Cafe Colonial

So I just placed a order the woman who took the order via phone didn’t listen to my order. Then I had to wait almost 1hour for a developer. The food came super cold, tasted old, and they messed up my order and wanted to charge me extra for the missing side dishes!!! Que bueno .i usually come here in person for special events but this will be a NEVER AGAON. If I ended up with food poisoning for old ass pollo I’m suing. Oh wait the delivery guy tool my receipt and then wanted a tip but didn’t bring the food to my door I had to walk outside and get it

So I came to have dinner with my kids. order my food the waitress comes back and say sorry there is no more chicken. …wtf are you kidding me..

Don’t use delivery you will wait forever !!! I ordered delivery and it has been 2 hours !! I kept calling and the lady kept saying he 5 mins away. It got to the point where I wanted to cancel my order. The food came cold and didn’t taste good at all ! I wouldn’t order here again!

Summary in case you don’t feel like reading all the rest of this: Food and service were okay, drinks were fantastic, atmosphere left a lot to be desired, and they charged me a 15% gratuity even though I was by myself. I will almost certainly give this place another chance, but only for delivery/​take-​out.
*****
Anyway, I came in on a Saturday afternoon/​early evening. I had a «Best of Both Worlds» (surf & turf), a Blood & Sand (cherry brandy cocktail), and a Pasión Colonial (a tropical cocktail).
The good:
–The cocktails were well worth their $ 10 price tag. They were decent-​sized, delicious, and quite strong. I like a strong cocktail, so this might not be good for everyone.
–I didn’t have to wait at all to get seated, and by coincidence they put me in front of a TV showing the Yankees game (and later the Mets). Score!
–The location is EXTREMELY convenient for me, just a 5-​minute walk from my apartment.
The okay:
–The food was serviceable, but I should have known something was up when the server didn’t ask how I wanted my steak. Thankfully I’m not a steak snob or anything, and well-​done steak isn’t the end of the world, but I suspect I would have gotten a better cut if I’d asked for medium like I would have if my server prompted me. Also the shrimp on top was… weirdly powdery? Possibly overcooked.
–This is clearly a family place, and if I had known that I wouldn’t have bothered coming. It seemed like every table but mine had at least two children under 10 at it. Lots of kids making noise, wandering aimlessly around the restaurant, and crying to get their parents’ attention. Not my thing, but not objectively bad or anything.
–Service was adequate, though I prefer service that’s more laissez-​faire than overbearing anyway. They forgot to give me bread, though I was unaware I was even supposed to get bread until one of the servers brought it up. Also one guy turned my plate in an effort to give me space — I appreciate the effort but I liked my plate how it was.
The bad:
–They charged me 15% gratuity. Why? I came by myself, didn’t make any special requests, and didn’t make any noise. It would have been nice to have a heads up. Random surcharges on a bill really soured what I felt was a decent experience.
–There’s a bar, but there’s only room for about five people there, and it was entirely occupied by employees. I guess if the bar’s going to be that small, it wouldn’t necessarily make sense to open it to patrons, but still. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wish this place had a real bar so I wouldn’t have had to sit at a table by myself surrounded by unruly children.

The delivery takes more than hour. They say less than 30 minutes. Then when i called again and asking about my order they told me that he is on his way. I have to call again and ask what happen and another lady told me that it just left the store… if not with their good food i would never order here again.

Always long wait, just to pay the cashier is just chatting in the phone. What horrible service. And when she finally got off, she was rude and made me hand her the receipt instead of taking it off the table like she should after making me wait so long!

Love the food and soups. The staff is very friendly. I am a regular here. It is very close to my home.

What can I say about this place. At times they are on point. But when it’s peak they don’t have enough waiters or waitresses to accommodate all the ppl that come when there is a huge crowd. The mgr should put more waiters/​waitresses at peak hours.

Colonial is AWESOME — I’m so confused by some of these ratings. Are we eating at the same place?
I’ve been coming her for years. The food is outrageously good. I order delivery, pick up, and eat in, A LOT. I am always thoroughly satisfied.
I used to eat here weekly, and loved it, but we moved further away a few years ago, and are not regulars anymore. But we showed up on Friday night. Me, my husband, and our 17 year old son. I ordered the churrasco, AMAZING… cooked perfectly, avocado salad, delicious, ice cold beer, YUM. My husband had bistec encebollado (steak with onions), absolutely perfect, fatty crispy sides, tender, caramelized onions, WOW. Our son had a special, salmon with a creamy dill sauce and seafood mashed potatoes, SO GOOD. The service was great, really cute waitress, super friendly and flirty, just a good time.
The booths are super comfy, the décor is pleasant and intimate, the bathrooms are really fresh, everything about this place makes it a neighborhood gem. I really mean it. Colonial is a fab place.
Also, from experience, try the dulce de leche cake, the shrimp salad, the grilled salmon, the lasagna, the rabo, rice and beans are really good…
Minor cons: the calamari has changed: much smaller portions and not as tasty. Also, they changed the toast! It used to be that awesome pressed toast with garlic butter, now it’s more «Olive Garden breadsticks»… not feeling that AT ALL!
Still, this place is my spot on Pelham, I’ll always come back to Colonial.

I’ve order from this restaurant plenty of times before. The food is delicious. I’ve even told others about how good the food is here.
That’s why It saddens me to give it two stars based on customer service. I dined here with my family a few days ago. Although the waitress was nice in the beginning she was too friendly with some regulars at the restaurant and after she took our order she didn’t check in with our table after that. Also when it was time to get the check it took her forever because she was conversing with «the regulars».
Then when the check comes I see I’m charged for the «to go» foil food containers. Really? I was shocked because she failed to mention we would be charged a fee to take our left over food home. Also I’ve been to restaurants all over the city, out of state, out of the country, and four star restaurants and I’ve never had to pay for a container to take my food home. There’s no consideration for the customers who spent money already on food and tip now we’re paying for foil containers to take our food home? Why is that not included? I’m beyond disappointed and insulted.

Been here a couple of times, and ordered when I used to live in the area. This spot has been here for a couple of years. If it were back then I would rate it 5 stars. This review is based on my visit last night.
SERVICE
Service was what killed it for me! We had an enthusiastic waitress but she was way too friendly. She had regulars or very close friends sitting in the booths in front and behind me which she kept sitting with. She literally made herself a part of the table. At one point she said she will be back with water but then sat down in a booth. LOL! Asked her for the check a little later and said no problem, then sat again!
I’m actually laughing that this place keeps waitress like this after being so well known before. On a Friday you couldn’t find seating, now you can which is a reflection of the trend for this location. I could only give this place one star only because of its appearance.
Would not recommend unless last resort, for the quality and price? Just go to a regular Dominican restaurant, you’ll pay less and receive better professional service. After last night all you are paying for is a nice spot.
FOOD
Friday night, maybe 40% capacity. Ordered fried calamari’s. (¹⁄₅), wouldn’t order it again. To simple, not enough seasoning, maybe just drenched in flour and few anything else. (I’m a huge fan of calamari, so I’ve tasted and made a few recipes myself)
My partner ordered the pernil sandwich which was way too bland (²⁄₅) but overall filling. I ordered a simple bone in chicken chunks with tostones, so not much to say besides portion was good (³⁄₅). Ordered a lemonade juice which tasted too much like powered juice so I decided not to start drinking cocktails as I was afraid of what they might taste like.

Im bothered by the fact that I have to give this place a minimum of one star. Get take out rather than dining in. Poor customer care from the waitress. I left even before I got a chance to order.

I’ve come here several times with my fiancé and it seems every time they change the menu but none the less food is awesome and service is great. There drink menu needs to be expanded but the drinks are made right not watered down come here and experience some excellent Spanish food

Best darn Dominican place I ever been too food is delicious service is friendly and help the waitress are nice but Starlin is drop dead gorgeous

I’m a regular, & LOVE Café Colonial !!! Everything is delicious !! Service, food, & drinks are all amazing. Service is a lot more organized in the evening than in the daytime. Still love them overall.

Nice ambience, drinks are good, service was okay. All around good, not outstanding and not disappointing. Good neighborhood restaurant, highlights of my meal were the tripe soup and the flan. I’m usually not a big fan of flan, but I seem to order it at every Spanish restaurant I go to, this was the best flan I’ve ever had in the Bronx, best flan I’ve ever had in NYC, best flan I’ve ever had, well ever! One word of advice for the restaurant and one thing I found very odd. They need to remove the other ethnicity foods, such as the Italian and Jamaica food offerings they have on the menu, keep it Spanish, and you’ll be all good!

I come here all the time for mangu. Last Saturday morning May 30^th, the mangu was horrible. The mashed plantains were lumpy and hard and the onions weren’t pickled. Maybe they changed the chef, but they need to get a new one again.
Oh and coffee took longer to be served. We got our mangu first. Waitress need to be re-​trained.

I’m a regular there in love with their oxtail and pernil. There are three lovely waitress who are totally know what they doing.
But I think they do need to train their other new waitresses who taking over the counter when it comes to PICK UP orders. So I made a call for pick up, 1 order of oxtail and green plantain, I called at 3:40 letting em know I’m on the way to pick it up. Got there at 4:15 right, went the counter tellin oh I’m picking up. What I saw was she grabbed aluminum foil container dumping some oxtail in it which is fine but where is ma plantains? She said «mami it’s comin» I’m like okay. What was fucked up was there was a lady and a guy who went in to order verbally !!! They ordered green plantains and chickens, they got it and they left before me! I was standing there till 4:50 !!! I was fucking heated. step ur game up «café colonial».

Okay so I want to start this review off by saying that I was a server for three years.
That being said, the service was slow. My waitress was mild in hospitality and then blatantly and transparently perked up closer to when the check arrived. I walked in and stood for two minutes then had to find an employee to ask if I was supposed to seat myself. An apparent waiter told me to sit anywhere and then I waited another little while for a menu. The whole time my assigned waitress declined to greet me until she finally walked up to me to take my order
The steak I asked to be cooked medium and I got a dry well done steak.
The chicken quesadilla was alright at best, but I appreciated the homemade guacamole.
Great coffee.
That’s about it.
I really think enthused and pleasant service could have saved the terrible steak.

This restaurant is awesome… a million times better than Caridad (Williamsbridge rd.)…try the pepper steak from colonial w/​white rice n black beans.