I stopped by this past Saturday at 'EL BATAN' for a friend's birthday gathering. It was a group of 4 couples, and we all asked for separate checks.
I'm just going to talk about my unpleasant experience. My wife and the other couples had their own experiences, but didn't want to say anything (too shy, I guess). I started by asking for water with lime. Water came, no lime, and I wasn't even asked if I wanted a straw (which I did). I was wearing a pair of brand new shorts. Soon after sitting down, I noticed a dirty-looking stain across my left upper shorts. Which turned out to be from under the table, where something sticky, gooey, and smelling had come from. I quickly got the waitress's attention and asked for the table to be cleaned again. She didn't really seem to care and took a little while to get back to me, and that's because I had to get her attention, because in the span of 2 minutes, she had already forgotten to clean the table. Nothing was offered for the care of my new shorts, such as "take it to the dry cleaners, and bring us back a bill, etc."
When the other couples ordered soda and juices, they each were given a straw. I now had to mention to 'Nuts-Nuts', our space-out waitress, that just because my wife and I ordered water with lime. Did not mean that we shouldn't get straws as well. They also then brought us the lime we had ordered in the first place, like 10 minutes before. I ordered the Arroz Chaufa, which was $14.00. If you add chicken, it's $5.00 more. Meat, $6.00 more. And with seafood, it's like $6-7 more. Supposed to be this exquisite mixture of rice with exotic ingredients. "FAULTH, NOT TRUTH!" I ordered the chicken. What did I get? Like 3 pounds of Chinese rice with a few pieces of chicken. Where were the Chinese chopsticks?? Food was boring!
The restaurant itself is big. But for reasons that are now known. It was only like 20-25% full.
The lighting was dark. The place is big enough that you can have a certain part of the interior dark for those who want it like that, and another area that is a little brighter. Might even help when they're cleaning the tables and chairs to catch and wipe those dirty, filthy spills, sticky foods, gum, etc. As I said before, the place was so dark that I kept waiting for popcorn to arrive and the movie to begin!
The kitchen did have a huge TV right above the cooking stove, but I guess they had it on a food channel, learning the recipes as they went along. The kitchen was a two-part scenario.
One part: Pre-School Cooking Class. Two parts: Keep Your Fingers Crossed / Do the Best You Can.
Nuts-Nuts rarely ever checked on us to ask how we were doing or if we needed anything. I had to hunt her down as if I were in a far-out wilderness adventure trip, like in a safari hunting big game.
The staff is young and always talking among themselves or on their cell phones.
Either have them put their phones in a locker, their cars, or in a garbage disposal!
And to top it off, with awful food service, poor portions, 3 kilos of rice on my plate, nothing great about the taste, and overpriced.
EL BATAN, Gets Half a Star Out of TEN!!
And with darkness all around us, and leaving with dirty shorts. They had the guts to add on a 20% gratitude tip for what?
Poor service? What a joke. I did mention it to a male waiter/hostess, what was on my mind. And the experience I had just lived through. He said he'll say something to the owner. Who knows if he did? I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy. I haven't felt the same since leaving there Saturday evening. I think I left there with a case of Complex PTSD.
I wish them the best. But to survive in this tough market.
EL BATAN IS GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE SOME BIG CHANGES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. read more