Quinoa Kitchen — Restaurant in New York

I’m writing this review with teary eyes and a broken heart. On December 23rd, I went to Quinoa to grab a quick bite before my performance across the street. The cashier was visibly intoxicated, overly flirty, and made me extremely uncomfortable. Once he finally took my order, he told me it would take 5 mins to prepare. I was not a new customer to Quinoa. I normally wait in the restaurant for my food, but because the cashier was hitting on me, I waited in my car. 15 mins later, I went to retrieve my food. The cashier was so inebriated that he forgot to give my order to the cooks, and so my food was never made. I asked him for a refund because the 15 mins that I waited was all the time that I had. He refused to give me back my money saying, “it’s not that serious, it only takes five mins.” We went back and forth over me receiving my refund because I had to go, but he absolutely refused to give back my money. To add insult to injury, he then turned to the cooks behind him and said, “you see why I don’t like Black women? You see why I don’t like my own kind?” I was mortified at the verbal abuse I was receiving over his drunken mistake. I was surprised that it was being escalated to an attack against my race and gender. Later that night I left a review, and the next day the owners Jack & Gus (father and son), reached out to me as their cooks confirmed what I detailed in my post. They promised that he was fired for his actions, and they refunded my meal in addition to offering for my next meal to be free. They asked me to take down my original review, and I did so because I felt like they understood, had my back, and chose to handle the situation appropriately.

On December 26th, I received a phone call from one-half of Quinoa’s ownership (the son) saying that his father decided to keep the abusive cashier as an employee because he’s been there for years and they “can’t afford to lose the diversity in the restaurant” as the abusive cashier is the only Black employee they have. Given this new information, I now see that the owners previously told me what I wanted to hear just so that I’d agree to remove my review. They are not men of their word as they did not honor what they said they would do.

Williamsburg is a neighborhood made up of a large Jewish population on one side and a large LGBTQ+ population on the other. If the cashier had said something Anti-Semitic or Anti-LGBTQ+, the owners would have gotten rid of him swiftly, and without a second thought. Hate speech of any kind should never be tolerated. It’s wrong that only certain types of hate speech gets taken seriously, and I am calling out Quinoa ownership for choosing to stand by this hateful man. In their minds, since it was a Black man abusing a Black woman, they are justified in keeping him in the workplace. They completely disregarded the trauma I experienced at their restaurant simply because they’re too lazy to search for another qualified Black employee (which I might add are bountiful for the choosing in New York).

In 1965, a civil rights leader said, “the most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” Quinoa is living proof that this is still very much true up until this very day. Choosing not to act is akin to choosing to tolerate and the choices made by Quinoa ownership has spoken...

Quinoa Kitchen is customer oriented. I received my order on 12/28/23, but it was the wrong one. I called and explained that my order was incorrect. I was advised that they could replace it today or give me a refund. I was hungry now and had nothing to eat at home, so I asked them to replace it. They agreed, unfortunately, I had no way to pick it up that's the reason I ordered through DoorDash.

Although my address was far from their location, they had my new order delivered to me by Relay! I received updates via text messages from Quinoa Kitchen and Relay regarding my new order.

The sweet potato fries were actually waffle fries and tasty. They weren't salty (just the way I like them). I reheated them in my toaster oven because of the distance and cold weather. I had half of the Veggie Quinoa Black Bean Burger for breakfast this morning. It's a bit spicy to me (but only because I don't eat spicy food) and delicious. They were generous with the avocado. The Wild Salmon Bowl is tasty and I received a large portion of salmon. The Carrot Cake - Raw (vg) is smaller than I expected, but love that it's vegan and made with all natural ingredients. I like the taste.

Looking forward to trying other dishes from Quinoa Kitchen. I recommend this restaurant for it's healthy food and...

Normally i am pleased with the food i get from here, to the point where i can ignore the mediocre service and long wait times. My office ordered today, and a coworker found pieces of glass in his salad (pictured below). When we called seamless to request a refund they offered to only refund us for the salad in question instead of the entire order. Which isn't asking for much considering he was CHEWING on glass. It wasn't my salad so I can't take legal action, but lucky for the restaurant my coworker thinks it's more trouble than it's worth.

Be careful everyone. This isn't the first time they've been careless, but it wasn't as serious as it was today. . I should have noticed the signs before and we wouldn't be...