Son Cubano Modern-Cuban Cuisine — Restaurant in West New York

My wife and I went here for our anniversary. We made a res the day before and let them know about that.

We were really excited to have a nice evening. We got a few gift cards to dine there, so we were even more excited to have a good dinner and some drinks.

Unfortunately, our excitement quickly died as soon as we met the hostess. She was so rude. When we told her our name for the res she just said to wait a minute, so we did. We waited in front of the podium just staring at her in confusion. She then looked us like we're stupid and said to move to the side for the other guest behind us and helped that guest first. I don’t know why… anyways, she walked us to our table and said have a nice meal. She didn’t smile once. Not once. I felt like we made a mistake already, but we had a gift card and we were going to use it.

Our waiter, Jose, was very kind. He explained the menu, got us some drinks, apps, etc. The guacamole had way too much lime in it, but the frito was good.

We ordered our entrees and also mentioned about our gift cards. Jose didn't know if they were still valid (but we know they were--there was no exp date written anywhere). He then went to go check if we could use them. When he came back he told us they were already used up. This was weird because we never went to this restaurant before. I saw our entrees come out, and as the server was about to set them down, Jose actually told him, "they can't pay"... so the server took our food away. That was pretty embarrassing. We definitely could've paid without the gift card but oh well. So our food was taken away while they checked on the gift cards. Finally, Jose comes back to tell us the value of the cards and that they DO work. Great. So then we wait for our food to come back.

The server bring the food back like 15 minutes later and I was thinking, "I bet this is the same exact food they took away from us". My suspicions were correct. The food was cold. Besides that, the steak wasn't seasoned at all. It was extremely tough and gamey. My wife had short ribs which tasted ok but nothing special. The beans and rice, the basics of Cubano cuisine... they were hard and bland.

Jose did a nice gesture at the end though and said "happy anniversary" while giving us some tres leches cake, cava and a candle to blow out. I do appreciate that and it helped make things a little better, but the evening was already spoiled.

Luckily, we had a gift card and didn't have to spend our own money though. I will never go back. You can go to Rumba Cubana in Jersey City or Manchego in Union City for a much better meal and ambience.

Sad that his restaurant sort of ruined our Anniversary night--but Ben & Jerry's saved the day. The staff at the B&J were super friendly.

Reasons to skip this place: Rude hostess. She needs to be trained or replaced. Restaurant is DEAD on a Fri night. More staff than guests dining in. The food is below average. Overpriced.

All in all... just don't waste you time...

Worst service ever experienced. Sat down at 6, walked out at 830 bc all we had was apps. The waitress could not handle our table size. I asked for the drink menu and got it 1.5 hours later. I asked for juice for my son and it took 3 servers to finally get some oj. And even that was hard to ask for. They took our order and 1.5 hours later nothing came. We walked out. Never again

And to respond to management: this reservation was not under my name. The large dinner party you had there tonight for 38 was the dinner party I was a part of.

This dinner was to celebrate a couple getting married. No drink menu provided when asked 3 times actually (once a server, and the other 2 times the waitress) then when I finally got it she was standing around instead of coming back to take my order. Tried to flag her but she was in another world, absent waiters, 2.5 hours with only apps, water and an orange juice. I even saw the tables waitress panicking about the order bc she was not sure who had ordered what. She was standing there with the long list of food with a server trying to figure it out.

If you have a large party coming then all hands on deck. I saw several managers just standing around, walking around, talking. No one helping the waitress/er and servers. Understaffed and poor planning.

Btw, when you have mixed plates for family style apps the correct thing to do is identify what is on the plate. It was a guessing game of what empanada had chicken, meat, or spinach. If someone had a food allergy and they would have bit into an unknown or unmarked empanada they could get sick or worse go into anaphylactic shock. I heard one diner say they didnt like the empanadas bc they didnt know what was inside and they bit into a spinach one already and felt bad for cutting into it.

There were a lot of mistakes made tonight by your staff from top down. Highly suggest a revisit on how to spread work around, what is considered acceptable turnaround, and plan accordingly to ensure your staff isnt overworked and cause even more mistakes.

Luckily this wasn’t MY dinner party bc a bad review would be the smallest issue of your night. No chance I would agree to pay for that service and as someone who works in event planning…I would not recommend your restaurant. Ever. Do better. 2.5 hours for water, oj and 3 small bites of...

We were there to celebrate our friends birthday.(4couples & teenager). Our reservation was for 745pm on a Saturday evening. We were all there by 730pm. We informed Ebony that our party were all here. She asked us if we're celebrating anything, we said yes our friends 45th birthday. She asked if we have a cake or would we like to buy one? We told her that we have our own. She if we wanted it sliced it cost $45. So we agreed. She leads us in at 740pm and this is where the total disrespect happens. We are standing in the middle of the floor across from the bar for 30mins before we question the reason. Ebony tells us about the walk in policy(which has nothing to do with us) I remind her very politely that doesn't have anything to do with us because we have a reservation. You told us to stand here 30mins ago. Ebony says we are very busy and that we'll be seated asap. LIES AND DISRESPECT!!! EBONY SAT 2 OTHER PARTIES WHO ARRIVED AFTER US!!!!! THIS YOUNG GIRL WAS VERY STAND OFFISH AND UNCONCERNED WITH THE FACT THAT WE WERE THERE EARLY AND STANDING AROUND FOR 30MINS.WE ASKED 4 THE MANAGER AND NO RESPONSE!!!!!! Finally this rude young girl( she handled herself like a child) directed us to this very pleasant and understanding young lady named Hilary. She was very concerned and apologetic for our bad customer service. She promptly got a team together and cleaned a table and an area for us to be seated. Our server was name was Omar and he was incredibly knowledgeable about the menu top to bottom. His service was impeccable.As was the food. We had the clothesline bacon and shrimp tacos and the barbecue lollipop chicken and the empanadas appetizers. We ordered filet migeon and shrt ribs and fish. The food and the service from Hilary and Omar more than made up 4 the horrible service we received from Ebony and her seating team. Bottom line is i hope that this doesn't happen to you(seating problem) but if does please don't run out because everything else is truly amazing. The ambience was incredible. I will be returning in spite of this young girl performance during our seating process. FYI Hilary also gave us complimentary champagne...