I have to say we love this place & went all through COVID. They were one of the few places open. We bought all our celebrations there. Birthdays, anniversaries, “just becauses” until we realized the gratuity they snuck on with no mention of it anywhere....Not on the menus, the walls, posted nowhere. We felt conned & cheated cause my husband is a fanatic tipper. The one time we questioned it you could tell they started panicking & had no real answer. Two people charges an Exorbitant gratuity on our bill & by now we surely we regulars. We have had groups of 10/15 you may expect gratuity to be charged but was never posted anywhere. It is a deceptive practice & if I’m not mistaken, against the law in NJ. I tried to check recently & they may have stopped in the last month or so, July 2022. This has left a bad taste in our mouths. Not sure if El Chinhon knows when you charge gratuity, it is supposed to be POSTED & do not expect any further tip. This post is long overdue. It would be nice if they were made to pay back the money they syphoned. Otherwise, good is delicious, atmosphere is the best, would be nice if someone in charge there had some morals or common business decency. The other person here who mentioned gratuity scandal at El chignon is telling the truth.More

This was an impromptu birthday drinks gathering. It was MY first time visiting this place. It was getting really cold out and our friend who was getting ready to move out of state away from us had her birthday. A last minute drink was decided...and this place came recommended. When we arrived it was packed. We were not very comfortable with what we saw. There was no way we were getting in. Most tables were set 6ft apart, but still, it was a packed house. They took our number and said they would text/call us when a table became available. They definitely did. We went in and where we were seated, was perfect. It was away from the more crowded area and we were still being safe. I did notice however that a couple of the main floor service folks had an masks but it was always below their noses. I was NOT comfortable with that and had to ask one of them before speaking to me to pull it up. Either their masks are too worn so they become loose or they are simple not their size. Get with it staffers! We sat for at least 8 mins before I had to stop one of them to ask if they could get our waiter. He proceeded to take our drink order and then told us that our waiter would come and take our food order in a couple of mins. She did and she was pretty nice. Our appetizer came before our drinks, but the drinks were definitely on point. It was a bit loud, as if I was in a club and I could hardly have a conversation with my girls needless to say, the mask only made it harder for anyone of us to hear exactly what the other was saying. They had a whole karaoke vibe going on in there. The vibes were on point. And the drinks were right. Our meals finally arrived. My steak was cooked just as I liked and ordered but my overall love of the meal wasn’t there. The food was ok. Just OK! Nothing to right home about. I felt they were a bit pricey especially for the service and felt cheated that they would help us celebrate my friends birthday by coming to sing, bringing a slice of cake, a hat that my girl had to put on for a few seconds. Any other place you get a slice of cake on the house. For the money that we spent on our entire meal you would think that the cake would have been for free. A bit disappointed on that part. Another thing, just because it’s a Mexican bar/restaurant doesn’t mean all the music you play has to be in Spanish. They had mixed patrons from what I could see, even kids from the university close by. Don’t just cater to your own people. All in all it was fun. Loved the vibe and I would def go again but just for drinks and apps.More

Before anything is said I have pictures of the original receipt, I am not a sir as mentioned on the google review response from this restaurant, They must think I am my Fiance, lol and would appreciate it if someone would reach out to me...instead of just commenting that I am lying. My fiance and I ( The Female ) went to this restaurant, we sat at the bar, had two appetizers and 5 drinks and a dessert and our bill came out to $121, my Fiance looked at the bill and realized that they had gone ahead and added a 30 percent Gratuity which came out to $25 and change. We noticed that a young women to our right had the same issue, we can see the bartender entering it in the system manually by in the POS system as it was in front of us. We asked to speak with the manager and the bartender mentioned that gratuity is automatically added by the system. The manager came up to us and her first words were "Did you not like the service?" We responded by saying the service was good but it was insulting to charge a 30% gratuity especially without notifying us of this. It was not posted on their menus, or anywhere at the bar or in the restaurant. I went ahead a wrote a google review prior to this one and the managers was that they had gone ahead and out a 18% gratuity, not 30% but the receipt we were originally given, clearly had a 30% tip already added to the bill. The icing on the cake was that my fiance mentioned that after we signed our bill and left a tip which was 18 percent even after the issue, that the bartender picked up the signed copy and first thing he did is show it to a coworker. What was said I could only speculate but I won't. It sad to say that no one apologized for the error, they just removed the 30 percent gratuity and gave us suggested options and pretended like nothing happened and pretty much just said we should be happy that we had no issues with the service. As a business that wants return customers, you should own up to this type of practice, My fiance has been here several times with friends and once for a political even and we went for new years eve and that was not the practice. We would gladly return but once again reach out to us, ( owner ) please.More