Brooklyn Beso — Restaurant in New York

If you ask me about Brooklyn Beso back in 2021, the absolute worst thing I could tell you was their service was the slowest you’d ever experience in your life, but the food was worth it to look past that. Things seem to have gotten worse since then

The first time I ever came was for a Paint-and-Sip, during which my friends and I ordered food. The food came out so late that we got it to-go, but it was so good (I got lobster Mac) that I put Beso on my list of restaurants to definitely come back to. My second time there, I took my mother for brunch. She’s not one to eat out often and was very unimpressed with the wait time for our food. We waited well over an hour to receive our food after getting our drinks, and then God knows how long for the check afterward. Third visit was for a friend’s birthday dinner. It was overall a 4 hour experience for a small group of people (about 4 of us). We ended up being the last group to leave the restaurant.

What finally made me decide to stop coming to Brooklyn Beso wasn’t the slow service, considering that by that point I knew what I was getting myself into if I decided to eat there. My last 3 visits to the restaurant were to pick up 2 separate Too Good To Go orders with a visit for drinks and appetizers at the bar in between those visits, so I was up at the front all 3 times. There’s lady with a blonde-ish afro who I took notice of in the last year and a half greeting customers at the front of the store. I’ve never had a personal run-in with her, but during my last 3 visits I watched her be rude and nasty to potential customers. I tried to brush it off and said maybe she was having a bad night the first two times I caught it happen, but the third time is the straw that really broke the camel’s back. On my last visit there, I was standing at the front waiting for them to complete my Too Good To Go box when this couple walked in for dinner service. I could tell that they’ve more than likely never been here before because before they were seated, they asked the hostess if the music would be quieter in the back of the restaurant since one of the first things you notice upon walk-in is how loud the music is. I watched this woman switch up her face to look at the customers like they were dumb for asking such a thing, and her final answer to their simple yes-or-no question was “I don’t know how it’s supposed to be quieter in the back and that’s where the DJ is.” The DJ is not visible from the front of the store and to be fair, the back is sectioned off to look like a separate room. If you’ve never been there, it’s not hard to assume that maybe it’s reserved to be for a more intimate setting. The couple then turned around and left. That should have been the final straw for me and it was for the last year. Then last night, blonde Afro struck again, and this time the victim was my boyfriend 🙃. I happened to see that they had one Too Good To Go bag left on the app and, despite my better judgement, decided to go for it. I wasn’t going to make it in time for the pick-up window so I sent the pick-up link to my boyfriend and asked him to grab it for me. I was on the phone with him during the pick-up and the first and only comment he made about the place after he told them what he was there for was “I feel like they don’t want me here.” When he got out of the restaurant he elaborated that the woman at the front seemed friendly but immediately changed her demeanor once he said he was there for a Too Good To Go order. They told him the order was going to be a 10 minute wait, to which he said okay and asked if he can sit by the bar to wait. He was initially told yes, but after he was seated he was asked if he was going to purchase a drink. Once he said he wasn’t (considering he was waiting for an order that should have already been ready and waiting upon his arrival), blonde afro (who told him it was okay to sit there) changed her mind and told him that he couldn’t sit there, prompting him to get up from the seat he was allowed to sit in all of 45 seconds ago.

Overall, 0/10 for customer...

I just want to start by saying I FULLY support Black Businesses if it wasn’t for what me and my family experienced I would not have expressed my immense dissatisfaction for this establishment. We made a thorough reservation 2 months in advance for my sisters graduation party. Upon our arrival our full party of 20 persons were subjected to wait outside for 30mins until our tables were prepared, outside standing under the sidewalk sitting area… and it was raining.. after waiting we were finally seated. The waiters brought out water bottles and one of the waiters dropped the tray and the water spilled on the table of The Graduate and on the other guests that were seated there. You would think the other waiter would assist but, no he was thought it was amusing and laughed hysterically. A number of things transpired during our time here: arrival time 6:20pm seated at 7:00pm only to have our waiter argue with us over the the altered Prix-Fix menu that was confirmed and approved by the event planner and the owner of the establishment. CONFIRMED AND REASSURED 2months in advance and reiterated 3 days before. After the “supervisor” came to “settle” the waiters confusion (after siding with him until we showed emails) we waited for 45mins to receive our appetizers this is now 8:37pm 20 people getting serviced by ONE waiter..okay. And we didn’t get our entrees till 9:22pm… now 3 other waiters were added on and they did not communicate with our main waiter and just bought the wrong entree SEVERAL times to the wrong table… SEVERAL times!!! argued that we should have been in our seats, just cause a few of our party were in the line to use the unisex restroom.. it’s only one restroom. We were beyondddd frustrated and our whole party took our food to Go! Each of us paid $80 plus taxes and Gratitudes for terrible service and communication. The appetizers were unappetizing. We had wings that were over cooked and dipped into bland sauce, Mac& cheese that tasted like macaroni with melted cheese on top(MID AF) and that empanadas were fairly tasteful but some of the empanadas didn’t have any filling…. I can not make this up. The oxtail dinner which I ordered was good the black rice wasn’t soo good. sighs this was one of the WORST dining experience of my life. My parents, aunts and uncle we 60+ and could not believe what was taking place. The lack of communication, the unprofessionalism from beginning to end!!! From the beginning!!! We weren’t allowed inside at all!!! The “bouncer” was blocking the door ! A 30min wait and to not be prepare with our orders in a timely manner was absurd and completely unacceptable! I would not recommend this restaurant for no family events!!! You all over-extended your services by offering to accommodate a party of 20+ persons and couldn’t even provide a decent service ! 1 waiter for 20 people. Waiting hours to eat! We should have been top priority! It was a Planned reservation!!!! And in total we collectively paid $1500 with a per paid $250 deposit months in advance. Soo, this is not a bitter review that was UNSATISFACTORY service!...

From my first visit, I rated this place a 5/5 because the food, drinks and service were amazing. But now I'm deterred from returning to this place after my second attempt to visit. For this second visit, my family and I planned a brunch for 1pm to get together and see The Color Purple movie as a group. I went on Brooklyn Beso's website to book a reservation for a group of at least 10 people. For the larger groups, they reach out to you via email to confirm the requests, so I knew to expect an email confirmation. I received the email from the restaurants Event Manager, who told me that they would double check their calendar to confirm that they can accommodate us. I replied to that email to ask if we can add one more person for the total of 11 for that reservation. The manager then replied that they can accommodate that. Since then, I heard nothing else from the manager.

Fast forward to the day of our reservation, and I called to ask if they can push back the reservation for 1:30PM. I confirmed my name and number of people for the reservation with the manager on the call and they confirmed that it was fine to push back. Unfortunately, we were late for the new time, and when we arrived, I looked for the manager to confirm if we can still keep the reservation to be seated. The manager proceeds to tell me that my reservation was never booked and confirmed in their records. Now, I found that odd and told him that I received an email with confirmation and that I also called earlier to confirm said reservation. I was then told that for a reservation of our party size, we were supposed to pay a deposit to get confirmation for the reservation. I informed him that there was never any mention of that policy in the emails I was exchanging with him while we were looking to confirm this reservation. I showed him my emails with him and he proceeded to look through his own device to find the same email on his end. And since my family was already here, I had asked if we could still be accommodated in any way, and he wasn't really willing to do so, claiming that we'd have to wait two hours. Since we had a movie to make, we made the decision to eat elsewhere since he claimed there was nothing he could do.

I want to be clear that there was NEVER any mentions in the emails exchanged about a deposit being required and our emails led me to believe that the reservation was confirmed. And even when I called to ask to push back the reservation, there was never ANY indication that my reservation was not booked at all. This policy on a "deposit" for a party size of 7+ people is also not on their website when you try to book with them. I'm very disappointed in not only the lack of communication, but the unwillingness to accommodate us when were willing and ready to still eat. This second experience makes it hard for me to picture myself...