Tainos Cafe & Lounge — Restaurant in Town of Brookhaven

I really want to give this place a good review. Upon arriving to the restaurant, it looked nice. I arrived on a Friday evening, I wasn’t expecting it to be a party atmosphere with loud music, but I didn’t mind and ended up enjoying the music. Since it was rather busy, I sat at the bar with my friend, hoping it would facilitate service. Immediately I smelt a ton of smoke, as the smoking area is right outside the door next to the bar, and I left smelling like a cigarette and I don’t smoke. I sat at the bar for 30 minutes before being greeted. Men who came in way after me, stood right next to me and we’re greeted immediately. It was as though they didn’t even notice I had sat down (in my opinion it was because I was a woman). The gentleman next to me had to order for me, bc no matter how hard I tried to get noticed, it wasn’t happening. I had to flag her down for a menu, which I wouldn’t mind if she was busy with customers, but she had plenty of time to text, just not to take my order. By the time I got a menu, it was a little after 10pm and keep in mind they close at 11:00. I ordered the plantain appetizer with meat and cheese. The menu didn’t say it was smothered in sauce, yet it was drenched in the sauce and I wasn’t able to taste much of anything other then the sauce it was in. By the time I got the app, it was 10:48 as well, which left me no time to order an entree as the bartender never came back to me after my appetizer order was taken or to even ask if the appetizer was okay. Since I didn’t get to order the mofongo meal as I wanted to and didn’t have enough time, I can’t give any extra stars for food. Unfortunately I have to go off the appetizer I had, and the service which was clearly terrible. There’s no excuse to ignore customers completely as if they don’t exist, yet be on your phone texting for good chunks of time. Like I said, if someone is genuinely busy, I’ll make allowances, but that is absurd. I hear the food is good, but I don’t think I’ll be back since my first impression was so terrible. The manager should stop in by surprise on a Friday night and see it...

Where do I begin?!.......First let me say......My husband and I are BOTH VERY picky about our Spanish food, as we are both of Puerto Rican descent.......We go out to eat A LOT at various places for all types of food as well......I have to say this is the BEST damn food we have EVER tasted on a night out to eat on Long Island hands down!.......We had the Chicken Mofongo, Coconut Shrimp, Beef Empanadas, Skirt Steak with Rice and Beans and a couple of mixed drinks (Rum and Coke/Jack and Coke).......All of which were to die for!!!!!!......The Mofongo was the BEST I've had since my last visit to Puerto Rico!!.....The Coconut Shrimp was the BEST we ever had, and the sauce compliments it just right that it just melts in your mouth!!!!.....The Mayo-Ketchup sauce was perfectly blended and went SO well with the Beef Empanadas.......And that Skirt Steak!!!!.....I have NEVER seen my husband SO happy over any steak like that in my life!!.....Not only was it cooked PERFECTLY with just a little bit of pink in the middle, it was so soft and tender, juicy and FILLED with flavor!!!.....The drinks were PERFECTLY made!!....Not too strong, not too weak!!.....The ambience was perfect!!.....They lowered the lighting and the decor was beautiful!!!....The timing of the staff with the appetizers, drinks and meals was PERFECT!!.....We got our drinks 1st, was given just enough time to converse over them and 1 appetizer came out so fresh and hot, as soon as we were done with that another came out hot and fresh......then we finished that and was given just enough time to conversate some more and the meals came out hot and fresh and we were given another round......just perfect.....didn't wait too long yet things didn't come out too quickly......perfect timing for everything!!!!!! ......WAY exceeded our expectations and this MOST DEFINITELY will be a frequent spot for us and we will recommend to everyone!!!!.....5 Stars isn't enough!!!! I hope they do well and stick around because no place around...

AWFUL SERVICE!!! The drinks were terrible and taste worse than cough syrup . I asked for a bottle of water and waited over 45 min I had to ask 3 people and eventually just went to the bar to ask a bartender for one. Our drinks were never refilled, we asked for one drink with no ice and when returned the just took the ice out and poured it into a new cup. We ordered the picadera and oh my…….. the pastelitos were inedible, the steak was so chewy we spit it out in napkins the yucca fries were awful our fries were soggy and luke warm. The only thing good was the salami and cheese and the chicharrón was passable. The one star is for the bathroom being clean.

Editing to respond to the owner to give more clarification: I don’t have a child I’m 25 and the DJs “child” is 22. I think it’s quite disturbing that as a business owner you’re dishing out peoples personal business to save your reputation. As an owner, if you saw we weren’t getting the service that paying customers deserve then why wouldn’t you change our server? You only came up to our table because I flagged you down and you never once asked us how everything was. When I was trying to talk to you about the events from this evening you didn’t even allow me to finish you cut me off and took off the service charge. We were there for approximately 4 hours and only had 1 drink each and all of the cups were pretty full when we left… we weren’t able to have this fixed because we literally got no service. We only stayed in this establishment so the 22 year old child could spend time with her father. We ordered food and again, no one came to the table to ask how everything was.

All in all, I think it’s terrible that as an establishment you weren’t able to rectify these issues and came on to the internet to give a petty response. No matter what, in the service industry your personal issues should not change the way your customers...