Duende Tapas Bar — Restaurant in Western Australia

Our reservation was for 8 pm, and we arrived a few minutes early. From the very beginning, the experience felt rushed. We were served water in a glass that still had lipstick on it, something the waitress apologised for and replaced immediately. She then asked what we’d like to drink. We ordered aperitivos and mentioned that we wanted a few minutes to look over the menu. Less than a minute later, she returned to say the kitchen was closing and pushed us to order straight away. We asked for five minutes, but when she came back, things only got more disappointing.

We had decided on the swordfish and the gnocchis, but she returned to say the swordfish was unavailable. Moments later, she came back again to explain the gnocchi couldn’t be served with the sauce on the side (a request I had made while ordering), as the sauce was premade and mixed with the gnocchis. My partner then chose the chicken and chorizo paella, which unfortunately arrived lukewarm and tasted as though it had simply been reheated rather than freshly prepared.

To add to the frustration, another staff member, who appeared to be the manager on duty, approached our table to tell me I couldn’t order the pink snapper with the sides that was originally with the swordfish because the chef “wouldn’t do that.” It had to be one dish or the other. At that point, I cancelled my meal altogether. Yet a short while later, she returned with the pink snapper dish anyway, but notify us that it wouldn't be charged on the bill (kindly appreciated) and also to announce that the dessert section was closing.

From start to finish, we felt rushed and poorly looked after, something we never expected when celebrating our anniversary. I work in hospitality myself, and I fully understand how challenging it can be to accommodate late diners. However, nothing justifies this level of service or the lack of care shown to paying guests.

For the price point, the food should have been fresh and well-prepared. Instead, even the bread we ordered was disappointing, three thick toasted slices with a tiny portion of butter that wasn’t even enough for all of them.

Overall, this was a very underwhelming and disappointing experience, especially for such an important occasion. Sadly, we left feeling like we had chosen the wrong place...

Fantastic food, good wine and drinks selection, service appropriate for a laminex cafe not high end bar.

I recommend the swordfish and the harrisa prawns, my wife recommends the harrisa prawns and squid (not octopus)

We had a Spanish sparking (can’t recall the name): very nice.

We booked a dinner for our wedding anniversary. We told the waitperson this when we arrived. My expectation is that this would be communicated back to the kitchen and service adjusted accordingly. This is what is required to deliver good quality service appropriate for this price point.

We were seated outside (our preference). We chose a spot away from the noisy couple who were near the door. The waitperson was with us when we discussed this. A little later the waitperson deposited another noisy couple right next to us. There were plenty of empty seats away from us.

We ordered several dishes, some hot, some cold and some deep fried, entrees and mains. Having implied that we were having a leisurely dinner I expected that dishes would be spread over some time. That is the tradition for tapas. The dishes all came at once, the hot and deep fried were cold before we got to them.

The art of waiting requires unobtrusive monitoring of customers status. The waitperson was blissfully ignorant of this; alternating between interrupting and being unobtainable. A waitperson should also know the food and make suggestions: “Those dishes have lots of sauce, would you like some bread?” Serving a saucy dish with a fork is also very hard. Shared dishes should have serving cutlery for health reasons if nothing else.

So if you book here, bring your own serving spoons and be prepared to get up from your table and find a waitperson if you want something, even on a quiet mid-week evening.

Other than that: fantastic. Great food and a good evening, but no tip...

I came back after having an excellent previous experience a few years ago. This time I was disappointed specifically with the customer service. The guy that answered my phone when I booked was very professional as well as one of the waitresses (Asian looking girl) she was very attentive and kind. But three things let us down greatly that night... First of all, they ran out sangria as soon as we arrived (at 19hs), and honestly, being Spanish, that was quite a surprise (in Spain this situation would be surprisingly rude and rare. Come on guys! Just mix red wine, sugar, cinnamon some fruit and add the bubbles, it's not alchemy). Then the youngest waiter was delivering the dishes on the table by just leaving them in front of us without having even eye contact, nor telling us what the dish was or who ordered what. I hope this kid learns the minimum of manners to work in hospitality because he wasn't even trying. He was leaving the plates in the corner of the table and disappearing. To make things worse, when we explained to the another waitress (the one with glasses) the situation she rolled her eyes at us. The food was good but again the whole experience wasn't very pleasant. I'll go to Rústico next time I want to have a Spanish experience in Perth. I'm sorry guys, I know you can be tired but I worked in hospitality before and this is not acceptable. Especially for a restaurant like Duende, where customers pay enough for a quality experience and whose reputation and standards should be...