Black Bean Deli Orlando — Restaurant in Orlando

I went in on a Thursday at about two in the afternoon. The restaurant wasn’t too busy.

My order was the lunch special, a Cuban sandwich with beans and rice and a side of plantains.

When the order came out, it didn’t look quite right. It looked as if it had barely been pressed, it looked more like a sub roll with some cold cuts. When I bit into it, it had the same texture of a hoagie and was just barely warm inside.

As no one ever checked with me to see if everything was OK, I ate the first half but was just not satisfied so I pointed this out to the counter server and asked him if they could repress the other half. He told me they could give me another sandwich but just couldn’t repress the other half. Although I couldn’t eat a whole other sandwich, I took him up on the offer.

I waited a few minutes and a young lady, tattooed with face piercings, came out and tossed the tray onto the counter, and it slid over to me. She had nothing to say. As she turned and walked away, I said, “thank you” as she continued to walk away without turning around, she gave me a cursory you’re welcome.

I have eaten at the black bean deli many times. The food is always very good. However, this time it wasn’t prepared properly. They are serving Cuban sandwiches. They are supposed to be properly pressed. Whoever prepared this in the back was just going through the motions. Whoever served it did not care that it was not prepared properly. Whoever was running quality control was a complete failure.

My main issue is with the tattooed/facial pierced GenZ young lady that brought the sandwich out. She really is a better candidate for working in the housekeeping industry or at The DMV or perhaps Social Security. She has no idea what customer service is all about and does a disservice to the black bean deli. Her whole demeanor left such a bad taste in my mouth. It will be a while before I return.

The Lions share of the employees there are GenZ. She was so bad. She makes her associates look like they are 5 star servers.

See attached photo of the properly pressed Cuban on the left, against what was originally served to me. This is akin to serving melted ice cream at an ice cream shop. To their credit, they fixed the problem, but that server...

I try my best to give every restaurant the benefit of the doubt and even when I'm not satisfied I don't make it a big deal and engage the restaurant to see if the issue can be fixed. I ordered a set of a yucca fries which on average are pretty good. My only quarrel is that the last couple of times they've been too salted. Well this visit I told them that I wanted them to go light on the salt but still give it salt. I received my order and I proceeded to go to my car open them up to give it a look and to my surprise no salt. I took one bite out of a yucca fry and confirmed that there was no salt. I went back into the restaurant and I asked kindly for them to add salt to the yuca fries. They told me once I touched it that they cannot take it back to add the euca fries and that there was salt on the counter and that I could add salt if I wished to do so. I thought this was very bizarre since It was no more than a second ago they made my order and I came right back in immediately to voice my concerns. Good Customer service to me would be to take the yucca fries that I currently have and replace them with a fresh batch of Yuca fries and make sure that there is light salt on them as I instructed from the beginning. I literally took no more than one bite from my order. This wasn't a diabolical plot to take advantage of a Yuca order. I didn't want to make a big stink out of it so I took my Yuca fries and counted my losses however I definitely will reconsider this being one of the best places for Yuca fries in Orlando. Please don't make the mistake of actually biting into your food to confirm it's how you like it because once you do that there ain't no going back. Try to use your 6th Sense and taste the food through telepathy and maybe then you can get your order the way that you want it if it's not right. Blessings to Black Bean Deli this review is to assist you guys in the future with how to deal with customers. On any other occasion I received great service and phenomenal food, however I guess today was not my day or my Yuca Fries for...

From the first moment I arrived I had a problem with the parking. Be aware at that. But the real problem is inside: first and foremost food is okay but there are a lot of things that will ruin the experience and will show you're being stolen: The price is just insane for a disguised cantine. 2 The place is called Black Bean Deli but in the plates black bean was placed carefuly, just a little bit. It happend for both the plates we ordered so it was not a mistake. That shows a lot of hypocrisy to be called Black Bean and to forget to properly put the black bean and instead to give rice. You eat from plastic dishes with some miserable plastic forks and knifes which have nothing to do with the food itself. I have no idea why they do it because on the long run plastic is much more expensive then good simple dishes that need washing. Probably they are to lazy to do the dishes. Personaly I think this kind of waiste on plastic should be taxed seriously by authorities. The place is a mix between a restaurant and a fast food and, even though the food is okay, the price is twice more expensive or even more then a regular cuban bodega with homecooked food. That is just not acceptable. They sell only beers from cans, which is completely weird. You actualy pay for enjoying "hipsterish" atmosphere of some lazy dudes.

In the words of Mr. Jose Martì: "yo soy un hombre sincero" and my conclusion is that this place does not deserve the price they ask, it's just regular food and you'll pay 2 to 2,5 times more only for the "hipsterish" atmosphere. Huge rip-off.

P.S.: they replied all experience it's the fault of my high expectation. I can say that when you ask for 50-60-70$ for a lunch it's inhuman to give plastic plates and forks and so on.. they are just from a different reality: the one where only they...