Alex D.
Yelp
I need to start by saying that my previous experiences here have been 5-star and I want to apologize beforehand on the length of this review. Tonight was not a 5- star experience and all due to an employee that provided mediocre service at best and ended being a rude person.
The food is amazing! You definitely should try this restaurant. But if you go, make sure Carlos is not your server. We were a party of 9 and he was assigned to only attend to us. At first he was very friendly, but little details started to trigger red flags. We asked for water. Never brought it. So we asked a second time and after seeing him just standing looking around the restaurant talking to the staff, still nothing. Eventually he remembered and brought us water. We also wanted some spicy mayo and same thing, just standing around not doing much and not bringing spicy mayo. He would take so long before coming to check on us and his service was just not engaging and disconnected. My wife ordered pork bau buns and he brought chicken. After waiting a while when he decided to come over, my wife tells him that she ordered pork and got the chicken. His response was "but this one is also tasty" and no attempt to amend the error or even bring the right item we ordered. When I asked for the check. I noticed that the gratuity was automatically included at 20%. We all thought that the service he provided didn't deserve a 20% so I asked him if we can change the gratuity. He asked if it was to add to it and I said "no, to bring it down a bit" and he said no because it was policy that for groups of 8 or more 20% is automatically included. My thoughts were that if you come on group or 8+ the. The service is going to be terrible because they will get 20% whether they do good or not. I couldn't hold it any more so I had to share the feedback with the Adriana (owner). While I'm giving her the feedback, Carlos came over right at the part we were saying that the quality of service didn't deserve a 20% gratuity. Then Carlos got passive aggressive and told us in a noticeable annoyed and sarcastic tone, "well if you don't think I deserved it, I'll remove it!". This was right in front of Adriana. I honestly felt bad for her because she now has to deal with an employee that aside from providing mediocre service is now being rude in front of her and patrons. Adriana was extremely apologetic and we really did appreciate how she handled the feedback and overall situation while being on the floor of the restaurant. We made it a point that Carlos's behavior was unprofessional, inappropriate, and unacceptable. We wanted to pay gratuity because we didn't want for the rest of the staff empty handed, but Adriana insisted to not pay for the gratuity.
This was an experience with great tasking food that ended on a sour note. I will come back eventually and hopefully change the rating back the usual 5 stars. And hope Carlos realizes what he did poorly and has a chance to improve or find a job with a better fit for him.