Chela's Miami — Restaurant in Miami Lakes

My best friend and I came here for the Piña Colada festival. We were seated and sat there for an uncomfortably long time without anyone acknowledging us. Our waitress, Lissette P, saw us — we were clearly in her section — yet she blatantly ignored us. It wasn’t until another server stepped in and said something that she finally decided to come over.

She took our drink order and our appetizer order and some time later it was brought to us, she left before we could even tell her that we were ready to order as we were really hungry. We tried getting multiple different peoples attention to see if we could place an order and were ignored.

When she finally came to our table, she claimed she was busy because of the festival — but we had been watching her across from us, sipping a drink, chatting with coworkers, and even putting on lip gloss.Everyone in her section had already left. It felt like we were being ignored on purpose, and that left a bad taste in an otherwise promising experience.

At that point, it was clear we were not being treated with basic courtesy or professionalism. We brought it to her attention, and her dismissive attitude confirmed that she simply didn’t care. We asked for the check and left — because continuing to be overlooked was not acceptable. My friend also noticed that the girl didn’t give us our full change back.

Service is a big part of dining out, and unfortunately, this really took away from our visit. The lack of basic attentiveness and care made the entire experience frustrating and disappointing.

Thankfully, we went elsewhere afterward and were reminded what good...

I was here once before in 2022, and for some reason, the service has changed. But not for the better. I came here for a date with my fiance on Sunday, Mar. 26 when we got greeted and seated on the high chairs for two people. The introduction was not the problem. The problem arose when it took nearly one hour for our food to get to us after ordering and our waitress, who introduced herself as Keke, was not the same person who took our order. Keke seemed friendly, but we did not see her again until she came to give us our check, which was odd to me because there were barely any customers inside the restaurant. Another waitress helped us, and we did not even get her name nor an explanation as to why our waitress was no longer taking our order. Anyways, the atmosphere was OK but the restaurant played their music very loudly and not even good music. It sounded like music from the 2010s, which was fine, but I was expecting something quieter and more thematic to the restaurant. I only got three "bottomless mimosas" because our waitress was nowhere to be found, and our food was not the best. My fiancé said he has eaten worse burgers out of desperation, and as soon as I bit into my first taco with chicken, I got a burnt piece of poultry stuck in my teeth that would not go away. I've had a better experience my first time around last year, but I'm not sure what happened to this place. We saved our appetite all day to eat here, and we were disappointed. I don't think we will be coming here again, especially since we ended up paying around $50 for an overall OK...

We came back to Miami after several years, and some friends recommended Chelas Miami Lakes for its “great service and hospitality.” Honestly, I wish I could say our experience matched that, but it was completely disappointing.

A few days ago, during our visit, our server spilled sauce all over one of my friends from head to pants. I get it, accidents happen. Normally, I wouldn’t make a big deal out of something like this, but the way she handled it was just unacceptable. She barely acknowledged what happened, cleaned the floor, fixed herself, and left my friend ignored.

To make things worse, she walked away from our table and handed the problem off to another employee. That is not only unprofessional, it’s incredibly disrespectful and unethical for someone whose job is to serve customers. We felt completely ignored and abandoned.

I’m not mentioning her name because I don’t want to personally attack anyone, but management needs to take this seriously and hold their staff accountable. A restaurant that prides itself on hospitality should never allow behavior like this.

Honestly, the only thing that stopped me from leaving immediately was a round of drinks the manager offered, but it doesn’t erase the terrible service we endured. Chelas Miami Lakes was a huge disappointment. Unprofessional, disorganized, and far from the “hospitality” they promise. I will not be coming back, and I certainly won’t be bringing anyone here on my next...