Gloria's — Restaurant in New York

Where do I begin?

The service is horrible. Customer interactions are atrocious.

I visited the restaurant more than 10 times and each time I expect the experience to be much better than prior. I want to support this business because I am a vegan but the service is horrible and confusing.

Here are a few examples... This restaurant is not in my neighborhood so I had to travel to the restaurant each time which takes more than 15 minutes.

I called ahead to find out if the meal is available because I do not want to get to the restaurant and to be told that they sold out of the meal.

One occasion I called and was told yes the meal is available but when I arrived I was told that they sold out.

On the second occasion, I was told that the restaurant closes at 10 pm. I called ahead to place the order and was rudely told that the restaurant closes at 9 pm and that they are not taking any phone orders.

However, today was by far one of the worse experience I have ever had. I waited for more than one and a half hour only to be incorrectly charged for the items.

As I observed the person who was taking and completing the orders, she was rude and extremely obnoxious. She did not follow up with customers to update them on the status of their orders. When you follow up, she dismissed you as if you were interrupting her. It was by far a very sad experience. Another young lady diligently wrote the orders down but I could tell based on my observation that she was new at her task.

Today I say my goodbye to Gloria’s. This is not a business that I will...

I couldn’t pick up or have my food delivered to me because of an emergency at work. First thing I did was call the restaurant directly to cancel the order (literally mins after I placed the order) before it was ready. When I called the restaurant the status of my order was “it’s in the works” status (meaning it wasn’t ready for pick up yet) and the employee told me that I had to call Seamless to get the refund because they could do it at their end. Well by the time I got in touch with Seamless, they placed me on hold as they called the restaurant to see if my order was ready and of course they told them a different story and said it was already done and ready for pickup, and that they couldn’t refund me the money from their end and that I had to speak with Seamless again. This was an unnecessary and very stressful back and forth they had me going through all for one order of one plate. When I spoke with both Seamless and the restaurant directly about how I was going to get my money back and asked both “so you’re just going to keep my money??!!” they were all dead silent on the other end of the phone. My word of advice to anyone who going to order and god forbid have an urgent emergency like I did, to NOT ORDER FROM HERE OR SEAMLESS EVER AGAIN BECAUSE YOU WILL LOSE YOUR MONEY WITHOUT A CARE IN THE WORLD FROM BOTH THE RESTAURANT AND SEAMLESS. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL AND LACK OF RESPECT THEY HAVE FOR...

This place is bustling and smells amazing. There's a "best of New York" award on the inside, and based on my experience it's clear why.

I had macaroni pie, a pumpkin + bhagee roti, a sour sop drink, and some doubles for later. The roti skin itself is tender and soft, and choosing to mix the slightly sweet pumpkin with the potato + greens that was the bhagee turned out great. (So note: you can mix fillings from their roti board.) The macaroni pie has a nice hint of smokiness to the flavor, and is satisfyingly creamy and cheesy. I'm not normally a sweet drink person, but I took a chance on the sour sop and am glad I did. It was deliciously milky and tropically fruity, and just sweet enough.

As a vegetarian who grew up on German food, I really love cuisines with a lot of naturally occurring vegetarian dishes, and Caribbean definitely hits that spot. Gloria's not only has the wide variety of vegetables, curries, chickpea and bean dishes that are veggie hallmarks of Caribbean cuisine, but also has soy crumbles and tofu as options if you're looking for some additional veg protein.

Though there were a lot of people in line, the wait felt reasonable for what I ordered, and was definitely worth it. There are a handful of hightop tables and chairs, but this definitely seems like a takeout spot. Grab some tasty takeout from Gloria's and find a nice bench on the parkway...