La Arepa — Restaurant in Portland

Today is maybe the fourth or fifth time here. The customer service is so bad but I have come back because Bacano was closed. And I wanted to support this place. They always take like 30 minutes for 1 empanada but anyway. Today I tried to buy empanadas and there was a woman who was so rude I had to leave before ordering. Today is Sunday August 22 12:30pm so the owner knows who this person is: maybe she was the owner I don’t know. La persona más malcriada y obviamente no quiere vender. No había nadie más ordenando ni esperando más que yo. I just said thank you and I left. I will try to never come here again. Actually I had first gone inside the building to get the Colombia empanadas but it was closed. This woman is scaring customers away. I said absolutely nothing to upset her I only told her I wanted to make an order and she yelled from the back of the truck that I can order myself on the machine. The tablet wasn’t even working and it even had a sign that it wasn’t working so I said it’s not working and she came out of the food truck visibly upset and she was mockingly and rude asking me how it wasn’t working? My only reply was thank you and I left. I was actually there with my young son. I should have recorded her so she can see how rude she is.

*whatever you are implying with your reply is just as rude as the person who was there that...

I feel bad writing this because I have 2 sets of friends who like this place. But the food was blaaaaaaaand. The black bean arepa tasted like nothing had been seasoned. I didn't rate the service because there literally is none. You order on a computer screen and the computer texts you to pick up the food when it's ready. So basically you are tipping them for doing all the service yourself. And they hand out straws with all drinks, which is wasteful and actually illegal in Portland. They are supposed to give you one if you ask for it, not just give one to everyone.

Edited to respond to La Arepa's reply: I eat black beans fairly frequently in Mexican food. The filling of the arepa was just black beans and it didn't even taste like there was any salt. I don't mind the technology, it's just weird to be asked for a tip when I'm the one doing everything the tip covers. I don't blame you for using the technology. It's good for hygiene, takes tasks off your employees' backs and probably helps keep things organized. I don't really blame you for leaving the tip thing in the ordering process either, because I know restaurants are a tough business. But the food was...

I don't usually write negative reviews, but for this place I must. Twice now, they've done something sketchy with online ordering-

I once ordered through Caviar, and they claimed their Caviar Hub was down- though they accepted the order. I reordered and paid at the food cart- only to discover that they put the order as "Complete" on the app ergo charging me twice for the same meal. Sketchy. Fortunately, Caviar sided with me as I had ample proof.

Ordered recently through Door Dash and they opportunistically changed my order. Now changing orders makes sense if ingredients or an item are running low, but they changed my order to something that included the same ingredients and more. I couldn't eat the added ingredients as I'm allergic, so I called to amend their change. No answer. I contacted Door Dash and they agreed the situation was odd and cancelled the order for me. Oh and the item they changed it to cost more- go figure.

Either instance alone I can chalk it off as an accident- but two bad instances is enough for me to give this place a solid...