snarky host who barely mumbled happy birthday as he walked away. The vibe is unwelcoming, rushed and it seems like the (inexplicable) glowing reviews have definitely deluded the management. Here's a suggestion: If you don't want to serve customers on Sundays, don't open on Sundays. If you choose to be open, try to make the people who choose to frequent your restaurant feel welcome - not like an inconvenience to you as you rush to close for the night. It was an unpleasant, rushed, unwelcoming experience and it will be the last time we go to this place. We have finally learned our lesson and...