Tula Kitchen — Restaurant in Town of Islip

(Jun 2023)

Disappointing Service Experience Overshadows Tula's Kitchen Birthday Celebration

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I recently celebrated my wife's birthday at Tula's Kitchen in Bay Shore, NY, and unfortunately, the experience left much to be desired. While the food selection, quality, and atmosphere have always been exceptional, the poor service we received overshadowed our evening.

Upon arriving with a reservation, we were promptly seated, which was a positive start. However, our initial excitement dwindled as we encountered several issues with the service throughout the evening. After placing our drink order, it took an unexpectedly long time for the waitress to deliver them, leaving us waiting anxiously.

To add to the frustration, the waitress proceeded to take orders from the two neighboring tables before attending to us for our appetizers and entrees. We patiently waited for more than 20 minutes, growing increasingly hungry and disappointed. Eventually, my wife had to take matters into her own hands and inquire about our missing appetizer. The waitress retrieved it from the kitchen without offering an apology for the delay.

Unfortunately, the problems did not end there. Our entrees also took an unacceptably long time to arrive, and by the time they did, we had lost our appetite and requested them to be wrapped to go.

As we prepared to leave, we brought up our concerns with the hostess, who was genuinely apologetic and attempted to make amends by offering a $25 gift certificate. While her efforts were appreciated, it was unfortunate that such a gesture had to be made in the first place.

It is regrettable that Tula's Kitchen, a place we have previously enjoyed and praised, failed to deliver a satisfactory experience this time. The incident has left us questioning whether we will return in the near future, despite the establishment's appealing food selection, quality, and inviting atmosphere. We hope that the management addresses the service issues promptly to prevent other patrons from enduring a similarly disappointing experience.

If you find yourself in a similar situation while dining here, we would highly recommend getting up a leaving if you feel the service is not up to par. That's what we should have done in hindsight.

(Mar 2023) We wish we could come here more often. Tonight was a very delayed Valentines dinner so my wife choose Tulsa Kitchen because of the many dishes she can actually eat due to her very strict diet. The waitress was very friendly and promptly took our order and the Mediterranean Spread for two arrived very fast. It was well adorned with hummus, pita, tzatziki sauce and Greek salad. We ate about half and decided to save the rest for home later. Our waitress appeared to be running a lot of errands besides handling her tables such as bringing the take out orders from the kitchen to the front and therefore my wife and I sat and waited for our entrees a little longer than we felt we should have. When the plates arrived (delivered by someone else) my sesame crusted tuna and sides (asparagus and mashed potatoes) were just warm leaning towards cool probably because the plates were waiting in the kitchen a little too long. My wife thoroughly enjoyed her winter bowl with chicken and she had no complaints. I know, I should have asked to reheat but I have a personal rule not to send back food. Don't get me wrong, the meal was very good and the ambience did not disappoint! Hopefully we'll get back sooner than later to try out...

I made a reservation here two weeks in advance to celebrate my birthday. I specifically requested outdoor seating because I was with people who were uncomfortable eating indoors due to covid, and having underlying health issues. Multiple people from my party had drove all the way out from Queens. 15 minutes before my 5:00 reservation I got a phone call stating the outdoor heaters were out of propane and that even if we wanted to dine indoors it was too busy and there was no seating. So my entire party froze outside, to then find out that an item on the menu that I came there for was not available (I have specific dietary restrictions and chose this restaurant because I felt they could accommodate them), So after all of this my party and I decided to leave and not eat. It was extremely disappointing and embarrassing to have people drive out so far to celebrate my birthday for this. Not to mention, it completely ruined my birthday. How are you not prepared with propane when there are people who are limited to outdoor dining during a pandemic? Especially when you have a reservation specifically asking for it WEEKS in advance. And to call 15 minutes prior when everyone is already on their way to the restaurant to notify me of this? Never again. Horrible,

To respond to the owner reply -

Unfortunately there are many errors in your response to my review. I was told there was no available seating indoors. There was nothing off of the menu offered to me to be made special by the chef. In fact, there were multiple things I asked if they could alter (no mushrooms in specific vegan items) and I was told that they could not make anything special. Also, we left because there was nothing on the menu to accommodate me, and the person who went into the restaurant stated that not only was it too cold but there was nothing on the menu that...

This restaurant had been on my want-to-go list for several years. My fiance and I finally made the 45 minute trip out to give it a try for our first date in weeks. We were seated very quickly by a friendly enough woman. The atmosphere was swell with low lighting. But the service was absolutely awful. Our server Justin was very straight to the point, no smile, no warm welcoming attitude. He took our beverage orders which were a cappuccino and what was supposedly a lemonade. This lemonade was basically just lemon water and super bitter, as was the coffee. I politely asked him if he could bring us some sugar. He said "yeah" and proceeded to never bring it to us. We waited almost 10-15 minutes, where at one point he was just standing by the bar fiddling around with this thumbs. Eventually I got myself up and asked a server by the bar for the sugar, and she happily gave us a bowl. That was the first error, and I would've brushed it off as a mistake had he not done it a second time. Once our food was brought out, he didn't come around to check on us. The place had a few tables seated, but it wasn't bustling enough to completely forget we were there. After we finished our order, I asked Justin for a to-go cup for my coffee. He promptly said "sure" and once again completely forgot to bring it. He came and took our check, but did not bring me a cup. We were severely disappointed by the way he disregarded our presence and needs. Aside from all that, the food was great. Flavored and seasoned perfectly. Portion sizes were decent. The prices are very high, but that's to be expected for a fine dining restaurant. Unfortunately our experience here has left a bad taste for both of us and we will not be returning.

EDIT: Called the number that was replied to me, left a voicemail, and never heard back. False hope much? This...