Tamarindo Latin Cuisine — Restaurant in Simpsonville

We visited Tamarindo on Valentine's Day, and unfortunately, it turned out to be an awful experience from start to finish. We called ahead to let them know we’d be a bit late, and they assured us it was no problem. When we arrived, however, the front greeter completely forgot about our phone call and told us that there might not be a spot for us, which was incredibly confusing after we’d driven almost an hour on rainy roads. After a moment, she remembered who we were. We ended up waiting 30 minutes to be seated, and while I didn’t mind the belly dancer (as I was aware of this from reviews), it was clear some other patrons were visibly uncomfortable. It made the whole vibe feel awkward, and you’d think the owners would notice the tension.

Once we were finally seated, our waiter took ages to come to our table. People who arrived after us were being seated, served appetizers, and had their main courses brought out while we sat there. We had to wave someone down to get their attention, and they managed to find our waiter who had been serving people by us. She took down our order. After 15 minutes, she came back and asked what we had ordered again. We were shocked but tried to stay calm. It only got worse as we noticed other couples standing and waiting while empty tables were completely unoccupied. Then the front greeter approached our table demanding we pay an outstanding balance of $28.45—despite us not having received anything yet. She quickly realized she had gone to the wrong table. Honestly, the whole experience felt like a bad joke.

After all that, the waiter came back to our table twice more, blank-faced, asking what we ordered and “if we enjoyed our food”. I gave her a very upset shocked look informing her we have yet to receive our food. She then asked AGAIN what we ordered and reassured us she would "check on our food." By then, we were getting really frustrated. An hour and 35 minutes passed before we got anything—no drinks, no appetizers—nothing. We were ready to leave if we didn’t get something within the next 5 minutes. Finally, the empanadas arrived. The beef and chicken ones tasted old and greasy, but the cheese empanada with garlic sauce was good. Still, no one came by to offer napkins with all the grease on the table or more water. It was truly awful.

Eventually, our main courses came, and I have to admit, the food was very good and worth the wait, but the service was absolutely terrible. The front greeter was doing her best to keep things going, but her outfit looked stained with what looked almost like baby vomit on her top. It was clear the servers and general workers were overwhelmed, running around without any direction. They were serving orders to the wrong tables and taking them back. People were being seated after us and served before us. It was chaotic, and honestly, part of me wanted to tell the belly dancer to help out with seating or serving the guests. It’s safe to say this was the worst restaurant service we’ve ever had, but at least the food ended up being decent, so there’s that. I’ll try coming back on a less busy day to see if the service is the same and I’ll be sure to give an update. For now the 1 star is for the food. I lack more photos because at that point we were just starving and wanted to eat. We fasted all day to come and eat...

Thought long and hard before writing this review as I don’t really like leaving bad ones. But after my dining experience last night I felt like I should. Now, I’ve been here before with a party of 6 and the place was extremely busy and the food and service was great. Everything was on point.

Now last night was not as busy as my first visit. This time it was dinner for 2. It took about 5 to 10 minutes to have a host look our way when we walked in. I did make reservations so I wasn’t too concerned about that. Once we got the hostess’ attention we were seated. We were told our waiter would be with us shortly and when he never showed, then we were told a little bit later the hostess will be our waitress. Now that, I don’t mind but I did observe as to why this may be. The section we sat at was to the back left. There was a large party of white girls dining behind me and my girlfriend. We e are a mixed race couple of black and Puerto Rican. A white couple was then seated after us. The white people had great service from what I observed. I wished me and my girlfriend had the same treatment. First we ordered our drinks and appetizers which were great. But no napkins given. I asked for napkins twice but I finished my appetizers before napkins were ever given. Then we both ordered the mangu and the tres golpes. A non-menu item that they do make upon request. Being in a Dominican restaurant we really came there for this dish. Do yourself a favor and don’t order it. It shouldn’t be a secret item if they can’t make it right. When our entrees came out, no utensils were given. I asked my waitress for utensils. Now a few minutes pass and still no utensils. I asked the “other” waiter working in the area for napkins and utensils but I guess not being white and being Puerto Rican meant I should be ignored. When my waitress comes back again to check on us, my girlfriend tells her that I went to the bar to ask for utensils, a good amount of time has passed, about 10 minutes, until we finally got utensils. If you ever ate mangu with the tres golpes it best served hot. So now we have cold food with dirty utensils (knife) that we waited so long for. Again this place was not that busy and all this time the “other” waiter is taking care of the whites folks just fine. They had all they needed, he made sure of that. I can’t help but think he didn’t want to wait on us and left the hostess to do it since we aren’t white. Then we ordered desert which was good, I got the chocolate cake and it came with ice cream. They served it with a fork instead of spoon. The ice cream was frozen for forks sake! Sad to say the food isn’t good enough to return after this kind of service...

Tamarindo Simpsonville Long story, but WORST dining experience EVER! There were ALOT of things that made this such a bad experience. Some were little tiny things that aren't really a big deal, but when you put them all together..... it makes a HUGE disaster. We were a party of 7 adults a 6 year old child, and a baby. We are not the type to typically complain, but in this experience it was necessary. And no, we're not a bunch of "Karens", and 2 of us have worked in the restaurant industry for years! We went for my inlaws 50th wedding anniversary. I made reservations for 6:30 inside. We arrived around 6:20 and finally seated around 6:45 OUTSIDE (they didn't have any tables available inside). It took at least 20 minutes for beverages that were ordered to be served. A couple of drinks that were ordered were never even served. We placed an order for some appetizers and those didn't start coming out for another 30-45 minutes. We ordered our meals around 7:30 maybe. Food started coming out more than an HOUR later after we asked about it, around 8:45. So the first 2 plates of food were delivered, then 5 minutes later another 2 plates, then 10 minutes later 2 more plates, then about 10 more minutes later the last plate is served. The people that were served first waited for the rest of us to be served, but when it took so long we insisted they eat. They were DONE with their plate before the last person was even served. A couple of the orders were wrong (served regular fires instead of yucca fries, received grilled chicken sandwich instead of fried, steaks not cooked as requested. The food was mediocre and came out luke warm. We never received water refills. We spoke with the manager and he took off a couple of the meals and gave a 15% discount. But don't forget there's an 18% gratuity charge too! They have a beautiful outdoor seating area and I went to sit in one of the hanging chairs with my son (6 years old) and we fell to the floor with a loud CRASH. These chairs are not weighted down or held down in any way, so sit there with caution. I mentioned this to the manager in case something ends up hurting in the next day or so, but he wasn't too concerned about it. Oh, and there was a bachelorette party right next to us (party of 10) they were seated for AT LEAST 30 minutes before they were even served water!!!!! Seriously?!? You've been warned. Good luck to the 40-50 parties with reservations tomorrow. If you have a reservation you may want to come up with a...