El Porton — Restaurant in New York

WARNING: This is going to be as long as I waited to be serviced here. I’ve been coming here for about 7 years and bragged about this place to my cousins as a place to go to as our first outing since COVID. I’ve always loved their margaritas and fajitas. It seems there’s been a change in management for the worst. I will never come here again nor will I recommend it to others. After 2 out of our party of 4 were seated and given menus, 10 minutes goes by, our waitress doesn’t even introduce herself or simply give us water. A mix raced couple is seated next to us, the waitress emerges from the back of the restaurant and immediately gives them water. At first we simply assumed it was because I had a near empty bottle of water on the table so I tapped the waitress and asked her to bring us some as well, which she did and finally introduced herself after. I tell her that the rest will be here shortly, which they did arrive less than 5 mins after. She takes our drink orders. At the same time we notice another black woman who was seated outside walk in and ask for her drink from the bartender as service was slow. We laugh and say we hope that isn’t us. Our drinks arrived and the frozen margaritas are so thick that you can’t even drink it through the straw, a spoon would have been nice to have instead of a straw. We noticed they were making a new batch with the machine so we simply ask to return that batch and wait for the new. The waitress plays dumb and says it’s from the machine (no duh) and only tells the bartender with no intention of changing our drinks. We ask for the manager because all we want is a new damn drink, no big deal right?! Wrong. We don’t know what the waitress told the manager, but as soon as the manager walks over, she has an attitude! She asks what’s the problem in a passive aggressive manner and tried talking to us as we were dumb and don’t know frozen margaritas come from machines. I explain to her that I always come here and never had one so thick that I can’t even drink properly. After going back and forth she finally agreed to let us change it for the fresh batch. She walked away to go talk to the waitress looks at us and rolls her eyes lmao. If it wasn’t for the fajitas I was dying for, I would have left right away but noooooo, I thought things would get better. The fresh batch comes out a little less thicker, but we’re able to drink it. 15 mins goes by, no one takes our order and the rest of the party didn’t have water either until we said something about the lack of service. At this point the couple next to us were already enjoying their meal and we were there first. 40 mins at this point. The waitress comes back and she’s friendlier for the moment, but then disappears again. We had to wave down another waiter who was way friendlier for help. The fajitas came out dry and bland. We also noticed when the next YT couple were seated next to us, they were given menus and glasses of water immediately, refilled water, all within ten minutes. Moral of the story here, don’t go here if you’re black. You won’t get serviced. I wish the old, authentic staff were still there! Never had this issue...

I just moved to NYC, and I’ve been on the hunt for a great Mexican restaurant, in specific- the best guacamole in NYC. This was neither.

A couple weeks ago on a Sunday evening, I took my laptop and backpack to treat myself to a nice study date and some Mexican food. I had read the reviews, so I was optimistic. When I was seated, it took over 10 minutes for them to bring the complimentary chips and salsa. As I looked around, the restaurant wasn’t full, so I was a little confused. I’m Then, I ordered guacamole and a grilled vegetable salad. It took another 15 minutes for them to bring the guacamole, and it took almost 40 minutes for my salad. The guacamole had more opinions than avocado, and the grilled vegetables on the salad were cold it even al dente. Did it really take 40 minutes to throw a few peppers on the grill and then on a pile of lettuce?

It wasn’t just my experience that drove me to write this review. I watched other tables get their food, and two separate tables had to send entrees back because they were not correct. The waiter even laughed and said “oh, whoops, we mixed your meal up with another table in the back.” Personally, I think that’s unacceptable. What if someone has a food allergy or is vegetarian and is served something he/she/they didn’t order? I also waited over 15 for my check when I asked for it.

I was willing to give this place a chance. Sometimes when the service is bad, the food is great or vice versa. But El Porton had bad service, and the food was not authentic or...

I’ve been to El Porton so many times previously and was a huge fan. That’s why it’s so sad to leave this review.

My colleagues and I placed a to-go order last month. There were numerous things wrong with the order, unfortunately. One of which was that one colleague received the wrong item completely (received tacos instead of a taco salad). The other one was a piece of green thread inside the food of my other colleague. Truly disgusting. See attached photo.

I went back to the restaurant that same day and showed them the photo and also explained all of the various other items that were wrong with the order. They acknowledged the thread was the exact type used to tie their tortilla bags. I explained that I understand things happen, but we just needed to let someone know and make things right with us. I was advised to leave my phone number and someone would call me back.

I never heard back, so I went there once more a few weeks later (actually placed another pickup order) and let them know that no one had gotten back to me. Once again, they apologized and asked me to again leave my phone number so someone could call me back.

I never heard back this time around either and unfortunately have to leave this review. Truly disappointing. Due to them ignoring us, it will prevent my colleagues and I from ever stopping by again, which makes me sad as it was the opposite of my intention. I just wanted them to make their...