alaMar Dominican Kitchen — Restaurant in Oakland

the food was tasty but I would not want to support a place that does such outrageous price gouging (+29% service charges..)

I'll start with the good, the menu is good, there are a lot of dishes, I came with a group of 6 so we got to order several dishes. The food was also very good, the fried red snapper dish in particular was a favorite of mine. The service was ordinary, the server took our order and gave us a water refill container for us to self-refill our water. that's it, so there's some service but nothing good to speak about.

But then the bill came... and I've never seen such outrageous bill charges. They added: 25% auto gratuity 1% donation to local food kitchen taxed the gratuity and 1% donation.

that's +29% on top of the original bill !!! And none of it was mentioned anywhere in the menu, or on the restaurant wall, or communicated to us in any way...

Since the service was very ordinary to us, we all thought the 25% was a bit too much, especially since this mentioned to us ahead of time, it felt very much like a bait and switch. But despite us being a large group of 6, and having , we made the awkward call to raise the concern to the manager.

I called for the manager, and asked him to please remove the gratuity charge, or at least reduce the auto gratitude to a more reasonable amount. We mentioned how it wasn't anywhere in writing or communicated to us ahead of time. But the manager was not having it, he didn't bother fully hearing us out, and cut us off, and said that nobody had ever complained about this and it is industry standard... He then said he would need to talk to the owner about this and left our table abruptly. We waited another 15-20minutes before I had to find him again to ask about this again. (Keep in mind we already finished our meal and want to move on with our Friday night.) The manager said he can only reduce it to 20% and then left us again. After another 5minutes, I got the new bill, and we paid and left.

The entire encounter was not professional nor came with any semblance of empathy or wanting to work something out with us. The way the manager acted further reinforced that this isn't a +25% tip type of place, both from a upper management to the actual management.

I can't say the food is terrible, but I cannot recommend this place due to what I see as poor ethics and business practices. It feels to me like a small business owner being a bit too greedy, the +25% tip is already a big amount, but to not mention it ahead of time is likely a bait and switch tactic, and then to add the +1% "donation" charge, then to tax the gratuity and donation just seems very wrong, their accounting at this restaurant seems off.. and that just doesn't vibe well with me and makes me wonder what other business practices the owner participates in.

I dislike writing negative reviews, but this restaurant really rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like I was being taken advantage of which is not a good overall dining experience. I'm hoping this post makes it to the owners and they make changes to be more proactive and transparent about their charges to their customers, and help educate and empower management to work with...

I was out in the east bay today! I tried @alamaroakland #dominicanfoodoakland I have been waiting for the WEST COAST/ bayarea to have flavors other than Mexican food! No offense to Mexican food! But being from Central America you crave that Caribbean flavor!! Plátano maduro, mondongo, ect. Today I tried the #theNewdominican it’s braised oxtail, pork pernil, butter pickles, Swiss cheese, sofrito lime mayo on a nisi Philly roll crispy to perfection! With two big tostones on the side! It has #flavor, it’s #delicious the meat omg to die for! bold, comforting, and full of soul—it hits you with deep, layered flavors that come from a rich blend of African, Spanish, and Taino (indigenous) influences If you live in the Bay Area and want DOMINICAN Food it’s here! Try it out!! I’m excited to go back and try their dinner portion!! 100 Grand Ave Oakland, CA 94612 #dominicanfood

I came in during lunch time the server was amazing went over the menu with him! The portions are perfect not to over the top enough for you to be full and have some left over! Ambiance inside gorgeous it reminds me of NY the place is located in a good area of Oakland and I know they have days when they have LIVE music and I will go back to...

If you’re looking for style over substance then you’ll love this place. The food is over cooked, to the point of almost being inedible. The fried goat was so overcooked and hard that it was more like table scraps you’d feed to a dog. The shrimp was also over cooked - dried out and rubbery, more like a shrimp favored sponge. The pork roast was surprisingly not over cooked, but was instead flavorless and sitting in a pool of greasy white “sauce” that I think was just mayonnaise. The wait staff is unhelpful - not mentioning that in order to actually enjoy a meal you have to order side dishes or else all you have to eat is over cooked proteins on small plates. The hostess was unsmiling, unfriendly, and began our meal by telling us there was a 1.5 hr. time limit. The space is pleasant enough, but the tables are so crammed together than my elbows bumped the person at the table next to us. And the music is so loud that my wife and I couldn’t talk. After an hour and $70 spent, I left hungry. We got Lumpia from a delightful place around the corner, which was 100x better and more of a complete meal. So I recommend skipping this place and...