Café Arazu — Restaurant in Newburgh

I have been a regular customer for a long while. Unfortunately, my last visit was nothing short of a disappointment. A salad and a grilled chicken sandwich was ordered for lunch. Here’s the rub - me and the other member of my party sat and waited for over an hour for our meal. Everyone else who came in way after all around us had received their appetizers, entrees, desserts, etc. and they finished eating and were beginning to clear out. Still no food. Still no answers from our waiter. Our waiter seemed just as confused, and came by every so often for drink refills.

We waited for nearly an hour and a half at that point. It’s great that everyone else got served, but I suppose we just weren’t important enough to receive our meals. After the problem had been addressed by the waiter…a few times - crickets. The order should’ve been pushed to the front of the line with the meal or dessert comped for the inconvenience. The manager did NOT stop by the table to apologize with a promise to get the order fulfilled. There was nothing. To reiterate: a salad and a grilled chicken sandwich was ordered for lunch. It doesn’t take an hour and a half to complete that order. And saying - ‘we’re really busy’ isn’t a satisfactory excuse. It should’ve been handled so much better, but it wasn’t. This experience has soured my perspective on this establishment and I have no interest in spending anymore time/money here.

I immediately went elsewhere for lunch. I went to a well known restaurant in Huntingburg where I was waited on and received amazing service. They were extremely busy, but I received my steak AND dessert very promptly.

This particular restaurant should be a standard for all restaurants to follow in regard to food quality AND service.

I don’t see myself returning to Café Arazu after this terrible experience. I really don’t. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I would always tip very well here. It’s evident that there was no care, especially to a regular weekly customer.

In summary, I’m tickled everyone else around us got their food. Good for them. They got taken care of. We were disregarded. We were further asked to ‘return back later’ but both lunch and dinner were served by two different restaurants, each delivering a 5/5 on service AND...

My husband and I decided to have dinner with two of our friends on a Tuesday evening.

We entered and were asked where we would like to be seated. We opted for the outdoor patio as it was a lovely evening. We are seated and told that our waitress would be with us. We waited and waited some more.

Meanwhile, other people that were seated after we had been were being attended to with water, bread, and dipping oil. Ultimately, my husband goes inside to let them know we had been sitting there for at least 20 minutes and no one had bothered to check our table. Our friend also stopped another waitress to ask her where is our waitress.

We heard the same story “didn’t know it was my table” “we didn’t know anyone had not seen to you” etc. Clearly, all involved should have been MORE than aware that they have people arriving and being seated.

Finally, the other waitress that was asked comes to get our drink orders and take our order. We all ordered a drink of some kind, but didn’t receive them all at the same time. I had to ask again about a simple glass of wine I ordered and finally received it. My friend specifically ordered a side sauce with her salad and had to ask again for it to brought out.

We were told that the owner or management would be out to speak with us and they did, but it didn’t feel like a sincere apology for such bad, slow service.

We enjoyed our evening with our friends despite the awful service, the food at least tasted good, and they did not charge us for our desserts. Compliments for the waitress who at least put forth some effort to make sure we were tended to.

We had not been to Cafe Arazu in a long time and more than likely...

My wife and I went to Cafe Arazu on a Tuesday evening for dinner. It's a nice little restaurant in downtown Newburgh with a riverfront view from some of the tables. It also offers outside seating with a good view of the river. We had made a reservation because it's not a very big restaurant and in the past I could not get a table on a Friday or Saturday night. We were greeted warmly when we arrived and shown to our table. The waitress was very kind and helpful. Our waitress suggested a dish called a taste of Arazu sampler. It is only available on Tuesdays. It was fantastic! It included lamb chops, beef kabob, chicken kabob, and a dish called butter chicken. Also roasted tomatoes and two types of rice. We were told it was enough for two people and it was. For those with big appetites then an appetizer might also be needed. For dessert we had a lemon cream cake with fruit. Very yummy. We very much enjoyed this restaurant and it's food. We were pleasantly surprised that it didn't cost any more to eat there then at a local buffet. The parking lot is behind the restaurant which is closer to the river and does require walking up steps. There were a few closer parking spots near street level which do not require more than one or two steps. If you are not in a hurry then a stroll along the riverfront is in order before or...