Doña Paulina — Restaurant in South Miami

Hadn't been there for years. Still delicious food but the service was awful. Arrived around 7 pm for dinner with my family. The staff was having lunch so she yelled " Cuántos?" . Then she said you can sit anywhere. We sat and almost right after a waitress brings water then we wait a little for the menus..the waitress ( a blonde Cuban) was not very welcoming. She came back with side dishes ( for bread) and utensils. Then asked if we were ready: I ordered for the table : 2 provoletas ( appetizer) then : 1 parrilla for 1, capeletis a la Carusso, chivito al plato and milanesa al plato. She asked me what salad for the pasta : and I said Caesar Then she said: " esta orden está difícil ' which I didn't understand why. Two other families arrived right after and were served drinks and bread with butter but not us: we were drinking only. After a while the waitress brought the appetizer and I asked her" we don't get bread? And she replied: " ia les traigo,lo que pasa es que estaba haciendo cafecito para otra mesa"...She then brought bread and said will bring more. The food arrived and my Caesar salad wasn't there .instead a regular salad served along with all the main courses. All the glasses were empty and she didn't offer to refill with water or if we wanted to order more sodas We really wanted to order dessert but just wanted to leave the place. I remember some years ago..the service was as great as the food. I really wanted to give a chance to Uruguayan restaurant but will not come back not because of the food but for the...

Service is horrible. On father's day they seated our party and proceeded to all sit down together and eat lunch while ignoring the needs of the patrons. When we arrived we stood ignored at the door until I waved one of them down. Every single guest that arrived after us was left standing at the door. No greeting. Again, this is on Father's Day, a special occasion.

When we ordered I specified that my 83 year old father and my 14 year old daughter did not like their meat to have any blood at all. They prefer well done. Then the food took more than 20 min. When I asked why it was taking so long our waitress rolled her eyes and said "Well if you order it well done it's gonna take a while." I said that was fine and I understood. The food continued to take forever and my father (an elderly man) asked why so many tables had food and we didn't. " She replied "Senor que tu quieres si ustedes fueron los ultimos en pedir". MIND YOU, we were at the door when they opened the restaurant at 12.

When the meat arrived it was medium rare. Forget medium, or medium well and definitely forget well done. My father and daughter didn't want to send it back because they didn't want to have to deal with more rudeness by the waitress.

The sangria is premade with no fruits and it's watered down. The meat seemed like it wasn't fresh, possibly was frozen. It was gooey.

The bathrooms were grimey and dusty. Service awful. Food awful. No hygiene. I'm so so dissapointed. This was our go to place and now I'll...

I saw this place on my way to Tropical Park and decided to stop in around 5:30PM... I was surprised it had been there for over 20 years since I frequent the Columbian (Pueblito Viejo) place next door. I was even more surprised that it is a family restaurant connected with "Don Davis" which I used to frequent at NW 12 street and 78 Ave several years ago. Don Davis also had his own Spanish cooking show too.

The interior is nice, relaxing and comfortable. Decor is definitely Latin steakhouse with stacked wine bottles and a small stage for performances. We were promptly seated and the lady was very kind and knowledgeable. There were only a few other people there, but can see that this place gets busy very quickly...

We order suages as appetizer (great) and two good portioned churrasco's both cooked perfectly. Chimichurri is very good as are the sides (morros and potato salad). We also order a side of fried yuca, but didn't care for the dunking sauce, but we used the chimichurri instead.

For desert we were offered a Uruguayan specialty, but decided to try the Tiramisu. We choose poorly, the Tiramisu was dry and tasteless... almost like it was old!

We are adding this place to our list of local restaurants to frequent and will definitely come again and try other items...