Minas Kitchen

I was in Mina's on Tuesday, 12/12/2023 in the evening. Maybe that was the wrong time to come. I've been here before, but only bought her Spinach dish, which was delicious. However, of all the times, (my bother was visiting from the Virgin Islands) I thought I would try her Oxtail dinner. I had called in and was told to call back while they checked to see if they had anymore oxtails. I did. Was told they had some. Ordered 2 Oxtail meals. Waited a while, which was expected, but when the meals came out, I looked at the meal. The oxtails were in a separate bowl from the rice. It had 2 small oxtails with a bowl full of gravy. I had to ask if they were oxtails. Mina took the bowl looked and said she would give me 2 more ginger beers (I had already ordered 2 ginger beers) in place of the scarcity of the oxtail. I told her I didn't want them. She said she would take $10 off my 67.plus bill. She takes the food in the back, comes back with another plate with some kind of chicken and rice with $5. I asked her what happened to the $10, she said she gave me the chicken plate for $5, plus plantains. I was so discussed, I took the food and left. I gave my brother his plate. He said the oxtails were awful. He started coughing and asked for milk. I thought he just didn't like hot foods, but when I tasted them, they were extremely hot hot spicy hot hot. I had to get some milk as well. They scraped this from the bottom of the pan where everything was left, including the hot peppers or what ever hot spice they used. It was too much. I had a plate full of rice. My brother said he had two small oxtails as was mine. The chicken plate was tough and taste like fish. Mina, I was very disappointed. As you may know you lost a customer. I ended up throwing out $67 plus in the trash, including my $5 plate of chicken & rice.

The food is great, you get what you pay for in terms of quantity. 5 star there. EVERYTHING ELSE, ZERO STARS! The customer service is trash. I ordered my food over the phone. The lady was nice. She said 30 mins, so I waited & went there after 40 mins. I walked in. There was no greeter even though they have a greeting stand. So I walked to the bar since I saw a young lady back there. She didn't even acknowledge me & went to the kitchen. After 10 mins, 1 man who was sitting w/ a party of 4 guests came to ask me if they could order. I told him "I'm sure you can." Then I realized he thought I worked there & I had to clarify that I didn't! I had saw this party sitting when I came in so I'm assuming they weren't tended to either. Eventually some guy carrying food from the kitchen came & asked if I ordered. I told him my order & he said it wasn't ready. It had been now maybe an hr. I said I'd be back & left. When I returned, same thing. No greeting, just the guy saying it was ready. I went to the bar & paid for my food. Normally I tip but w/ how terrible their customer service is, I could not. Again 5 stars for the food, Zero stars for the service. You walk in there & the staff legit behaves like chickens w/ their head cut off.

I was very exited to try Fufu for the very first time and for my birthday I decided to grant myself the experience. I must say the food was a pleasure to me. I enjoyed every savory bite, Speaking only of the food, I might if anything at all order to go the next time. For starters our waiter had no knowledge of the food and although we told him it was our first time there instead of helping us out he used this to his advantage at billing time. My friend ordered the okra with beef he did not use a pad when taking the order so he brought her mixed just like my pepper soup and then when asked where was the meat he said “he thought she had ordered mixed” He took his time doing things and since we had no hurry we waited with patience. The wait became overbearing because they had like 4 televisions going all at once each in a different channel and on top of that the music all competing for attention the largest television was playing what seemed like an African soap opera with lots of drama and well not suitable dinner content, but then again maybe they do not practice those manners where they come from. Since our only interaction was with the waiter I have to say that the person the management has chosen to be the face of the restaurant leaves a great deal to be desired, so much so that if I had to put words to the unspoken interactions I would say this is what it felt like he was saying: “ look lady you are hungry we have food if you want to eat what we give you fine if not go home and cook for yourself or go elsewhere to eat because at the end of the day we don’t care….!” Now, I am not sure if they don’t care to have new customers, customers that are not of their same ethnic background or customers that ask questions that he was not prepared to answer. In either case, whatever the case might be, I did not feel invited to return to this location, one thing I am certain of though, the food even if this may not have been the best of all that is available, I was right in thinking that the food was worth trying and I will be on the lookout for another location that offers a better overall customer experience. I think this place has great potential because of the number of people or regular customers I saw coming in and out of the place. However, anyone who is in business knows the value of a new customer. My friend paid for the food and she left a very small tip, my tip would have been either train your waiter better, or replace him with someone who is more of a people person and will invite your customers to return by providing an inviting experience. We were charged separately for the fufu which in the menu seemed like it came with the soup and that is not the all, we were charged for combo fufu and our fufu did not have plantain, this fellow forgot the fact that I have done my research on this food prior to going and I know that you can mash casaba and plantain and that plantain depending on the amount added will change the color due to the fact that casaba is just white and has no other color and plantain can vary in the color depending on the kind of plantain and the ripeness of it. I am not African but casaba and plantain are common staples in Latin countries and we make many dishes out of them. My compliments to the chef the food was great, the rest of the experience is what will keep me from returning to dine in but I might order to go.

I ordered 2 spinach special with 1 debbie the server charged me $97 plus tip I asked her a receipt but it doesn't show details it was a custom item of $97. I went there after 3 days another server checked for me on the system, I was overcharged for other 4 items. Then I asked her to give me copy of the customized receipt unfortunately she said let me talk to the manager after that she said sorry I can not give you then I requested to talk with the manager. Then I contacted the owner she doesn't care about what happened she said you supposed to ask customized receipt at that time, now I can not do anything if you want call to police or come back tomorrow the lady who served you will be here. I don't recommend to anyone they overcharge, if not please ask customized receipt.