El Lechon de Negron — Restaurant in Union

I will give my most honest review here, beceause I used to love eating here but that experience changed yesterday.

I came in around 7pm to order some chimchurri chicken , white rice, advocados, and side salad. The place had about 3 people eating and I was the first person to walk in. The owner, tall guy and one of the servers was taking my order. I saw they were packed with orders after my order was put in, hence they must have had alot of orders on delivery.

While the food is really good here, I have some suggestions which this is not to offend but just giving my two cents.

1. I have to admit they need to hire a extra person(2 people to serve the food) and a cashier to accompany the demand. My suggestion to the owner as a Restaurant Manager myself is you will lose a lot of business that way if you don't catch up with Demand especially selling food at a High Price Point.

2. You charge too much for avocados. I was charge 3 dollars for 4 little slices of advocado. Last time I remember the national price of a advocado was $1.25(google it). If you are going to charge me $3 for an advocado, at the very least give me a full advocado and not a quarter of a advocado. People are not going to be happy with you if you do that. You may not think 3 dollars is a lot, but the Median Household Income in Union NJ is $59K for people who own houses. It makes a huge difference if I decide to eat at your place vs paying someone that 3 dollar fee via uber-eats at another spanish restaurant to deliver to my house. Trust me it makes a difference.

3. Most Side Salads are included in meals. I am not sure why you charged me an additional 3 dollars. Lettuce Tomatoes are cheap. I also did not want maduros and wanted side salad, yet you still charged me for the side salad.

4. I waited 30 minutes for my food which btw was already cooked. While the restaurant was preparing other peoples order. Some advice, work on your in store customer's first. Those have the MOST lasting impressions, not the ones youre sending orders out to. My suggestion is to hire 2 more people and follow a steamline process on someone serving someone at the register, and having food available when it gets busy.

5. I dont have an issue pay $13 for food, but if you are going to charge me $13 for latin food. The service has to improve with speed and efficiendy, else I am better off going to Ubereats.

6. If you know food is gonna take a while to serve to a customer, let them know in advance else they ll be pissed.

7. Never call your customer bro. Just because I am latino and from Elizabeth I am not your bro. Its not proper business etiquette. Calling me by my name , sir, or madam will suffice.

Please don't take these things badly. You guys have great food, but I suggest hiring more people considering the location you are in in a mini mall and just meeting your demand.

Sincerely :

Another...

Stay away!!!!! I ordered Puerto Rican Beef Stew( Carne guisada) with rice several years ago and when the food was delivered all I got was all stew and potatoes and two little pieces of the beef. Where’s the beef??! I called and asked to speak to the owner and no luck! I decided to drive to Lechón de Negron to ask to speak to her in person. She was arrogant and rude!! At first one of her employees said she was to busy to speak to me!! Too busy??? As a paying customer you should never be too busy! Your in business cause me and everybody else that goes there! Also can you believe she had the nerve to ask me for the container of beef opened it and poured it into a plate to see if I was lying and see how much beef was in there. Who Does That!!!! As a Real Restaurant Owner/Manager you apologize offer a credit or a new order. Geeeeezzzzz common sense!! Moving forward 2023 I decided to give them another chance!! i didn’t want to cook after coming home from work tired and I was craving my rice and beans with shrimp.(as I’m a true PR from Carolina) so Uber Eats delivered food and guess what???They forgot the Beans!!! So I called and an employee answered the phone and kept apologizing stead of putting the owner or a manager on the phone to resolve the matter. He continued to tell me to go on Uber Eats for credit. What the🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬. And I’m not waisting time with the owner.Notice how she responds to all the reviews that was negative justifying everything. Watch how she’s gonna reply to this one. 😆😆Bye girl! When her dad had the truck it was amazing! We spoke and he happened to be where my dads from in PR(Utuado).Sweet man… But sorry stay away...

First time trying this place. Not too expensive, but the price I did pay for my food….. I was hoping for more taste from the food. Customer service was excellent. The food quite disappointing. I was hoping for that Puerto Rican feel I get from back home.

“Response from the owner 9 hours ago Hola Gaby, I believe you ordered the pernil sides, morcilla and pasteles. Sorry we disappointed you. But there is no one I know more Puerto Rican than my dad and he makes the pasteles from scratch every week. Our roots are from Utuado (where he was born). But it's okay we can't please everyone. If I am correct with your order please reply I can issue you a refund”

Hola,

I am responding to your reply. For some reason… google will not allow me to. Yes, I completely understand. And mean no disrespect towards your father. My great aunt and uncle in San Juan makes morcilla, pasteles, pernil, mollejas en escabeche, alcapurria, etc. all from scratch as well. I was hoping for that pop of taste on my taste buds that I usually get. And I didn’t unfortunately. There was no taste. I didn’t even finish my food. I was excited to see a Puerto Rican restaurant nearby, because I usually travel all the way to Brooklyn to get my Puerto Rican dishes from La Isla Cuchifritos. An refund will be great. You can keep the tip for the customer...