La Madera — Restaurant in Hamburg

I dislike writing negative or disappointing reviews but sometimes the experiences are such. My last few dining out experiences were really good so it was perhaps time to average things out.. So here goes.. group of 5 for a birthday on a Tuesday evening

Service - non existent. Massively understaffed and the staff seemed burdened and stressed. You can see they are busy and all over the place. No one at the entrance to check reservations, just confused customers looking at each other.

We went for the all you can eat option

Food: Steak - arrived cold and hence chewy. Reason. read above. Plates probably were laying for a while before being delivered Pork Ribs - Excellent Prawns - Good

Candle for the birthday cake - No Sorry cannot be given. (Did not even bother asking for a reason). Although we got a some drink for the birthday girl. Did not check the bill, assuming it was complimentary.

Food Wastage: All 5 went for the all you can eat option. Serving size was pretty huge (for us ) and hence we struggled to finish what was offered. Not even one person asked for a refill of any of the dishes. Hence we requested them politely that instead of throwing away the food please let us take it. We take responsibility of any 'health and hygiene' issues. At this point I repeat, we did not ask for a single refill, everything was as per the original serving. Guess what, answer was no. Throwing away the food makes more sense than someone taking responsibility to take the food. We even offfered to pay for it instead of it being thrown. Maybe this was our fault by making a false order but we tried to correct it, I do not see the point of such food wastage. Appalling and sickening in the name of 'rules'.

Went in a steak and meat lover, came out feeling guilty about my decisions.

Lastly - a premium steakhouse not accepting credit or EC cards, only cash. which...

Came here today with a group of 9 for the all-you-can-eat Tapas deal. The service was friendly but lacked a little bit of attention and I think there are a few minor issues that are rather related to the concept than the waitress we had. I'd like to point out that our waitress was very friendly and came to check on us regularly.

However, a few things I noticed were: Tapas orders are taken per person but when they arrived, they were all placed randomly on one or two plates. Eg we ordered 2 serves of calamari but they were all placed at one end of the table. So rather than small Tapas, we had to continuously pass back and forth a huge plate. They mixed vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. We ordered a non-alcoholic drink with a different waiter and in the process the order got mixed up and we received an alcoholic cocktail that was too strong even if someone wanted to drink alcohol. She got compensated with a coffee for the mix up. No big deal for us but might be different for someone pregnant, former alcoholic etc. At the start we received 1 serve of dips and a small bread basket for 9 people. The bread is no bread but cut up old bread rolls. From my POV the wrong end to save money.

Overall, it was nothing overwhelming but for the Tapas deal it's worth coming here. The individual Tapas are quite pricey but if you order a minimum of 3 Tapas per person, the deal is worth it.

My suggestion is to take the Tapas orders in sections so that the people actually receive what they ordered. Check if someone has dietary requirements and serve veggie dishes separate from meat dishes. As much as I understand the practicality of the big plates, the Tapas-feeling goes missing.

Again, our waitress was friendly and tried hard to make us feel...

I am a regular visitor of this restaurant but only because I live close by. I have a love/hate relationship with this place due to it being so inconsistent and unfriendly towards customers.

Pros: Beautiful restaurant and bar. Sometimes delicious food. Nice all-you-can-eat tapas offer.

Cons: Waitresses have a terrible attitude on most of the visits. Food is inconsistent (sometimes perfectly cooked/sometimes massively overcooked).

Here are a couple of negative experiences we have had there: 1. The waitress did not fill our drink up to the line once. We asked her to fill it up to the line as this is what we are paying for. She rolled her eyes and returned with the glass so full that it was spilling everywhere. Terrible service! 2. We ordered dates wrapped in bacon but were served prunes wrapped in bacon. Since I love dates and hate prunes, this was very obvious to me. I explained it to the waitress only for her to tell me that I was wrong. I showed her and explained the differences. She came back with a new plate with the SAME PROBLEM and what is worse, with a horrible attitude. I returned it again only for her to bring me back a 3rd plate of prunes and to tell me that they are out of dates. 😑

We could keep going with our unpleasant experiences but will end it there.

So, if you take a chance on this restaurant, you might get lucky that it is a good...