El Valle — Restaurant in New York

From 1-10 (10 being the best!) this is a “-10!” (Negative 10!). Sunday early afternoon on “Mother’s Day” 2021; called exactly at 2:43 pm a 4 minute call… placed my order and patiently waited till 3:03 pm to call back just to get an estimate on ETA since I realized I didn’t get one. 3:36 pm called for status. As you may imagine we were very hungry 😋. And I quote; waitress: “Yes - Jay! Your food is ready and ready for delivery… just waiting on the driver” Jay: “sure no problem, thank you for the update”. Called at 3:57 pm no answer. Called at 3:58 pm; another waitress answer; in spanish speaking as well and admits the poor handling of my order. Unable to explain for the late and unacceptable situation. At 4:22 same waitress answers in embarrassment… By now… I jumped on the car and drove to pickup the food. Loosing time, Loosing a great parking spot!, the whole family is extremely upset… 2 young kids hungry as well… I immediately requested for the manager. And with very little urgency tells me they will prepare my food. WHAT! 😮 so they didn’t even bother preparing the food and it was all a lied 🤥 to the customer… me! Wow 🤦‍♂️ They were very well staff and very little amount of customers placing orders at the time. Yes their phone was ringing off the hook. But allow to brake down as follow.

I counted about five young ladies behind the counter serving food. And another four other staff sitting down counting money/tips… they could’ve been ending their shift; but they could’ve assist if the current staff felt overwhelmed with the orders and the phone. With all due respect to the entire staff in this restaurant… They need more training and a change in management, one of the staff member that was sitting on the table counting money I was able to tell by her demeanor that she was one of the managers in charge… and if you happen to be the owner of this particular restaurant… Get involved in this business don’t let it be run by amateurs that will ruin your name and business.

And if you happen to be the owner of the franchise name “El Valle”, they need training from you, don’t just provide your name and let them do what they want to do. Now due to this bad experience; I will be always very hesitant in ordering from any restaurant name “El Valle”.

And FYI as I waited for my food and they tried to make me wait another 10 minutes for the “tostones” that was also NOT ready. I noticed a young lady in her early 20’s waiting to pay for her food for over 7 minutes just to charge a debit card that your staff could’ve just tap on the POS and walk out really quickly. But your staff was drowning in a glass of water… due to poor management.

Let me be clear, I say all this NOT to criticize your business, but to give you an honest feedback on what it is and how to run a business.

And for the HUGE inconvenience I was about to dare and walk out without paying; but do to my principles and acknowledging everything that has happened, I didn’t want to take it out on the waitress they had nothing to do with this… I just paid what I felt comfortable paying… and definitely not paying whatever was the bill. Because even McDonald’s gives you free ice cream, apple pie 🥧, free french-fries, or even soda… when they are lacking “customer service” like...

Everytime I have gone to eat at this restaurant we have had to wait at times an hour . If you dare to ask the waitress for a time on when your food is coming they become arrogant and upset that you are asking. The food is wonderful no questions and hats off to the cooks all the time. But the service is horendous. UNLESS you are THERE FRIENDS then you get the ROYAL treatment. You cant ask for water its a sin. You cant ask for additionals they look at you as if you have taken precious time from there chit chatting with there customer friends whom they run to the minute they walk in and serve there foods first personally going to the back to pick it up. They then stand there for long periods asking about family, kids catching up on the gossip of the girl next door who they cant stand. Finally when there done they take a look at your empty table and say. O amor dejame chequear tu cominda.. REALLY... then they have the ordasity to have you wait another half hour and they get mad when you look at them and they ignore you look.. but they sit down and begin to count the total of tips collected and once again begin the chit chatting and the laughing... And GOD FORBID that another friend walk in... then your really in for the long hall. By the time you food is out yes it delicious but your stomach is killing you from all the wait. So despite the wonderful and well cooked food.. The service is what has elimated this restaurant for us to sit in and dine. We have a better chance waiting for delivery or just going to order take out which is another story in itself you have to fight the customers because there is no respect in order. People begin to yell over you and you must yell back to back off the scream at the waitress to take you order... I have since gone to the Jerom restaurant which is equally busy but the service is far better and the ladies are respectful and...

i hate to be that person, but i feel like me and my friends were discriminated against. we are two well mannered mixed black americans who enjoy spanish food. when we went in to be seated for a table, no one greeted us, no one said anything along the lines of "a table will be ready soon". the staff just looked at us with the most 'ugh' faces. my friend and i were getting uncomfortable but we decided to wait, we were hungry. 15 minutes later, a table was finally ready. we sat and our waitress didn't speak nor smile. while taking my order, she stopped and pulled another waitress aside to talk about me. i don't speak fluent spanish but i do know bits and pieces. she came back to our table and i was getting upset. again, saying my order, i asked for rice, beans, platains, and chicken. the waitress said in a stern voice "we don't have chicken. we are busy with deliveries and we won't have chicken available until 6PM". it was 4PM at the time, btw. i said "that doesn't make sense to me. how did you run out of chicken when you're still taking in-store customers" and her reply was "sorry, no chicken. there is no chicken. so you can wait until 6PM or..." obviously she meant or we can leave. as we were leaving, we saw two different waitresses serving chicken of all sizes to the hispanic customers. they had chicken, they just didn't want to serve us. the sad thing about this is, ive been coming here for YEARS with my family with no problem. the food is legendary. for some reason, me going alone with a friend created something terrible. that encounter ruined every good memory i ever had in there. im trying to spend MY hard-earned money on YOUR food and this is the way im treated? i get lied to over chicken because im not hispanic? never...