Valencia Luncheria

The country of Venezuela is afflicted by many ills. Sadly, “Valencia Luncheria” is such a Venezuelan eatery that it is affected by the same ills. Before my wife, 10-month-old son, and I undertook the hour- long trip to this place, we decided to call since a wave of arctic cold is in the area and that morning it was also snowing. Upon our arrival to the place we were informed that there was a waiting list and that calling ahead we could have saved ourselves the 40-minutes wait. And here is the first issue: we did call, and no suggestion was made at that time. We were seated, and a few minutes after, two more couples were seated too. For reasons that escape me the other two couples were given menus first. About fifteen minutes passed and finally a waitress came to take our order. We had to ask about the form of payment because we had heard a waitress tell a departing party that they no longer took checks. I was surprised because the website, which I reviewed that morning before departing, and the menu we were given indicated in large print “cash or check only”. This could even be a violation of the consumer protection law of the state since the advertised information is not accurate I must confess that it must be a decade since I used cash. In the year 2009 a business that takes only cash gives you the uneasy feeling of tax evasion. We were informed by the waitress, the same person that that had taken our name for the waiting list, that it was a new house rule not to take checks and that there was an ATM a few blocks away. We were not willing, after waiting for about 40 minutes and being left unattended for another fifteen (while orders of people that arrived after us were taken) to walk a few blocks during the coldest weekend of the winter and with the sidewalk covered with snow to get the money for our meal (besides extra charges for the use of an ATM not belonging to our bank). So we left without eating, therefore I am unable to tell you about the food, but I can tell you this: I do not give my money to people that are not able to appreciate that they are not doing me a favor by having me at their locale; it is the other way around.

This is a real Venezuelan eatery. Afflicted by the same lack of effort, negligence, bad attitude and the idea that the best customer service is given when you show the customer that he is not the boss. I know this first hand: I lived in Venezuela for 25 years. There is one more thing that bothers me terribly, and again it is something that I experienced in Venezuela: The fact that this business takes cash only makes me think of tax evasion. No one likes to pay taxes, yet we all have to.

Lastly, as I said before, I do not give my hard-earned money to people that do not appreciate it and nor should you.