Good morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful memorial day weekend! My weekend was relaxing and it was just what I needed lol. I went to a farmer's market, watched movies, worked on a few upcoming blogs, and I have a new Date Bite for you guys. I'm sure you might have heard of Caja Caliente and if you haven't, well keep on reading!!
On Saturday afternoon we decided to check out the new foodie spot in the Gables, Caja Caliente. I had already seen a few posts about them on Instagram so I decided to look into them further. I was very happy to see that they offered vegetarian options in their menu and so I decided to go try them. Unfortunately, my visit was not at all how I expected.
Their menu clearly states "Ask about our vegetarian friendly options", right? So, I of course asked about their Tamal Cubano. Now if you look at their menu, nowhere in the description for Tamal Cubano does it say that it comes with any kind of meat but I asked just to be sure. When the waiter told us that it was topped with pork I proceeded to ask if we could have the pork on the side, too which he responded yes. Then I asked if there was any other meat in the tamal and was told no.
While we waited we munched on some mariquitas and watched the late Anthony Bourdain on a flat screen holstered up behind the counter. The mariquitas were a little too thin for my preference but the aioli garlic dipping sauce was yummy, I'll give you that. The place itself is small but I guess cute with their "Cuban island theme". Nonetheless, I was really looking forward to this tamal. My mouth watered thinking of the avocado that it came with.
It looked really yummy!!! Tomatoes, avocado, onion, crema, queso, cilantro...I mean my tastebuds were salivating! So I start eating and so far so good. Even after the fourth or fifth bite I noticed something. I dug into my tamal and as I was raising the fork to my mouth I see meat!!
Imagine my dismay after I had specifically asked if the tamal came with any other kind of meat besides being topped with pork!! After being specifically told no, I come to find that there is meat inside the tamal as well! I would have taken a photo but I was so disgusted and disappointed that I just wanted to leave. Perhaps, the waiter did not fully understand me?? Or maybe it was true and like he said, he honestly did not know that it also had meat inside? I can give him the benefit of the doubt. Now see, my problem is this(woah, totally unintentional Britney vibes there), how can you possibly have a waiter working for you who doesn’t even know your menu!?! I cannot wrap my mind around that!! I get that you just opened up recently at this location but as a business owner you should do better. I’m not in the restaurant business obviously, but I think you should train/prepare ALL of your employees properly. Especially your waiters! At any restaurant, whether new to the restaurant game or a seasoned veteran, it’s expected that your customers are going to have questions. How do you think it makes you look when one of your waiters doesn’t even know the own menu he/she should be selling?? Before opening for business you need to make sure that your waiters are prepared for anything. Let’s ignore the fact that your menu’s description of the Tamal Cuabano was completely incorrect(since it never mentions any kind of meat), you should at least explain the menu in detail to your employees and if they don’t remember something or are unsure make it known that they need to ask you to avoid this kind of misleading blunder happening! Also, if you’re going to offer vegetarian options, then do so. Don’t just throw that in there because you think it’s the cool thing to do now. Oh let’s not forget that we were charged a dollar for water(if you’re going to charge for water you need to give your customers the option of tap water) and that the waiter never came by to ask how everything was. Not only was the food less than great but customer service is not their strong suit either. However, I have saved my favorite part of this entire experience for last. I posted the infamous Tamal Cubano on my Instagram story with the caption “So this tamal turned out to be a disappointment” and I tagged Caja Caliente. They responded with “Never heard of anyone being disappointed with the tamal. Sorry you feel that way.” I get the feeling that they don’t take constructive criticism very well at all because they also proceeded to block my account on Instagram. I know this because when I went to tag them on my post for this blog I couldn’t find them lol. You may be a business owner but you clearly don’t have a business mind. What they should have responded was, why were you disappointed with our tamal? Or, how can we improve? Or, can we get a chance to change your mind? I think it’s very immature and in poor taste to block a customer simply because they critiqued something about your business. Instead you should have taken the experience to learn from it and make your business that much better. Maybe if they had been a little more sympathetic in their response I would end this blog on a positive note but they didn’t. I don’t know about their Wynwood location but their Coral Gables location gets a big thumbs down on my book…should be more like Caja Cerrada.