Paulos BBQ Steakhouse — Restaurant in South Plainfield

Paulo’s BBQ was absolutely the WORST customer service experience I've ever encountered! Maybe a month ago we pre-scheduled party of about 35 people. Many of us were excited about ordering "Rodizio" where they continue to bring you meat throughout the night. On the menu it says for one person it's $32.50, for two people $29.50/person, and 4-10 people its $25.50/person. We knew quite a few of us were ordering "Rodizio"; so we would probably fall into the $25.50 range. I asked the waiter to clarify if we fall into the $25.50 range since we had, at that point, 9 people oredering "Rodizio". The waiter says yes but to further clarify he goes and gets the owner of the restaurant, Paulo. Paulo confirms to me “Yes your meal will be $25.50”. Afterwards they brought one big check, for over 35 people, which was ridiculous. Deciphering the check amongst such a large group was a headache. After going over the receipt we realized they charged each of the Rodizio customers $32.50. We were confused since this contradicted the menu and also what the manager specifically told me. We also realized we actually had 12 people who ordered Rodizio. We addressed it with the staff that brought our receipt. One waitress went back to tell the owner of our complaint. He then sends a message through her saying that in order to receive the $25.50 per person it would have had to be MORE than 10 people. But we said okay. If that’s the case we should still qualify because we have 12 people who have ordered the Rodizio. The waitress repeatedly says "it's what the owner said, I'm just the messenger" while throwing her hands up in the air. Our response to her was “Understandable, so can we please speak to the owner now?” She went back several times to get the owner. He had us waiting for a very long time before coming out, as if he was afraid to defend what he said and we were not a priority. The fourth time the waitress went back for the owner, I saw the waiter that I originally spoke to. He confirmed what I was told at first was correct; it would have been $25.50 per person. Others people in my party immediately verbalized "that's not at all what that waitress was saying". So now we needed the owner’s clarification between his two different explanations. The owner Paulo finally comes out and at this point he was still under the impression that we only had 9 people so his argument was that it would have to be more than 10 people for us to qualify for the $25.50 per person. We brought to his attention that we ended up having 12 people instead. In an Instant he switched up again and said “well if it's more than 10 we can't do it, it would have to have been under 10 people” We were stunned because he contradicted himself 3 times right before our eyes. We rebutted saying it does not say anything about that in the menu, which we had all read to make sure we did not overlook something. I asked, why did you specifically tell me that it was going to be $25.50 because we had enough people? And if that’s the policy, considering the amount of confusion, why wouldn't you at least charge 10 of us the $25.50 and then the two extra people charge $32.50? He argued “I’m trying to run a business” saying he wouldn't make a profit if he didn't charge us $32.50. I told him that he lied to me. His response was absolutely the most disrespectful response and business owner could ever give. Paulo says “Why are you arguing about $5?” I couldn’t believe a business owner would say something like that to a customer it was the most disgusting remark I've ever heard. I responded “Why are you as a business owner arguing about $5 and not worried more about better customer service?” We spent around $1500 collectively at Paulo's. We were there for 4 and half hours. The reason I asked ahead of time was to avoid confusion and make sure it was worth it since you can't take any food home with "Rodizio". This was about principle. The owner is arrogant, pompous, greedy, disrespectful, deceitful and lacks integrity. Paulo’s BBQ is the worst business...

I have to assume that there are new owners and stuff because the last time I was there was so much better than tonight! The main reason for our group to go here was for the Radizzo all you can eat dinner. They no longer offer it saying that it's because of the virus even though the restrictions have been lifted for a couple of months now. Strike one...the we waited to have our orders taken...and waited nearly an hour for the food to arrive. All the orders were overcooked and dry... If we hadn't waited so long and we're hungry each order would have been sent back...Strike Two... Our server and the owner were both innable to be bothered serving our group as customers and we're ignored several times. Finally when it was time to pay they tell me the cannot accept a $100 visa gift card even thought they take both debit cards and visa credit cards! Turns out they were just too lazy to run the card untill I told the it was all I had for payment... Convenient,eh? Bottom line is the took the card after all. Strike Three.. I'm outta here! If you have been to this restaurant before beware it is not the same place you remember The meats are dry and overcooked and overall it is the food is just terrible along with the bad service. Our businessman's group used to go here every couple of months and meet and have dinner with the pictures of sangria and had a great time with the all-you-can-eat rodizio but now we will not go back ever since the changes that have been made ruined our experience. I would drive to Newark before going back to this place it's a shame because it used to be very good. It's kind of funny because normally I take pictures of what I eat especially if it looks really good but this was not one of those meals for sure it didn't even look good to eat. One good thing was the rolls were very good but then again they didn't have to make those all I had to do was heat them up in the oven for a few moments. I would recommend avoiding this place in the future there are many much better Portuguese restaurants worth spending...

This review is for 5/17/2015. I went there on my 12th anniversary, since I went there last year and it was a great experience. This year did not hold up to last year AT ALL.

We arrived by 1:00 pm on a Saturday with us being one of two tables being seated throughout the restaurant. We noticed (party of two) that our appetizers and drinks were taking long but didn’t raise an alarm. We received our appetizer and drinks after a half hour. The waiter still didn’t take our entree order some 20 mins later. Eventually, my husband called for another waiter. He took our order, and both of us knew it was going to take a while to get our food.

Eventually, the rodizio meal started to come out. After his fourth meat came to the table, the young man that was serving the meat sent a signal to another coworker to inquire on my food (since he noticed I still didn’t have anything after waiting a while). The general manager, Mateo, eventually came to our table. He mentioned the delay in my food and offered me a plate of the rodizio (since my spouse was already receiving it). I then responded, saying I was not interested in this (even though it was a cheaper option) and would like my original order brought out and comped. He then, VERY RUDELY, responded back, “You think that’s fair that I comp your food for you?” UHM, YES! I’ve been waiting over an hour and have not received anything, but except being offered a meal, I did not order.

How is he a GENERAL MANAGER, I have no idea. I have been an AM (assistant general manager) in a restaurant for several years, and I will never understand how someone like him holds that title and gives us the type of service we received today. He bragged about, “Oh, look at our Google reviews”, etc. Yes, I would of given them grace if the place was packed, but we were the only table of two (one table of six and we were a table of two) originally in the restaurant up until it got bust when we left. We were there to celebrate our anniversary, and I left in tears.

We will not be...