Sazón Cocina Criolla DTMO — Restaurant in San Juan

I wish I could say I enjoyed myself here but that's simply not the case. The waitress came to the table to ask if we'd like anything to drink. I ordered a mojito and my cousin ordered a pina colada.

Our waitress came back after about 15 minutes with my mojito and then left. I tasted the mojito and the mojito was incredible. Another 10 minutes go by and my cousin starts saying, "Where did our waitress go? I still haven't even gotten my Pina Colada."

The waitress comes back about 3 minutes later, with no Pina colada in hand. She was here to take our order now. I couldnt decide between two dishes so I had asked her which would she say was the better choice between the bistec encebollado or the carne frita. My mother then made a comment that she wasn't very hungry so she'd just share my plate with me. The waitress then said if you're going to share I wouldn't go with the Carne frita as they only give you 5 pieces, where as you get an entire steak with the bistec encebollado.

My mother than said it's ok, just tell her which is better I'm truly not very hungry, to which I replied no mom let's just get the dish with the entire steak, so we got the bistec emcebollado.

My sister and nephew ordered the pechuga jibaro, and my cousin ordered the mofongo churrasco. The waitress turned to leave, and my cousin said "Excuse me, but I never got the Pina colada I ordered." The waitress said she'll bring it right out.

Bring it right out was another 10 minutes. Once it arrived it was a delicious Pina Colada. Another hour goes by, and not only have we not received our food but our waitress hasn't checked on us once! All the water at table was empty and so were the drinks.

My mom couldn't take it any longer and went to go search for the waitress. My nephew was getting quite antsy and asked if I could accompany him for a walk. I felt bad and told him how about we go get you a milkshake next door at La Burghesia, he happily agreed. So we left the restaurant waited a line, ordered and received our milkshake and that's when we got a call that the food was starting to arrive at the table.

We go back and my mother told me that the waitress said our food was taking so long because the dish I ordered takes longer to prepare and she held all the other plates back because of that. To which I said ok.........it still shouldn't take more than an hour for one dish but whatever, it's here, I'm STARVING, let's eat.

Well it appears that because everyone else's dish was held back due to my dish taking so long their food was delivered COLD. The chicken was cold, the rice and beans was cold, the melted cheese on the chicken had solidified due to it being out for so long. I felt awful that everyone's dish was cold due to my dish taking so long.

Normally regardless of the length of time a dish takes, everyone's food is served hot. That simply wasn't the case here. Everyone is now annoyed but still starved. No one wants to send the dishes back for fear of having to wait another 30 minutes or more to receive the plates back.

I grab my fork and take a look at my meal and think what is this? I then tell my mom, what the hell is this? She goes pork. I told her, that's not what I ordered? I ordered bistec encebollado. Now we're all angry at this point. The waitress told my mother our meals were all held up because of my dish, everyone at the table received cold food because of my dish, and now I've been delivered a meal that I didn't even order. My mom says I'll go find her and ask her to switch it, to which I replied im STARVING I really can't wait any longer.

My mom thought the waitress must have gotten confused and gave me the carne frita instead, but I told my mom this is NOT carne frita because this is one large piece of meat and she said the carne frita would be 5 pieces. I'm now trying to eat this large piece of pork (chuleta can can), and I look like a savage because I do not have the proper knife to cut it. My mom then had to find a knife for me. Not once did we ever receive an apology.

Needless to say we...

Unfortunately not a positive experience. We were pretty excited to check out the new T-mobile District and all of the restaurant offerings. The atmosphere is stunning the layout and options were spectacular. We checked out all the restaurants to see what they had and ultimately ended up with Sazon due to it being more of the Caribbean/Puerto Rican menu that we wanted to have. The inside of the restaurant is stunning and well decorated. The menu is definitely over priced for what they offer but we were somewhat understanding since it’s in a popular tourist destination. We both got cocktails which were well made (Puerto Ricans are excellent bar tenders). My wife ordered the stuffed Mofongo which the server up sold her to get the butter sauce “because it will be dry”. The Mofongo and meat stuffing was good the butter was over powering and all over the meal, and left a really bad after taste. I ordered the Skirt Steak medium because I know they are thin and cook fast. I prefer a hot pink center. When the steak arrived I can just look at it and tell it was rare as can be, so I immediately cut into it to make sure, and I was right it was completely undercooked. I asked the server if it can be heated a little longer and was told with a slight attitude “so you want it Medium well then?” Essentially trying to shift the blame to me. I let her know that I was hoping for a medium like I’ve ordered that same steak for the past 25 years. I let her know if a purple Luke warm steak is considered medium then I’ll take a medium well or even well done. She definitely was not happy about it and stormed off to grab a plate for me to put my steak on. When it came back it was completely over done but at this point I didn’t expect anything less. The server puts the plate on my table a just kept walking. The side I choose was Rice Momposteado. It was a delicious yet very small portion. Also was charged as an upgrade even though she told me the steak come with a side. Apparently that type of rice is “extra” even though you get a tiny portion. It was time to pay and at this point my server was kind on snarky and seemed to have a smug attitude. She comes over with the credit card machine and flips it over to me and says you can tip if you want I don’t care?! Of course we were going to tip other then her attitude I didn’t think any of the kitchen errors were her fault and I didn’t even blame her. 2 cocktails, a side of rice a skirt steak, a Mofongo with steak nearly $100 (after tip). Not that it’s a lot of money it’s just not a great value for what you get. Definitely did not leave happy, or satisfied and our server...

This was our worse dining experience we have ever had on this beautiful Island. Our waitress was Dennise, she rarely checked on our table. Our drinks took about 25 minutes to arrive. It was myself and two teenagers 15 and 17. Our food took an hour to arrive, I ordered stewed cod (horrible it was very fishy tasting I assume the fish was not fresh). My sides were rice and beans (rice was sticky and beans had no taste at all, very bland). I also ordered arepas, they were delicious. Most of our food was left as we couldn't eat it. My granddaughter ordered Sorullos stuffed with cheese and Mini alcapurrias (they were over cooked and hard). The Sorullos were good. My other granddaughter ordered the same as myself (stewed cod) She tried eating it and like me, she didn't like it. She liked the arepas that came with it. Also ordered was Mofongo, very dry, took one bite only, left the rest. I had sweet tea and loved it. The girls had non-alcoholic Pina Colada (they each drank two, they really loved it). I personally will not return here (My bill was $103 I left a $17 tip our server looked at it and walked away. Not even a thank you and I went against my granddaughter's wishes not to tip because our server did not serve our food someone else came plus the fact that she never came back to check on us! Please check the place out for yourselves, you may have a better experience, One thing I can say is that it does not represent the authentic culinary heritage of our Puerto Rican culture that is experienced throughout the Island. The tourist seem to like the place so that's great for the economy. Not worth the money we spent. Very pricy for food we didn't eat. DTMO is a great place and fun time for all members...