Dear John,
My name is Ernesto Moreno and I am the owner and MD of Arepa & Co. I’ve personally chosen to respond to your review as reviews like this are of critical importance to me and because someone like you deserves my full attention.
First of all, thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough review and for the suggestions you have included. I appreciate it, it makes me aware of the rare times when things go wrong and when some members of staff do not perform as expected. Be reassured that I have addressed this with all those involved, reviewed the CCTV footage and called for a review meeting with all of those involved. Your concerns are certainly being heard and acted upon. Thank you.
I was disappointed to hear that your experience was not the great experience all our customers receive, as you can see from our reviews over 90% of our reviews are actually 5-stars and they are all testament of the pride we take for our food and our service. Frustratingly, from time to time things go wrong, and it was very unfortunate that you had to experience this. This one of the challenges of a business like this, that the quality of service can vary from time to time depending on the employees involved regardless of our high standards and the thorough training given. Now let me respond more specifically to some of your comments.
In relation to your coffee, I was disappointed to hear that this happened. I have instructed a review and re-training of our baristas to ensure that standards are followed at all times (even when we are busy and short of staff like it was the case when you visited!).
In relation to your ‘STARTERS’ I do have to correct you here, we do not have starters in our menu, we have “SMALL PLATES”, and they have deliberately named that way because in true Venezuelan style the come along with the mains or as soon as they are ready (many other restaurants like Busaba and Wagamama do this, it's part of our food culture). However, customers can request to have them delivered first before their mains -as you asked for- and this is always honoured so I was sad to read that this wasn’t the case with your order. I’ve conducted an investigation and spoken to the waiter responsible for this mistake. As you, I also wish you would have mentioned something right then and there as this could have given us the chance to correct this for you. But regardless, I do apologise for the mistake, it should have never happened in the first place. Service charge certainly should have been removed and waiter Omar certainly should have handled the situation better.
If you are happy to give us a chance to get it right, and if you are prepared to re-rate your experience, I would love to invite you to have a full brunch on us again to let you experience what the true Arepa & Co experience is like. If you wish are happy to accept my invitation please email directly at: hello@arepaandco.com and I will get everything organised for you and I’ll be there to offer you my apologies in person. I look forward to your response.
Ernesto Moreno
MD and Owner
PS: I noticed you have also left your review across 3 other review platforms. I appreciate the time this has taking you and that you wanted to make sure your comments reached us. I also appreciate your concern for other customers. Hopefully, we will get this right for you and hopefully all other customers can also see the very long list of praise and 5-star reviews we have across all platforms.
