Las Bugambilias — Restaurant in Philadelphia

EDITED I had to calm down and find a REAL RESTAURANT that cares about the CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE before I revised MY review.

THEY deserve ZERO STARS!!!!

I was attempting to be a new customer after attending a play at the Arden Theater (I will be letting them know about my horrible experience, so maybe they'll STOP recommending this restaurant).

I made a reservation for 5:45pm 3/29/25 . I arrived at 5:50pm, was seated. Hostess not so friendly, the woman wiping down tables was nice. About 2 minutes later my server comes, doesn't introduce herself, places a glass of water on the table then asks if I've ever been to the restaurant, I say "No" .

She then asks me if it's my first time there, to myself I ask "didn't I just answer that!?" But I say "YES". She then says if you have any questions let me know, but then proceeds to walk off.

So I peruse the menu, pull out my phone to ask GOOGLE the things that I can't ask the server.

I decide on my drink, appetizer and entree, all within 5-6 minutes.

STILL NO SERVER At this time an additional minute or two went by and I now here someone, WHO was seated almost 5 minutes after me, placing their order.

I look up AND it's the SERVER!!

She takes their order and leaves, I thought that she would at least check on me again, because at this point you would think that she would come to see how I'm doing with the menu.

BUT, NO!!!! She disappears!

I said to myself " give her a minute, if she's not back by 6pm, LEAVE!!" It was 5:58pm by that time.

6:01 pm, she's back at the table. So I said to her " I was here before them."

She said "well they knew what they wanted"

NOW tell me how would she know if I knew what I wanted or not when she never came back to the table to see if I NEEDED help or anything!

I wasn't even holding the menus anymore because I KNEW WHAT I WANTED!!!!

I Went to the Manager with my issue and he didn't care just kept asking "Did someone come to the table!?"

Totally ignoring my issue!

I left in tears!!!

I believe that because I'm new and black that she chose to wait on the white people who were...

Just to show I dont always leave negative reviews i have included my tripadvisor review from 2015...

We came tonight for drinks and dessert, I've been many times before with consistently good experiences... Tonight was just strange. Our margarita was small...served in the water glass... Which was weird.

I didn't question it until the end when the waiter said the large glasses were dirty... And that they dont use those outside anyeay.... Bull.... There are margarita photos from a month ago outside...and Sorry you can't tell me the margarita in a water glass or the other glasses have the same volume....you can't...

The tres leches cakes were dry and just not what we remembered at all.

We waited a looong time for the cakes....long time...so long we were nearly ready to leave by the time they came out. We watched a man seated after us get his food before our desserts came.

Left a strange taste in my mouth because I really enjoyed coming here. I used to love the food and drinks.

I was pretty upset about my margarita so i actually called... Kind of annoyed that they charge full price for a margarita that is literally half the size of the ones pictured on Google. I thought maybe they were under new management...hence the change in quality... Nope...

The manager actually called me back which i appreciated. She issued me a gift certificate which is a nice gesture. She tried to explain about the margarita glasses but I forgot to say it was in a WATER glass. I only said it was small.

3 stars because tonight was so sad. I knew we ' only' got a drink and 2 desserts.... Not sure if i will be back. Have to see if they actually send the GC.... I'm really seriously sad about tonight. They are pricy for food but we loved it so much we would splurge for special occasions.

My review from tripadvisor Awesome flan and drinks” Aug 30, 2015

amber g (21 reviews) Souderton, Pennsylvania great flan and drinks. always consistent. flan tastes authentic - my husband is argentine and is a bit of a...

Have been here several times and love it but Tuesday night 1/17 was my last time. I walked around looking for a place to eat as I live in Old City. Walked in and sat at the bar. It was a quiet night with only a couple tables filled and two gentleman at the bar. Sat down and wasn't even acknowledged by the bartender. The gentleman at the bar were trying to pay the bill and it was taking forever. When they finished the bartender finally asked if I would like a drink and I asked what kind of beer they had. He was holding onto the bar rocking back and forth, paused and said Corona and whatever you see over there. I felt something way off. He could barely stand up or see straight. I waited till the other two customers stood up and abruptly got up and walked out behind them. The first thing they said to each other was how messed up the bartender was. I was shocked and chimed in thinking it was just me that experienced that. I pride myself on service in my line of work and would never allow an employee or myself to ever be like that at a place of business. I am actually embarrassed for the management and how I was ignored and others were treated in just a few...