Serafina San Juan Restaurant — Restaurant in San Juan

Not sure who trained these staff but it was a pretty bad experience for us. I’ll take it from the top so that hopefully the resteraunt can read this and help train them better. Preface this with the following. The restaurant had only about 10people seated in 4 groups. It was about 5:30pm last night. The girl who ‘welcomed’ us didn’t show any interest in her job. She asked no questions and I had to prompt her that we were a party of 2. From that small interaction she walked in a direction and we assumed we should follow. Not questions about where we would like to sit, inside/outside/bar. No follow me. Definitely no smile. That seems to be a rule at this restaurant. I’ll get to that more later… she seated us at the smallest table available with 2 seats in the middle of the walkway area. Seems strange to me as there were many other tables free and this table was not suited for 2 people to eat at. More of a bar top but table height. The server later in our meal commented about the table being too small for our plates. The server arrived after some time about 20mins and we ordered our drinks and meal all at once. The server had a question about if they were out of the beef tartare so she left to find out. All of this was fine accept the intersection with the server where very serious and short from her end. It seems to me that they have been trained that way, to be serious and that some how equated to high class. We noticed all the staff were this way with all the tables. I’m not exactly sure where you got that training from but it comes across as we the diners are an inconvenience to the staff. The server returned and luckily the beef was available so we ordered that and a margarita pizza to share. The drinks took about 25mins to arrive which was strange as the bar tender was standing there with seeming nothing to do for about 10min before our drinks arrived. I had a club soda and my wife had a vodka martini extra dry. My wife didn’t finish hers as it seems like they watered down the olive juice and it didn’t taste great that way. The beef tartare looked amazing when it arrived about 40mins after ordering. But sadly it was very salty. And they put hot potato’s on top of it so half the tartare was actually cooked, it was very oily also. Other that that I would have been great. Just needs someone to refine it a bit. We they sat there with empty classes most of the time as the waiter was no where to be seen. The next part of our meal was the margarita pizza. This took another 30min after we had finished our beef. Not sure what he was doing at that station but the staff where always over they smiling and joking. I have no issue this this but I bring it up as that’s the way they should have been with the customers. We thought at first that these staff where unhappy in their jobs and that management was being too harsh but we realized after seeing the staff being happy and talking with each other that it’s a training problem, why be nice to each other and sour with the diners. Makes not sense for a fancy dining place to act this way, you just push clients away and get low tips, also bad reviews. The pizza was ok. Was expecting better from a place that has so many pizzas and a special oven. The toppings seemed on point but the dough was very floury and the whole thing lacked seasoning. Also may have been because the beef was so salty… We were sharing everything but the server didn’t bring plates for the pizza so we had to ask and that when she said the table was probably too small.. weird because all the other meal plates we saw where huge and would not have fitted on this table either. Once we had eaten all our food we waited 30mins for the check and she just dumped it and ran. Normally this is ok but with the service being so slow I wanted to either put in on my room or give her the card. I open the check and luckily I could charge it the the room. Unfortunately there was no pen. We finally flagged down another staff member, she seems to be the only person who smiled at us the whole time...

Terrible experience; please avoid this place at all costs!

Food quality - we ordered an assortment of dishes, which included pizza, risotto, and pasta. The lasagna was quite dry, the risotto had a burnt aftertaste and the rice used was not risotto rice, and the portion size of my raviolis was minuscule to say the least. We all expected much more for what we were paying.

Service - the waiter was extremely rude. First, we did not get any guidance into what dish to order / options based on what we were looking for. Secondly, she laughed at us and then gave us a harsh response for not knowing what one of the ingredients in the menu was. Thirdly, when I got my raviolis and realizing it wasn’t going to be enough food, I asked her how long it’d take to order another dish and, once again, I got a horrible, aggressive response - ‘it’s take however long it needs to take’. The waiter wasn’t the only service issue. Getting the food took us over an hour; even the drinks (beers, for the most part) took a long time.

Payment - when the writer brought the check, a 20% service fee was added because we were a party of 5 and 2 kids. While this is customary where we come from, no one really informed us here. However, we were still willing to pay it (which we did!) but not without complaining to the manager because we service we had received wasn’t a 20% tip kind of service. We complained to the manager who offered us to adjust the tip, which we refused and left the 20% because at the end of the day it’s not really about the money but rather making sure that our feedback was heard so the service could improve. The cherry on top of the cake was that, after collecting our cards and processing the payment, our waiter came back to the table and literally threw the cards at us and left - EXTREMELY RUDE!!!

Again, I’d give this place zero stars if I could. And fun fact - now that I’m reading other people’s reviews, I see many of them complain about the same issues. It seems like this place is a hit or miss and with so many options in Condado, why would you go...

Our experience at Serafina was not so great. We had a 6:30 reservation and arrived @ 6:20. We waited at the host stand for proximately 12 minutes before anybody came out to attend to us. We were seated at a table that was wobbly the waitress attempted to put a napkin to make it stable, but it was the tabletop that was unstable. We couldn’t move the table because the ceiling was leaking at next table and the other table next to us was occupied so we dealt with it. We ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio. The only bottle available was a twist off which tasted so salty and it was so unpleasant, but we didn’t want to complain so we drank it. My husband and son ordered the surf & turf, which was supposed to be a filet mignon and a lobster tail. I ordered the margherita pizza cauliflower crust. The food arrived& there was no lobster tail. It was a half of claw and my margarita, pizza had olives, and mushrooms all over it. I stated to our server that I did not order this and she stated this is how we make Margherita Pizza, but it does not state that on the menu. My husband suggested to her to explain to the chef that they advertise lobster tail when they’re doing a half a claw. The appetizer calamari seems like it was Leftover calamari that was refried. The server seemed a little overwhelmed and did not try to make up or address the lobster tail nor Pizza situation. I literally had one slice and it was terrible. I Couldn’t finish it. My suggestion to you going there is be aware where you’re seated & don’t order the pizza. In hindsight, I should’ve asked for a manager for them to replace the Pizza or credit us but it was our first day in Puerto Rico and my son was there and I didn’t want to make any fuss. The prices that they charge the food should’ve been amazing! The atmosphere is, cool and colorful and cozy that’s about as pleasant as it gets. We chose this restaurant because it was right next to the hotel ( 1 minute walk)where we were staying and was very convenient, but we were very disappointed. Parking lot...