Tapas at Embrujo — Restaurant in Toronto

THANKS TO YP Dine for making things right when it should have been the job of the owner of this restaurant. It was very arrogance of the owner, “Jose” that pushed me to write this review. How would you like paying for something but not getting anything for it? Essentially you just been robbed. Jose would not honour my paid certificate that has his restaurant name with no expiry date. He said that not honouring certificates bought via a 3rd party will not have negative mark against his business, so he encouraged me to go ahead and complain. He assumed that we have never set foot in his restaurant because we are just trying to use the certificate now and that he had nothing to lose. In fact, we have been there quite a few times without certificates, as we like flamenco shows. We though we have lost the certificate and forgot about it until I recently found it, it turned out that we misplaced it. I informed him that we typically spent over $100 in his restaurant, more with a bottle of wine, that exceeds the $50 certificate. With pricey food and drinks, it is easy to spend over $150 while watching a show. In spite of all the explanation, he would not stand up to be an honourable and upstanding businessman. His reason being that the 3rd party went bankrupt. Typically the way it works is that, when a company sells these certificates, the restaurants get paid before they are redeemed. but he claimed that he did not get paid and that the company no longer exists.

Shortly after we bought the certificate, we walked into the restaurant on a non busy day ie not Friday, nor weekend, but they turned us away saying we needed to call to make a reservation before we can use it. We had forgotten this incident and much later we returned a few times to dine. Recently I came across the certificate that I thought I had lost, and called the restaurant to see if we could use it. I complained to my husband about the frustrating phone conversation I had with the owner. He later recalled the incident when we tried using the certificate the first time. He advised me not to bother and wished we had not given him any business in the past. Recently when I called the same mobile number, “Paul”, asked me to call back another day to speak with the owner “Jose” about the found certificate. When I called back the second time, he sounded like the same person. “Paul”, who worked for Jose, did not know his boss’s full name. Interesting.

This is absolutely not OK for a restaurant that is still in business not honour certificates that customers already paid for.

Response to the owner's response: Wow! Jose/Paul, you do not stop making my head shake in disbelief. Not only you don't learn, but you cause further damage by accusing your customers of using faked name/profile. I never said in our phone conversation that I came in once and forgot my voucher. We did come in once with the certificate and was told we needed a reservation. You and your staff made it difficult/inconvenient to redeem these vouchers. I did not tell you that I bought the certificate 5 years ago, you decided that yourself. You then accused me of lying about the reservation as you decided that you were there and know what your staff did 5 years ago. You never offered me a free meal, that would have been the right thing to do. Businesses do change but not smart to let the customer take the fall. Had you accepted the certificate, even if you had not been paid, then you would have gained over $100 or more as it is very easy to spend in these times over $150 when we dine out (esp with bottle of wine, drinks, desert, apps etc) The company that sold me the certificate did not go bankrupt, the present company with a different name told me that they purchased that company. I really do wish you learn from these reviews, instead you get defensive and point fingers at your customer. I will consider this a 40 dollar- lesson. You will gain no more than $40 from us from now on. I will not waste any more time on...

Update: the manager responded via facebook, as I left my comment on their page.

Do not support this racist establishment. My fiancee and I, were ignored, not seated, not given any menus, until we had to ask for service. We can't even give the waiters name, as he never introduced himself, but to ask if we had reservations, to which we so no. We ordered two drinks, and we could see that the waiter and the "manager" (the one who appeared to be in charge on the floor) looking back at us several times while engaging in conversation. Wow how uncomfortable. As we sat and waited 30 mins to receive two drinks, myself and my fiancee listened and watched other patrons who were white, were being greeted, and seated, told of the special performances that were taking place that evening, they were never once asked if they had any reservations. They simply were taken care of. I've reached out to the manager on their personal page and was given the most vile and ignorant response, but at this point I don't expect much from this establishment. Save your money, and spend it next door to the Rodeo Brazilian Steakhouse, they were so kind, professional and efficient. It was the total opposite experience. #badservice #racistestablishment #tapasembrujo

Original Response with full details:

If you guys were ever thinking about dinning at this restaurant Tapas at Embrujo please don't. Please read my experience below. Walked in today sat may 28, 2016, with my fiancee who was visiting the city from New York. We were not greeted, the waiter never introduced himself...he was hesitant in seating us. We were asked if we had any reservation ...we said no...mind you the restaurant was empty. 3. Our waiter and the owner seemed bothered by us, at first i really wasn't trying to use the race card, but we both felt very uncomfortable and couldn't understand why the atmosphere was so tense.It took 30 mins to get drinks, and the third drink that was ordered. Here's why i'm using the "race card", every single person that came in had NO reservations (I made sure to listen in on the conversation between the greeter and the customers who were coming). They were all greeted, seated and given a menu and were told about the entertainment that would take place in the evening. We were not even given a drink menu, until I had to ask. The saddest part was that I could see our waiter speaking to the "manager" (appeared to be the one in charge of the floor), just before he would pass his manager he would look back at us, it was clear that we were a topic of discussion. Just to put it out there, just in case anyone is wondering what type of people we are, we are both educated, working professionals that know how to conduct ourselves in a restaurant...just in case there's any doubt. The good news is, we went right next door to the Brazilian Steakhouse and had the time of our life. The staff was incredible, we were greeted at the door, by all members of the staff (WOW!). The food was incredible! The atmosphere was classy and welcoming. They received a fabulous tip and a...

TL;DR - don't buy the travelzoo voucher, don't stop in as you're walking past, don't try it on a whim - avoid, avoid, AVOID!

I had dinner here with a friend on Saturday night, using a Travelzoo voucher which offered 5 tapas, 2 desserts and a litre of sangria for $89.

Pros: the server spent considerable time helping us choose tapas the 2 steak and fries tapas (one with mustard sauce and the other with whiskey sauce) were enjoyable the sausage and cornichon tapas was a good match and tasty brussel sprouts tapas was tasty when it finally arrived 45 minutes after we'd eaten all the others the server asked us a number of times if we were enjoying the food but I find it hard to tell the truth in restaurants because I always worry that they will tamper with a replacement dish

Cons: service was ridiculously slow, partly because of a lack of understanding on the server's part as to how the travelzoo deal is handled by this restaurant's system (both sending orders to the kitchen as well as producing the bill at the end of the meal) and partly because he ignored us for 45 minutes. Unbelievable. As a result, a meal that should have been 2 hours long MAXIMUM was 4 hours. shrimp tapas was made using already cooked shrimp (the kind you get in a shrimp ring from the supermarket) and therefore was woefully overcooked the bread was an aggressively bland supermarket baguette (likely from Loblaws the next block over) that they sat in a pond of flavourless oil flan was quite bland almond and lemon cake was unevenly baked: soggy bottom and dry and stale everywhere else. The berry coulis that they decorated the plate with had actually almost completely DRIED so it was difficult to add it to the cake. for my travelzoo peeps: the sangria is not alcoholic so keep that in mind when you're deciding on the value of the voucher at no point was our water refilled so during the loooong process of the difficult task of you know, GETTING THE BILL, we were hoarse from talking for 4 bloody hours with nothing left to sip on sitting next to the front window became unbearably cold over the course of our 4 hour meal washroom was freezing cold and there was water on the floor of the stalls I hated the flamenco show. This might be my taste but I strongly disliked the music and dance. However, it was so bloody loud that it was impossible to ignore it and have a conversation instead.

I will say that I left the restaurant with a huge smile on my face. For non-travelzoo readers, what you need to realize is that travelzoo asks us (in pretty strong language) to be classy patrons and tip on the basis of the FULL value of the meal. However, not everyone can be trusted and sometimes the venue will make the tipping mandatory to avoid being shortchanged. These idiots used the PROMOTIONAL value ($89) as the basis for the 18% tip (completely undeserved) and so have been getting essentially less than 10% tip for this deal since it began. It shows you the kind of brilliant minds behind the operation.

I will...