Versailles Cuban Food- Venice Blvd — Restaurant in Los Angeles

‼️BEWARE OF PLACING LARGE ORDERS OR CATERING FROM THIS LOCATION‼️

I had a horrible experience with a large order place by my company. After going inside with MY PRINTED ORDER CONFIRMATION AND LIST OF NAMES FOR THE ORDER IN MY HAND to confirm that the order was being prepared, the staff told me they were still preparing the order. It had been 1hr and 15 min since it was place and was promised at noon. I waited 45 extra minutes and received the food. There were multiple bags and I made multiple trips to the car to secure them.

After taking TEN MINUTES to verify everything was correct, I began to drive off. An employee ran to my moving car and knocked on my window asking me for the receipt. ??? Okay, sure. I stop the car and get out to show him the receipt given to me by them and my PAGES of confirmation of the order. The employee, after looking at both pieces of paperwork, tells me that I have to return the food because they believe I am stealing the food. STEALING FOOD THEY CONFIRMED AND PERSONALLY HANDED TO ME. The employee stated that I needed to “bring the food back” because their system says that the food that is IN MY CAR is to delivered tomorrow.

I go back inside to reconcile the obvious misunderstanding, but the employee from outside and three other employees begin arguing with me about the time discrepancy within their system. They all implore me to phone someone to confirm the order is due today. Not once did they call or attempt to call the numbers provided to them which happened to be mine. I call a superior of mine, which they had no idea who he was or what he did at my office, but he was obviously a white man. They asked him, a stranger to them, if the food was supposed to come that day. They did not ask his name, address, phone number, or email to confirm that he was the owner or buyer of the food. They simply took his white voice as validation even though they had been working with MY BLACK SELF for the past 90 MINUTES.

I made sure to let them know that what happened was a racist act and we would not be ordering from them ever again. Multiple employees loudly denied that anything of the kind occurred. Claiming that they were only worried about food cost. “If all of this food goes with you and it shouldn’t, we would have to remake it.” Seven to ten bags with multiple meals in each bag made it to my car with employee assistance. According to COVID-19 and health department regulations, at this point in the transaction, ALL of that food would have needed to be remade ANYWAY. So if it was a mistake and we did need to return the food, then what? Were you all going to serve that contaminated food….to unsuspecting customers? You...

Was trying to find a place somewhat close to LAX since the gf & I had to go there on a Sunday afternoon. Been awhile since we had Cuban food & this place looked worth the trip. Overall the food & service made for a worthwhile trip.

ITEM'S ORDERED:

Oxtail Stew Media Noche

TASTE:

The Oxtail Stew is described as a Creole base stew with a sharp peppery taste cooked with traditional Cuban herbs & spices, olive oil & bell pepper. I actually don't think the peppey taste was that sharp but it was definitely present. For some reason I thought the overall flavor kinda tasted like chili. It's a pretty good portion of oxtail. The plantains that come with the meal were very tasty & sweet. Perhaps they are actually sweetened. Getting a bite of the meat, stew, rice & plantain hits pretty much all the taste buds in a nice way. Oxtail is quite fatty so the stew is on the oily side.

Media Noche is the usual traditional Cuban sandwich with sweet bread. I usually like this version over the usual Cuban because I think the sweet bread provides a good balance to all the salty flavors. I actually wish the bread was just a little sweeter. Pretty good sandwich overall, big on the savory with all the meat & cheese. I did think the pork was just a little dry. Fries were fresh & crisp. Reminded me of fries you get at "hole in the wall" burger spots in a good way. Also is a very nicely sized sandwich. I took half of it home.

As a fan of spice I did wish the restaurant had a more unique or house made hot sauce or something to go with the food. Only Cholula was available.

SERVICE:

Service was very good. The guy at the outside patio seated us right away & had a kind attitude the whole time. Also, the food came out very quickly.

I should mention I thought there was only outside seating but I was wrong since I had to use the restroom inside & saw inside seating is available.

LOCATION & PARKING:

They are located on Venice Blvd & their sign is easy to spot from the street.

The outdoor seating area is one of the better built ones I've seen. Good tarps & many tables which still make you feel like you're at a restaurant.

Parking is easy enough with all their spot's right out front. I did find them just a little narrow though.

I'm open to coming back here when I'm craving this type of food or just a hearty meal in...

Food Poisoned + Rude Service. This is the first time we get a combination of both. My kids and I suffered food poisoning after eating here. We could not pinpoint what it was that caused it because we all had about the same thing and then shared our food but it might have been the Milk Shakes.

To add insult to injury, some of the waiters treated us as if it was our privilege to be served there. The first guy came and threw the menus on the table and walked away. About 10 minutes went by and another guy came by and tossed the place settings/utensils. We joked about who else would come by and actually take our drink orders. One of the other waiters heard us and called over the first guy who threw the menus down. That waiter came by and asked us if we were ready to order. One of my kids hadn't decided yet so we only gave him our drink order and he rolled his eyes.

It was really embarrassing because I had really talked up the restaurant to my kids telling them that I had visited this place so many times when it was at its original location. Sadly their first Cuban food experience was ruined by these men who obviously don't want to work there or they need to take lessons in customer service or just "Common Courtesy Lessons".

We won't be going back and I would caution anyone else from venturing there, unless you want to end up with a bubbly tummy in the middle...