Le Bistro Boca Restaurant — Restaurant in Parkland

My girlfriends and I all live In different parts of the country. So every year, for the past 4 years , we’ve come together to celebrate life and sisterhood. We would cook, drink, laugh and enjoy being together. With this year being our 5th year anniversary, we decided to have our weekend catered. We reached out to le bistro 2.0 months in advance with the understanding that they would be willing and ABLE to accommodate 16 of us. They would present their food in a buffet style and the restaurant would be open to only us after 8pm. We also agreed on a specific menu. The day of our dinner, the owner reached out to us in the afternoon just to check in and let us know that they would be ready for us at 9pm. Unfortunately, two of our girls had flight delays so we asked to push back our time to 9:30pm. When we arrived, not only were there people still in the restaurant eating, the establishment was nowhere near ready to receive us. Tables were dirty, nothing was set up. Yet we stayed. One thing with us is that we really do our best to make the best of any situation. We hooked up our phone to their speakers to play music and proceeded to dance and sing as they cleaned and tried to prepare for us. About 30-45mins later, we got water on the tables. We brought our own bottles of liquor, so we asked for glasses so we could drink them. We weren’t served our first appetizer until 11:15pm. Small appetizers per table when we agreed that the food would be buffet style. Not once did the owner/manager come to address us. Not once did we get an apology. Finally we decided to ask someone what was going on so we called over a lady that was standing at the cashier. To our surprise....it was the owner. When asked why it was taking so long for us to get our food, it’s then she proceeded to tell us that certain foods that we already discussed and agreed on would not be available to us. We asked why wasn’t that made known to us hours BEFORE and she offered an excuse about miscommunication. Had we not called her over we probably would still be waiting for our food. So we asked that the food she was giving us to be packed away in platters so we could take home because at this point we were so annoyed with her and her lack of responsibility. The food that was brought out to us were packed in small platters when we initially agreed on big platters. This lady had the audacity and gaul to say that the food could fit in the big or small platters....didn’t matter....it was the Same amount of food. Now when you begin to insult the intelligence of 16 educated women......you’ve really lost your senses. Now let me take a minute to say that we gave a down payment of $400 and agreed after service was rendered properly the balance of $200 would be given. With 9 out of 14 iteams on our menu served and only 5 out of the 9 was edible .....we refused to pay $200. We were so upset and ready to leave we made the mistake of not looking at the food before we brought it home. When we reached home we were so disgusted With what we saw. Below I will put a picture of one of the platters and tell me would you eat it. Overall, We were highly dissatisfied and utterly upset with the restaurant but mostly with the owner. As Haitian Americans, We really wanted to support our own. But she gave no regard to our money or time. No type of respect. I usually don’t write reviews but this one...

Cont. How was this possible when they had received our funds weeks to months ahead of time, were aware that they had an event to cater, evidenced by their social media post from 1 PM that day and that we arrived 1 hout and ½ later than expected? Again we calmly and patiently waited. As we waited, the door to the kitchen out back opened often and an elderly woman wearing a house dress was seen leaning over a container and preparing something on the floor. That didn’t inspire confidence. At some point the rude woman Darline came and spoke only to the member of our party who had been in contact with her and informed her (in our hearing) that we would not be receiving the lasagna. Again, we were accommodating and resigned ourselves knowing that the rest of the fare would be received. In light of the late hour and the fact that we had a well planned out evening of events, we asked that they just give us the entres to go. That’s when we learned that besides the lasagna, we would also not be receiving the Du riz Cole ak Pwa (rice and beans) and the fish. There was no salad or vegetable given either! We were beyond frustrated, angry, incredulous and starving at that point but being the respectful group of professional women that we are, we didn’t engage them in the warranted discussion. We allowed our planner to speak to them and began calling our Ubers to return to Miami. It wasn’t until we returned to our rental property that we saw the mostly inedible, undercooked and unappetizing food that was sent back with us. It mostly looked like slop, pretty much. The ribs weren’t fully cooked and had BBQ sauce thrown on it, the Lambi (Conch) was under cooked, rubbery and lacked color, the baked macaroni was like cardboard and tasteless, and the Du riz Djon Djon (black rice) looked like it had patches of white rice throughout the pan. In other words, they barely used any Djon Djon (Haitian black, dried mushroom used to color and flavor the dish). Again, we were quite capable of cooking theses traditional dishes ourselves but decided to have it catered to enhance our experience. Major fail! We definitely know how these dishes should look and taste and besides the goat and the pork, they didn’t accomplish their goal. The food left much to be desired but the interactions that followed were shamefully poor. We could not believe the lack of professionalism and generally disrespectful manner we were treated. We later learned of the rude comments made by their representative Darline to our planner in our absence and how they never conceded that they dropped the ball. The entire time we sat there, we never received as much as a smile, a singular word or an apology from their representative Darline and Chef Gregory NEVER came out to speak to us. Clearly this was not his best because if it was, I don’t imagine they’d be in business for long. We were appalled at the subsequent communication we had with their representative Darline after we had left and opened the pans. She was belligerent, unapologetic and condescending, telling us to check with any other Haitian restaurant and see if we hadn’t received our money’s worth. In short, very disappointing and honestly the only way they can make amends for their poor service and unappetizing food, would be a formal apology and a...

After weeks of planning and preparation, close friends and I embarked on our annual girls trip to Miami. In preparation for this trip we selected this restaurant as business to cater our annual dinner based on pictures we viewed online. One of our event planners even went as far as scouting the location and sampling multiple dishes to determine whether Le Bistro 2.0 would be able to accommodate our tastes in both quality and quantity. Based on her review at the time, she communicated diligently to discuss our event, the menu, and how the meal would be executed. It was my understanding based on the communication that was detailed via text messages that the restaurant manager, Darline had with our event planner was that the restaurant would close early to accommodate our event and serve use buffet style. When I arrived to the location, to my dismay I observed soiled tables (spilled liquid, food particles) and guests still packing up their food. The restaurant manager was not present to greet us (even though correspondence throughout the day confirmed our expected time of arrival) nor was any of the food prepared. As expected this quickly dampened the spirits of our group but in an effort to salvage the evening we were permitted to play music. Our attempts to salvage the evening were futile to say the least because we were never greeted by the chef nor the restaurant manager even after she arrived on scene. Yes, you read that correctly! Here we were, over two hours after our expected dinner time and no food or hor d'oeuvre's were served and not once did the restaurant manager acknowledge our presence or attempt to explain the delay in service. When the hor d'oeuvre's were finally served it was presented to us one by one versus what had been originally requested. I personally called upon the restaurant manager to discuss the service to which I was met with excuses. Not once did Ms. Darline acknowledge or accept ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FAILURE IN THE EVENING!! If anything she continually attempted to shift blame on our event planner who she had been in correspondence with prior to the event. She proceeded to explain to us which meals could not be prepared even though the menu had been confirmed earlier in the day and modifications that were made in portion size without prior notification. Needless to say, I was disappointed not only in the restaurant but most importantly the poor level (or rather) non-existent level of customer service. Ms. Darline was not accommodating or respectful of our time and business. That was evident in the poor service and presentation for an event that we planned weeks in advance. Lastly the food that was prepared and sent home with use was NOTHING like what was observed on the restaurants IG page. The ribs, lambi, and plantains were under-cooked. The tassot was salty. Needless to say the food went in the trash. Not to mention the portion that were "prepared" were not adequate for a party of 16. As a result of this experience, I hope that Ms. Darline re-evaluates her position and takes an honest inventory of this incident and at lease acknowledge how her lackadaisical attitude ruined our event.

Please note: the one star that was provided was given as a result of the server who did attempt to entertain us while we...