Leo, I hope you read this and take it constructively. Leo is the manager, maybe the owner. To say the least, he was not pleased, that I was not pleased, with the food, or his lack of courtesy. We went February 28, 2020. It was...my wife, myself, and our friend. Our friend is a native Puerto Rican, now living in the U.S., who remembered Mamacita’s fondly from her childhood, which is why she took us there to begin with. We arrived about 90 minutes before sunset and got a table next to the water. They don’t have menus at the table. They have a board at the entrance and they ask you to take a picture of it so that you have the menu when you sit down on your phone. I thought this was a nice idea. Our server was Kristal. She was quiet, but did her job well. We ordered a round of drinks that were fine. Our friend ordered the coconut shrimp and she enjoyed them. My wife ordered the taquitos and told me they were fine but nothing special. I ordered the t-bone, medium rare, for $32. I took one bite and the flavor was off. It didn’t taste like steak, I’m not sure how to describe it. Something just wasn’t right. The inside of the steak looked grayish. I thought, maybe they seasoned it or marinated in some unique way. I gave a bite to my wife and our friend. They both said that the meat was bad and implored me not to eat it. So I left it. Eventually, everyone finished what they ordered and the waitress came by and looked shocked and almost afraid that I hadn’t eaten my steak. I told her I didn’t like it, something was wrong with it, so she took it away. When she brought out the check she said the steak would appear on the tab, but if I didn’t want to pay I’d need to talk to the manager. She then asked if we’d like to talk to the manager. I said yes. Soon after, a man came to our table and without an introduction gave us a “Hu?” We looked at each other and my friend asked, “are you the manager?” He said yes. She pretty much took over letting him know we didn’t like the steak, it had a bad taste and color. He said that he had bought it himself ‘this’ week, and that it was certainly good meat. There was some back and forth, that Latin fire coming out of both of them because Leo immediately became upset, expressing disbelief at our assessment of the meat. Mind you, the steak was left intact for him to go observe himself had he wanted to. My friend finally just said, “we aren’t paying for it.” Leo responded that we didn’t get to decide what we pay for and he wasn’t going to take a loss just because we didn’t like it. He continued stating he didn’t know of any establishment that would not charge for a steak because the customer didn’t like it. Eventually, he half relented and said he would only charge me half the price of the steak. He left, but I wasn’t satisfied with how we were treated. I then got up and walked over to Leo who was standing by the entrance. I told him that I came from a family of restaurant owners, and he should consider more than the loss of a steak. I explained that an unhappy customer does more harm than losing $32. He took this as a threat and told me not to threaten him. He said that now I had to pay the full price. I tried to explain I wasn’t threatening him and that he should heed the advice. He was raising his voice. Four customers walked up and I explained why he was acting that way. They promptly turned around and left. This understandably made him even madder and he kicked me out telling me to “leave now.” I said, “if I leave, how will I pay you? I can either stay and pay, or leave. He said, “you leave!!” and pointed to my wife and friend, stating they would pay. I said, “no, they’re with me. If I leave they leave. Do you want me stay and pay, or leave? He replied, “No seas fresco conmigo,” which essentially translates to “don’t be a smart ace.” I would agree I was being a smart ace but I lost my cool. Leo, I’m sorry for insulting you. At this point, my wife and friend had gotten up and were standing with me. Leo said, “I’m not dealing with this. I’m calling the police,” and he did. We stood there not knowing what to do because Leo walked away. We weighed our options: Wait for the police and see what they would say. Leave, paying for everything but the steak. Or, paying for everything. Given that we were on vacation, not wanting to waste (possibly) hours, and considering the likelihood that Leo would know the cop that would arrive (the island has a population of 1,500), we decided to pay for everything and carry on vacationing. I asked the waitress the managers name, she was hesitant to give it to me but she did, Leo. I asked if he would come back so I could pay him. She asked around and came back to tell me that Leo would not be returning. I apologized to the waitress for making her uncomfortable, as it was clear she was, and let her know she had no fault in this situation. It was apparent that her earlier hesitations came from knowing the response Leo would have. We paid and left. Nice views, some food is good, some horrible. Servers seemed ok, but management is horrendous.More
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