Meson Español — Restaurant in West New York

I recently went back up to this area to have a nice Spanish dinner, I grew up in this area and have passed by this place at least 100 times, but never went in. Unfortunately, tonight, I decided to try it out with my family.

The only thing Spanish about this place is the name, and maybe the guy standing at the front door.

There were plenty of parking spots, but many of them had orange traffic cones on them, so, we could not even park in their lot, we parked on Kennedy Blvd, across from the new condo building, and walked there, I could only wonder why spaces were reserved... when you're running a restaurant, who's more important than your customers?? Apparently, some other people are.

The wait staff are pretty much all from Central America, which lends an unwelcome feel that so are the cooks and you begin to realize that there are no Spaniards in all of New Jersey that would work for the pay these poor guys are getting. The waiters are afraid to talk to the customers, and they get by with some body language and the occasional grunt. Even I speak Spanish but they were completely mute during the whole dinner, it was weird, like if they said the wrong thing someone would chop their head off.

The paella I ordered was NOT left in the cazuela and placed on the table as is traditional... instead the waiter serves the paella to each person at the table. This is wrong, not everyone that eats paella likes the mussells for example, or the clams, so the idea of paella is to serve yourself from the cazuela and pick what you want. My brother's chicken was served to him, and he had no idea that they were about to throw away the rest which the waiter left in the pot.

We were served potato chips.... that was odd, and I don't remember ordering them and in a $20/plate restaurant the last thing I would expect are potato chips... but my son loved them so oh well.

The taste of the food wasn't that amazing, it was your run-of-the-mill wanna-be New Jersey "authentic" Spanish restaurant fare.

We were given the dessert menus even before our entrees came out... then the waiter came back and took the dessert menus back, not realizing we hadn't even had dinner yet.

After dinner we were given the dessert menus a second time (LoL, if I may) and this time we really wanted dessert, but after waiting more then 15 minutes for the waiter, we just put the menus down, walked up to the counter, paid our bill, and left, I didn't even wait for the check to come to the table, I just wanted to go home, the guy rang us up at the counter.

He wasn't happy with my $5 tip (the bill was $77), as I wrote "$5.00" on the tip line, he threw my debit card with my copy of the receipt and stormed off.

What do you expect? You're lucky you got $5 for that service.

Do yourself a favor... go...

Have not been here in years. Parking lot had ample outdoor seating due to Covid, but decided to sit inside. The outside tables are subject to the quick snd noisy Kennedy Blvd traffice. The inside is dimly lit with bright sun pouring infrom the window's, made for a really nice mood. I ordered raw Clams on the half shelf as an appetizers. Clams were clean and fresh, with no sandy insides. I ordered the lamb chops Medium rare, with a side of mixed vegetables. The chops arrived perfectly cooked, however they did not appear to have any grill marks or pan searing (Maillard effects) to flavor the meat and fat. The chop was lacking salt and pepper. The mixed vegetables (string beans, broccoli and carrots) were cook tender in a light butter garlic sauce. The only starch I had was a small piece of bread (which was just ok). My standards for dining out are higher than most so I only gave this place 4 stars. The wait staff was very attentive. And I spent a total of 1 hour .15 minutes. I would return to try other meals here when my...

A total disappointment. Since 2019, we have been visiting them any day of the week, knowing that weekends are usually busy, the service, the atmosphere today was disappointing. We arrived at 1:45pm, it was not until 2:10 (approximately) that I went to one of the waiters to take at least the drink order. At 2:20 they took the order (2 paellas, Pechurinas, Chops fried) and it is not until 3:30 that our food arrives. The pressure from the same waiters and their owner asking about table closures was uncomfortable. Once again accustomed to excellent service and delicious dishes, it was not what we received. However, the wait is so long that their usual breads arrive at our tables and we understand that they send it out of courtesy, the order of paellas lasts (45min)... and in the end, we receive the charge for something that we did not order. This bad taste should definitely be removed from my memory to consider recommending or...