Coquito Blu — Restaurant in New York

We went for the first time last night & were excited to finally try this restaurant. When we arrived for our date night, we were seated next to a large party that was so loud, I asked to be moved because we couldn't hear each other. They moved us to a better table away from the noise but the music was very loud to begin with so between the large party and the music, it was difficult to have conversation. We ordered appetizers. I asked for the pasteles to which the server said it wasn't available. My date ordered the calamari and I requested the bacalaitos. When they arrived, the calamari was only warm while the bacalaitos were mushy & uncooked in the middle. I told the server, mine wasn't fully cooked & their reply was "it wasn't me". Which didn't make sense to me. I told them, "I know it wasn't but, are you Puerto Rican? Do you know how bacalaitos should be cooked? They're fried & should be crunchy." He apologized & sent it back for a replacement while my date just asked for the waiter to take his away. When my appetizer replacement arrived, the bacalaitos were still uncooked in the middle & chewy while the exterior was crunchy. It led me to ask if the cooks aren't Puerto Rican, are they being taught to cook Puerto Rican food properly? My date didn't want a replacement appetizer & I was disappointed for him because we had been craving what we ordered. When our entrees arrived, mine was good. The bistec encebollado was seasoned well & the meat was tender. The black beans could've been seasoned better but the rice was fluffy and the truffle yuca fries were good. My date's entree was the Lomo saltado filet mignon with fries. The plating of his order didn't work for him as the steak with sauce was placed on top of his fries which made them soggy. He did enjoy the steak however. The bill came out to close to $200 and my date tipped decently because he's a gentleman but, overall, I give the restaurant 2 stars across the board because while the menu was good some dishes, the service as well as the ambience do need some fine tuning.

Edit: I see the manager got as salty as the uncooked bacalaitos of which I sent the full plate back after cutting 2 open AND is LYING on top of it. My date took a few bites of his WARM calamari & sent the entire thing back without even wanting a replacement, he was so disgusted then waited as I cut into my second order of bacalaitos & laughed when he saw it was yet again uncooked. How do you get mad about what is a clear complaint? As a Puerto Rican from Bushwick, Brooklyn raised on them, I don't need an explanation as to how they're made & the restaurant whether "Latino themed" or not, the recipe & preparation for traditional dishes should remain the same & AT THE VERY LEAST COOKED FULLY THROUGH! It wasn't the fish that wasn't cooked, IT WAS THE BATTER! or as you call it "the dough". As far as holiday celebrations & noise, it's a given which is why a simple table change was requested, honored & appreciated. What I mentioned was the COMBINATION of the two; the music AND the holiday party together. If you expect a patron to NOT mention having to ask to be moved after being seated DIRECTLY next to a large party as a couple, then obviously you miss alot of things hence your bitter & unprofessional reply. As far as other restaurant recommendations, we frequent a variety several times a week from white tablecloth/ quiet ambience to checkerboard tablecloth &/or with live bands, Salsa or otherwise before & after Coquito Blu. I'm no stranger to noise.

I meant to leave stars across the board for each category but, see somehow they weren't checked off possibly leading to your response. l will leave them now as originally intended but, of course my review is deliberate, that's what reviews are for, to deliberately...

• Unprofessional *If I could give negative 5 stars I would!!! Manager Julio horrible, a liar and super unprofessional!!! Also, owners ( there are like 5 different partners.) were not helpful or understanding!! And didn't care for our business. My bf and I live in the neighborhood we found this place and loved it at 1st. Food was good and servers are nice. We visited the place about 2 or 3 times (our bill was never less then $200!!) before the horrible disgusting and embarrassing experienced happened!! We reserved a table for a event El Gran Combo a famous band June 9th 2023. Paid in full $600 Julio took the payment with no issue and never marked in the system. On the day of the event we arrived mind you I was very specific I'm bringing my daughter for her to experience a live show. Anyway once we arrived we gave the lady our name and told her we reserved a table she looked at her computer and took a few mins and asked are you sure you reserved. We said yes, Julio took our payment and we reserved a table right in front of the stage. It turned out they sold the table to another party!!!! All the tables were full. It took about 15mins just to find Julio. Mind you we were hungry and the show was about to start. No, one knew what to say until 1 of the owners George said I'll move the table and set it up and then sit you guys. We said no that's going to take another 15mins set up. We decided to sit outside so we can at least eat since it was a little late and other restaurants were closed. While we were outside it was chilly no outdoor heaters. My bf had to run home and get us jackets. No manager or owner came to our table to apologize completely ignored!! There were racoons trying to come to our table luckily another guest scared them away people smoking while we were eatting. Finally at the end Julio came to our table and sat with us and finally owned up to the mistake and apologized. We told him we thought no one was going to acknowledge and recognize it. The only thing the other owners said we'll take care of you guys next time. Next time ??!! He took our bill $653.00 and said this is on us and will refund you the $600 for the table that you guys originally paid for. He even gave my bf his personal number. A few days go by and no refund was given. So my bf calls Julio Wednesday the event was a Friday night we gave them a few days to refund the money. He spoke to Julio over the phone and said what happened to the refund ?? He said no no you guys misunderstood I said I'll not charge the $53 dollars and still charge the $600. We then decided to go in person on Sunday Father's day to speak to the owners. George came out we asked for Julio to come out and he never did! We told George what happened and how disappointing we were and the conversation we had with Julio. He said no you guys misunderstood him. Which, is the reason why we wanted him outside so there would be no he said she said bs. At the end he didn't care nor wanted to refund us the money. I did contact my c.c American express the best c.c company explained to them what happened...thank god we didn't pay cash and got the full refund !! BTW we did pay our waiter cash !! $120 because he...

Sunday brunch at 1pm is when we went to celebrate my Dad's birthday, with a small group of 6. Five adults and a baby.

I could say more but I'll leave the smaller things out of this review and just focus on the most important stuff.

We get handed menus and after 15 minutes the waitress comes to tell us what they don't have, which today was the ceviche appetiser, and the french toast entree. None of us were going to go to a Puertorican restaurant for french toast... But the ceviche is a big deal. But fine. So we ordered our drinks and food.

Appetisers: my wife and I ordered the Cesar salad with poached eggs. No poached eggs on either of our plates. Just salad, a bunch of dressing, and a few croutons. The chicken croquettes were good that the others ordered.

Entrees: after waiting what seemed like an hour after appetisers, the waitress tells us there is only one arepa plate left and that I'd have to decide who would get it and the other would have to order something else. Okay. No comp for that.

I told a young server it was my Dad's birthday. The entire time they had multiple staff members and the DJ cued for 3 other people's birthdays. They came out to sing and had a cake and announced it at the booth and played the birthday music. When it was my Dad's turn.. one waitress comes out, no music, no announcement, and we're just all like "what is going on? Okay I guess it's us and no music just singing quietly Happy Birthday." So weird and awkward compared to what everyone else got.

They asked if we wanted dessert. We said yes and asked what they had. They said.. -Flan -Chocolate tres leches & -Cheesecake

Okay, we'll have 2 Flan and 2 Chocolate tres leches.

Guess what they brought out? They didn't even tell us.. They brought out 3 cheesecakes and said they didn't have either of the others. Well, I wasn't going to leave my Dad without something to celebrate with so we just accepted it. My wife had already started to feel very ill and so I just wanted to pay and leave with our son.

The worst part is that the cheesecake was waaaaay too small to justify $25 PER ORDER!!! $75 for 3 small barely single serving cheesecakes!!!! THAT WE DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR!

We shouldn't be asked to go back and get comped, we should honestly get an entire refund. That would be the right thing to do for this type...