El Novillo Restaurant — Restaurant in Miami Lakes

Went to El Novillo in Miami Lakes with our family and grandkids. It turned out to be the worse dining experience we've ever had. After ordering appetizers, two bottles of wine and a couple of drinks, we ordered our steaks. It took the waiter half hour to come back to tell us they didn't have the big daddy steaks (16 oz churrasco). for any of us, which is what we all ordered. They said they only had two of them available and we were a group of 8 adults whom had ordered the 16 oz steak. We asked to give us each two smaller steaks (8 oz churrasco, which is also on the menu) to make up for the large one instead, and she straight out said no, that they couldn't do that. We asked for the manager to see what could be done since we didn't want to ruin our family dinner. The Manager came and said "sorry, we cannot do that, you guys can figure out what you want to order next" and he walked away. He was very unapologetic and very unprofessional. We couldn't understand how they could not combine 2 of the 8 oz steaks per person which equaled the 16 oz size one we had ordered. Seems like they just wanted to make this dining experience difficult for us for no reason.

We dine out alot and I've never seen a restaurant manger act so rude and not give other food options or even say something pleasant. The waitress brought us the bill of what we had consumed and not even an apology (basically we paid for two bottles of wine which we left most of it behind because the intention was to drink it with our meals). Paid for the appetizers which looked like a pile of cheese and sausage pilled up on one plate (no nice presentation whatever) and 3 drinks and one soda.

For much less than what we experienced at El Novillo last night, we've had managers give us vouchers to go back another day and dine at their restaurants or even give a free appetizer and or deserts to compensate for the inconvenience. Not that anyone one wants any free stuff, but it's a nice gesture coming from the restaurant and it's management.

My family will never return to El Novillo. There are plenty good churrascos out there anyways. We always try to support our neighborhood restaurants, but not this...

What a powerful lesson, after so many years, we think we know it all, and we don't. My wife and I were looking for a Nicaraguan restaurant in the area, but unfortunately the local ones were not exactly what we were looking for, because they lack atmosphere, live entertainment; we were looking for a refined place and we founded, a bit farther from what are used to drive, but this restaurant looked nice. We arrived, and we liked automatically, great location, cozy, live entertainment, great customer service, even the water you can taste it was filtered. We orderord the best of the house, Bid Daddy churrasco, it was enough to feed two people. Before our meal arrived we ordered Yuca con chicharron, this was beginning of our disappointment, when you know Nicaraguan food, you know this is not it! The chicharron was the lowest quality we ever taste, it was bought in a 7-11 and through at the top of the yuca, a very cheap quality chicharron, and very expensive, but very clever decorative, it came with a stiff bread cover with butter, not a home made bread, it was a local cuban bread from a local bakery quality, I was very surprised for a fancy restaurant this cheap entry and bread. Food arrived!!!!! Carrasco looked amazing, as latins we expected our meat seasoned, oh boy!!! Tasteless churrasco we ever taste, good meat quality for sure. But it was a Mike Tyson low blow, a 45 minutes drive with rain, order the best on the menu, what a waste of money and time. I'm gonna recommend to the owner of this restaurant, to please visit Caña Brava Fritanga, also don't go to far, check out Pinolandia in Hollywood blvd, a hole in a wall rest that it will teach you a lesson how to cook authentic Nicaraguan food, the best of the best!! Also there was no decoration that let anyone knows we were in a Nicaraguan restaurant, not even a flag, latin music, any decoration that I could identify I was in a Nicaraguan restaurant. Shame of your herratage???? It takes more than a fancy place to...

We were very excited to come here. I visit Fl several times a year and never make it here but my relatives do go often to the original location. I lived in Nicaragua and my husband is from there so coming here was a must this trip. We were a party of seven, the hostess told us it would be a few minutes because they were wiping the table, well that took like 15-20 minutes and she brought us to the table that only had two chairs and plopped the menus on the table and left, not until a waiter past by he noticed us trying to figure out what to do is that he apologized and went and got us chairs from outside. It was a very very tight squeeze specially when the guys in our group are big guys. The seat arm rest were on top of each other to make us squeeze I. and we could not lay our arms on it in case we would pinch each our skin with the metal chairs. The waiter took a good 15 minutes to come to our table to take our drinks and when he came I was ready to order but it was just for drinks and than it took another 15-20 minutes for him to get our order. The appetizer sampler was very good all tough the sausage was like the sausage we get in NC. The steaks were tender and seasoning was perfect and delicious they were not hot just room temperature but the flavor and tenderness made up for it. As you can see in the picture the server comes with the rice and beans(gallo pinto) and plantain chips(tajaditas) and serves you tons. It was seriously all we had been wanting as far as food. We even had plenty of left overs. Highly recommend coming here but I would certainly call ahead and be clear of how many guests and if they can...