Good food, but brusque service
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 3/10/08
We were recommended this restaurant by a clerk in a shop where we were buying clothes, so we thought we couldn't go wrong. We had the concierge at the Hotel Alfonso XIII (the best in town) make the reservation, so we thought we would have a nice table. Wrong! We were placed at a table next to the waiters' station; it felt like we were sitting in the corridor of a train station--waiters were practially bumping us when they walked by. We asked (in fluent Spanish) to be moved to a vacant table out of the line of fire, but the maitre d' wasn't much interested in doing that--he gave that table to some locals who came in a few minutes later (and who, by the way, were enjoying their first glass of wine by the time the maitre came to take our order.) The service was totally lacking in finesse and refinement: two of the waiters were having a running argument which we could easiy hear; the unsmiling maitre was chastising another inexperienced waiter; our wine was opened and then placed on the table with an audible thump; bread was not replenished promptly; we had to flag down waiters whenever we wanted something, etc., etc. The couple next to us complained that their bill was wrong ( it was, and it was fixed) and an Englishman at another table was visibly upset because he thought that he had been brought the wrong desert and couldn't get satisfaction from the wait staff. We couldn't wait to finish what was on our plate and leave. It's a shame about the shambolic service, because the food was quite good, and had we had a better table, we probably would have tolerated the amateurish service. It's also a shame because we found extraordinarily friendly and warm service everywhere else we went in Seville. Seville is a charming and fascinating place, and the food is wonderful. Maybe the lesson here is to go to Yahoo Travel before booking a table instead of asking for advice in a clothing shop.