Kanela Flamenco Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

We were seated at a small table even after reserving a table in advance for the $85 per person deal. The instruction when I made the booking was clear that One guest is going to be vegetarian. Though the rest of the starters were to be vegetarian we at least expected that the paella would be served differently and we requested the same to the wait-staff. Our request wasn't accommodated and we were asked to share the same paella. The payment was made per person and not per table which is why this was really upsetting to us.

The starters we were served were small in quantities and again were served to the entire table and not per person.

Now we ordered a vegetarian paella as our request was just not considered by the team. The first look at the paella was disappointing as it looked like the vegetables used were directly from a bag of frozen veggies and they sure tasted the same. To our disappointment, the paella was also extremely bland and lacked even basic ingredients like salt, saffron and paprika which we believe are the essentials to the dish. On asking the wait-staff if anything can be changed about this it was said that the kitchen is closed to accommodate this request. The rice was so tasteless and impossible to eat that we asked for the paella to be taken away if nothing can be done about it. We requested to provide some discount on our bill as we were extremely disappointed in the serving and the way we were treated at your establishment.

We were constantly reminded that the $85 per person bill was for the show and the food together. While we understand that, there were a lot of other people at the restaurant who were just there for drinks and watched the performance without paying huge amounts. These people literally stood in front of our table and we were forced to stand and watch the show. Now in normal circumstances, this would be totally acceptable but it is a common understanding that if someone has reserved a table for the show specifically does not have to stand to watch it. No steps were taken to make it comfortable for the guests who actually paid huge amounts for the dinner.

The set menu of $85 per person clearly states that we will be served dessert too which never made it to us. Upon investigating we were told that if you wanted the dessert you should have asked for it as we can't keep a track of everything. Though I understand it was busy, the only people who were having the set menu was us and it is totally unacceptable that were not served the desserts. The wait-staff took away our mains which clearly meant the next step was to bring out the dessert.

Treated poorly by the wait-staff, not served enough food, really poor arrangements even after booking a table in advance, not served desserts and watching the performance standing, does not at all seem fair to pay $85 per person for this kind of hospitality.

It is our humble request that you only charge us for the starters that you served us as the rest is just not acceptable and extremely...

Do not go there, you will regret it.

Don’t even worth 1 star

To be honest, it was an absolute disaster. The owner/Manager, she is so rude after reading her replies on one of my friend post. Totally agree with my friend not worthy at all. I book a dinner for 6 adults and 1 kid online, then call the Manager and arrange to have the dietary requirements for my 2 guests. Spoke to her on the phone she was nice, even I was told that it is very busy and better to book now. Guess what. We arrived at the restaurant, no acknowledgement from her, neither from the waiters. The bartender greet us and advise us to wait for a mins. We sat at our table, we all ordered a cocktail and I asked for a Dry Martini with Gin Mare, I got a Ginger Martini instead,it’s ok, mistakes happen. I tried to explain the rude waiter that I asked for a Dry Martini with Gin Mare, and he said to me yes, this is it. I had to google to show him the cocktail. Bartender came to the table , very nice and helpful understood what I was after. Looked around the restaurant and found only 9 of us in the restaurant. Well Manager what a lie.The Manager was doing her own thing at that time pull a chair at the table and not sure whether she was changing her shoes or giving herself a foot massage. Food came to the table, the dietaries I asked for was forgotten. My guess had to eat the omelette and olives. I told the waitress that they don’t eat pork and beef and whether you have arranged something special for them. Guess what - 4 Grilled mushroom, it’s a $125 dinner per person. Waiter came to the table and clearing the plate of my daughter, I said to them that she’s not a big eater and will nibble from us. Rude waiter told me that you book only for 6 pax, so the plate needs to come out. I was furious, and wanted to leave. Anyways, Show started, it was not bad. We had our paella and was tasteless with burnt flavour. Now desserts, rude waiter came to the table and said”Sorry we are out of flan and you will get only Churios.Well the booking was done a week in advance and you ran out of flan. Good on you Kanela. We told them to pack it in a take away box because we couldn’t stay in this restaurant for more longer. The bill came in, and the total amount was $840.50, on the eftpos machine says $855.00, no one did bother to explain why there’s a $15 difference. I changed the amount to my actual amount and waiter came to the table said that you had to pay $855.00. I asked what the reason I need to pay that amount, he said that credit card surcharge 1.7%. I paid with a debit card not a credit card women manager. Hopefully you find something better to do, hospo is...

Really tacky experienced, way overpriced for what it was and personally I had a terrible experience.

You need to triple check the email confirmation that comes through because they're incredibly draconic about it. I have a screenshot of the booking for the correct night on browser which I showed to them, but the email came through with a different date. I don't know why that happened, you would think if they're going to automatically debit $320 on the night they would call you first like other restaurants - it's not like there's that many patrons in fact it was pretty empty the night we came, and basically dead after the first performance. Most places won't refund the deposit but here they whack you with the full amount, and it just feels like they're taking advantage. It's not like the food was procured fresh that morning and they kept preparing food the whole night and threw it away, to warrant such a draconic response.

Even without the issues, the food was bland and overpriced, one plate of dessert was missing, and by that stage we just wanted to go home.

Have had a few people ask if we would recommend this place and I would be telling them all...