Sangria Cafe — Restaurant in New York

I rarely review restaurants but when I come across meals like this, I must say something. First we were greeted at the door by a gentleman who was attractive but had in way too tight pants that I could tell what religion he was, unprofessional for any time of day. We were seated by a lovely waitress who gave us the menu. We had wonderful coconut sangrias. Then we had, from their brunch menu, Appetizers, plantain fritters with shrimp and scallops and my husband had steamed clams. Both were delicious. Then came the problems. I ordered the chicken & waffles. It looked good but NO FLAVOR. Not even salt. The waitress came over and asked me how am I doing, is everything okay. Well I nicely let her now that the chicken was bland. Waffles were a nice touch. She spoke to the "Manager" and was told by her that if I wanted something else. So I had the Mofongo con pernil (crushed plantains with fatback and garlic aoili around it). The Plantains were good but the pork was like the chef just stuck a piece of meat in the oven and called it a day; DRY

If you’re considering this restaurant, read this first and think twice.

We reserved a table for 12 for a special birthday brunch and were required to pay a $200 deposit upfront to secure the reservation. While this seemed excessive and unusual, we complied. When we arrived, we were seated at a table that could barely accommodate 10 people. We politely asked for additional space, perhaps an extra table, but were met with resistance. The staff made a huge fuss about the request and initially refused to accommodate us. There was no manager on-site to assist, and we were told to wait.

After finally speaking with the manager, who was dismissive and unhelpful, I had to threaten to leave before they begrudgingly offered us a larger table. This was not the start we had hoped for, especially for a celebration.

The waiter provided decent service, but unfortunately, the food was terrible, and the sangria was mostly juice. Most of our party was dissatisfied with their meals, leaving us feeling overfilled on sugary drinks rather than enjoying the “sangria” experience.

At the end of the meal, the billing process was chaotic and unprofessional. Despite having paid the $200 deposit days in advance, the staff acted as though they had no record of it. I had to get up, show proof of payment, and argue with the manager, who insisted she “didn’t know” because she wasn’t present when the deposit was made. This is unacceptable—businesses should have proper records, especially when deposits are required.

To add insult to injury, they also charged an unexplained “operations fee,” which was never disclosed beforehand. The entire experience was stressful, unorganized, and honestly felt like a scam.

Save your time, money, and sanity—do not patronize this establishment. The food was bad, the management was unprofessional, and the entire experience left a sour taste in our mouths. This is not the kind of place where you’ll feel valued as a customer....

Today 6/16 is my birthday and we just spent 2 1/2hrs driving through traffic to bring my mother home to co-op city. A little TMI but for a purpose, when we just crossed over the bridge I called this restaurant Sangria Cafe to order my birthday dinner to go because we are starving due to a day full of school events etc... Order was placed the lady in the line was cool. Now fast foward to finally getting our food for myself, husband, mother and 2 kids. Served my mother first and when she starts eating the rice she's like wow the rice isn't good and I could tell when I was serving her that I had to poke the rice a lot to scoop out rice for her and you can tell it's all mushy rice aka over cooked soft mush rice. So to confirm I take some and so does my husband and we try and we came to the conclusion that this rice is not good and we cannot enjoy our meal. So the 2 small/medium container rice mountain that they put in a aluminum tray looks like the majority is gone but it's actually in my mother take away plate that I served her and my and my husband trying some, I call and explain to the lady what happened and she tells me to come over with the food and for us to speak to the manager. We get to the front my husband goes in since he's the one who picked it up, he comes out in about 5mins or so and he says that the manager had the NERVE to say that we complained that the rice was bad but it's almost gone! I was so upset when my husband told me this because if he would of said that when I was there I would have put him in his place! They gave us "new" rice and guess what it was still MUSHY! They have their faithful customers so they'll continue to make business but I definitely won't go back ruined my birthday dinner and the manager's attitude 👎🏼 So disrespectful, no one is looking for a handout I paid for my food and I expect it to be cooked properly not mushy and he had the nerve to respond to my...