Havana Kitchen — Restaurant in Temecula

I'm not a person to write reviews but at this moment I think it's necessary. I have lived in Temecula for 3 years and I have always gone to this restaurant because I really like their food. Last Saturday (February 10th)we went to eat and I had a very bad experience that unfortunately made me decide not to return again. The problem was not the food but the service! I have already heard from several people with this same experience. It's not just how long it always takes them to give you food because despite that I have always kept coming back and try to understand it, since I have been a person who has worked with food as well and I have my own small dessert business. But what happened last Saturday was very sad, it was my husband, my daughter who has autism and I, my daughter wanted empanadas and she doesn't speak and when she says something we like to please her, she doesn't have much patience waiting but despite that she behaved very well and waited patiently without any crisis for her empanadas. 45 minutes passed and the food did not arrive. I saw that everyone around us who arrived after us was already eating and we were not. I got up and asked the girl who, in my opinion, was the one in charge of the restaurant that day because she was the one who was responsible for the communication between the store and the kitchen, and seeing me very ugly and responding very rudely, she told me “it's only been 45 minutes” and I was like OMG, I decently told her, and it doesn't seem like much to you 45 Min?Everyone who arrived after us is eating …and she told me “look we have problems with the system and all the orders were mixed up, they are already making your food”! Without any excuses ,ma'am we are sorry etc!! She was Very upset because I asked about my food, she told me again, are you going to want to wait another 10 minutes or do you want your money back??!! .OMG I couldn't believe it, the people around me were shocked by her poor treatment. If it hadn't been for my daughter who wanted her empanadas and she waited patiently for 45 min I would have left! But if I left my daughter was going to have a crisis and she deserved her empanadas! I told the girl I was going to wait the 10 minutes. …15 passed and nothing! I got up to ask for a refund and the food came out at that moment and she, annoyed, told me: do you want your food or not? And I responded: I will only accept it for my daughter but I want to tell you that you are rude and that at least I expected an apology from you for your bad treatment! . She ironically put her hand on her chest and said ohhh I'm sorry ma'am! WTH 😨. I left there with stomach pain that even made my food taste bad due to the bad experience . This situation is very sad! I liked going there to eat but I won't go again and I have heard from many people who have stopped going because of the service as well. It seems strange to me that being a Latin place there never is anyone who speaks Spanish too, it would be cool if they have that option too. And I write this here because it seems to me that the owners do not care much about providing good service because I have already read several bad reviews for this and comments...

I was employed here for approximately a month. In that time I observed and mentioned multiple safety and health violations that went uncorrected, such as air curtain to keep flying insects out of kitchen not working, self closing door not working, food and other trip hazards on the floor of the kitchen, improper or defective personal protective equipment,knives being put in the sink creating cut hazards for dishwashers. On 2/9/2024 we were informed that we would not be paid on our scheduled day as the owner James Torres did not have suffecient funds to cover our paychecks. I raised issue regarding this and managers Denise Sanchez and Danny Boyd then chose to retaliate against me. Danny Boyd had advised me that a call out I had made using the Homebase app must have had a glitch because he didn’t see my request for cover and verbally warned me to contact him directly in the future, I agreed and apologized and considered the matter to be closed, however this was not the case. After I made issue with the late payment of our due wages he wrote me up and continued to verbally harass me and force me to sign the write up without allowing my rebuttal. Coincidently the Homebase app does not make glitches or does depending on how the management wishes to manipulate their stories. Denise Sanchez sent a message to Homebase saying that there was a glitch and a previous schedule had been posted, the prior schedule had me for full time (40 hours) however the updated schedule was only giving me 30 hours.Payment was given to me on scheduled payday,however I was sent home due to “aggressive behavior” of course my aggressive behavior was merely inquiring why our labor was not worth being paid on pay day. I have been charged for lunch breaks I was not able to take due to heavy work load. Initially I helped anywhere I saw the need without being asked, however due to lack of reciprocal respect and consideration I told them when I was asked that I had my own work to do and no one helps me with it, so I would not be working outside of my job scope or offering labor outside my pay grade. This resulted in my hours being cut. For the entire week leading up to my eventual termination I experienced hostility and financial abuse in regards to my hours being cut. On 2/11/2024 I was told not to come in after I had confirmed my schedule when I asked if I was being terminated they said no, again this was not the case as they added me to the schedule and then at the last minute cut me from it and issued my last check, I have requested a full audit of my time cards to prove myself wrong that I had been charged for breaks I did not take, they have yet to produce any evidence to the contrary and with out any doubt cheated me out of break premiums in order to avoid paying my due wages. The excuse was given that James Torres had been sick and had a bad year in 2023 however he did open a new restaurant in La Jolla in...

So I am going to agree with some of the other reviews. First and foremost the food is delicious. I brought my whole family to this place because of how good the food was and the server was nice the first time I visited this restaurant. But keep in mind my first visit happened on a slow non busy week day. My second visit happened on the weekend during a very busy time. This is where things kinda went south. As another reviewer stated it took over an hour to get our food, which is no biggie because they told us that before we ordered so we understood. The problem was the employees... they seemed very stressed, unhappy, overwhelmed and pretty much understaffed. We had to ask and remind staff about things missing from our order several times. I had 3 people in my party that wanted just plain coffee nothing fancy. Everyone else got their drinks and food except these three. So I went to the counter to ask about the 3 missing coffee's and it took another 20 minutes after already waiting 45 minutes for the plain coffee. Whenever I had to ask for something I felt nervous because it was like I was bothering them, they seemed annoyed. Then we all got our food and we realized as we were almost done eating they never brought out our 3 pastries. So I walked over to a server and asked for the missing items. She ask if I wanted them heated I said "yes please". So she said okay. We waited another 30 minutes watching her help everyone else and pretty much ignore my request and our table. At this point everyone was done eating and was ready to go. So once again I walked up the counter but this time I politely asked for a refund on the 3 items we never received. The woman who agreed to my refund seemed mad and frustrated. Didn't even apologize or was nice at all. She then scolded the cashier in front of everyone about how it's her responsibility to take care of the missing items and the cashier who equally seemed overwhelmed and frustrated stated "I just have way too much going on". Soooo.... if I were you I would avoid this place during busy times. It was definitely a much more relaxed and pleasant experience when it was not busy. I hope the business hires more people that are maybe a little nicer and more customer friendly. If the food wasn't so delicious it would definitely be a one star for me, but if staff was even a little bit nice or apologetic I probably would have given a 5 star because I can totally sympathize with busy times, I just can't with sour faces and...