Zapata — Restaurant in Town of Orangetown

I had been to Zapata a few times before since it’s close to my home and had a good time. That’s why I chose to have my wedding after party at Zapata with about 20 friends and family. Zapata never told us when we made the reservation that people are only allowed to stay for 1.5 hours. Otherwise, we would have never booked them. Due to COVID, we hadn’t seen each other for many months so we wanted to spending quality time together since we wouldn’t see each other again for a long time. We ordered hundreds of dollars worth of food and drinks and were quietly talking, but we could see the owner was getting angry after 1.5 hours. The waiters were also very rude and wouldn’t even come to our table. We were running out of water and had to keep asking them to bring us some. We wanted to order more food and drinks too, but since the waiters weren’t coming over, we decided not to bother since we were getting negative vibes from the staff. The owner eventually told us we had to leave, even though I didn’t see anybody lined up waiting for seats. We gave a tip (even though they didn’t deserve it) and left without making a fuss, even though I was mad about how we were all treated. I have never been treated with as much disrespect at a restaurant as I was at Zapata. I apologized to our friends and family for choosing Zapata for the after party, since they were uncomfortable too. It was upsetting that we were being treated so poorly, especially on our wedding day, which was stressful enough to plan during COVID.

I advise all people not to go there because the owner and his staff are ill-mannered. I would rather give my business to restaurant owners who treat their patrons with dignity and respect, which this place lacks. I will never set foot at Zapata again and my friends and family...

Stopped here on a Sat afternoon for lunch. There were 3 people in our party - one needed to use the bathroom extremely badly, as in emg situation. The other 2 of us waited in the car to give him a minute and he said he would let us know when he was ready to be seated. Five min later he came hurriedly walking out and he and the owner were yelling at each other. Apparently, the owner started aggressively banging on the door and pulling on the handle while he was in the bathroom. When he came out, the owner had locked the front door in order to confront him before he was able to leave the restaurant. The confrontation was the owner yelling at him that it's not a public restroom. While I completely understand restaurants do not want non-patrons using their facilities, this was not the way to go about it. Firstly, we would have been patrons if the owner had waited for us to come in, or simply would have let my friend explain that we were coming in to eat. Secondly, you cannot lock someone in your facility in order to aggressively confront them about something as silly as using your restroom. We sat in the parking lot contemplating if we should go back in and explain but ultimately decided that the owner's behavior was unacceptable, so we left and went to The Filling Station down the street (which was excellent, by the way). TLDR; I apologize that there was a misunderstanding over the restroom use, but it could have easily been cleared up with better behavior from the owner of the restaurant. We will not...

As I pulled up to the place I saw a twinkle of light pulling me in and I somehow spawned into the parking lot of the restaurant. The glittery lights I saw rested my head into my palm because of how amazing the ambience was. I took one step into the restaurant and a powerful blow of food and cheerful workers were coming up to greet me. I was looking around the walls and saw a mythical being shining at me like I ascended into the Mexican dimension. The being dragged me in but the staff took the warm welcome. They took me to my table and I sat down—feeling the warm, comforting chair around my tooshie. The waiter came up and greeted us and asked for our drinks, personally, I prefer a coke, so I got one. I could feel the presence of the Mexican being once again. I got my drink and we ordered our food. The food… IT WAS AMAZING, I think I went into another dimension cuz I saw the being in front of me, reaching out to me. He said “Welcome I hope it’s enjoyable,” and I spawned into a follower of this restaurant when I stepped out. Please worship this amazing food and always remember this is...