Mamas & Tapas — Restaurant in Amsterdam

We booked a table for three today, hoping to introduce a friend to Spanish tapas. We ordered a selection of tapas and were quite disappointed. The ibérico ham is simply not ibérico ham. We told the waiter, who told the owner, who then came to show us the invooice for the ham... but the invoice read CEBO, which IS NOT ibérico ham. The owner then said it would be impossible to sell ibérico ham for the advertized price (around 15e). Perhaps, but either serve smaller portions of REAL ibérico ham OR don't call it ibérico ham. The rest was ok, but not great. Very salty pulpo a la plancha (octopus) and the patatas bravas were not spicy at all. All in all, not a very representative sample of Spanish tapas. The drinks were fine and the waiters were polite and efficient.

I can’t seem to find a way to reply elsewhere. So here’s my reaction to Mamas and Tapas

Dear Mamas and Tapas,

It’s nice to see you read my comment and, hopefully, this rather unpleasant experience – both on site and online – will serve some other purpose than mere verbal jousting. I find it rather telling that you only focused on the negative though. I did praise the drinks and the staff. Fair is fair.

I do happen to know the difference between the various types of Spanish hams. As you know, ibérico hams are characterized by their marbled texture; they are literally dripping with fat. You must know that cutting ibérico ham properly is also key. The reason I called your ham serrano was because it was much leaner and saltier than any ibérico hams I know, and cut in a way that did not correspond to ibérico standards. You did show me an invoice for cebo de campo ham, I believe it was 50% from Iberian pigs. Cebo de campo can be an affordable and tasty alternative to bellota ham. I mean even LIDL carries excellent cebo de campo on a regular basis. I think you need a word with your supplier rather than with customers.

As for the inimical interaction, and my question about your native language, I’ll admit it was not elegantly phrased. Let this be said in my defense though: I was merely trying to find out if we could carry out the discussion in Spanish rather than English as you looked Spanish to me. Nothing more, nothing less. It is sad that you should be spinning this into some kind of racist interaction. It was not.

The conclusion is simple: When using the term ibérico, you are creating certain expectations. Bringing up the price tag as an excuse for failing to fulfill those expectations is… well… inexcusable. Note too that misleading customers is a felony in the Netherlands (Article 8 – De Nederlandse Reclame code). Just saying.

I have certainly learned a few things along the way. I hope you...

I don't usually write reviews of restaurants I visit, and this mainly has to do with the fact that I mostly choose correctly. This however was a disaster from start to finish. I looked at the great reviews and thought, "this is worth a try" but it was simply terrible food.

My partner said the calamari tasted nice however, the rest left a lot to the imagination. The Patatas bravas weren't crispy and the sause looked like it had been drizzled out of ketchup bottle. It was just a watery red tastless liquid. Apparently, this should have come with aioli however this was no where to be seen. The dates with goats cheese and bacon consisted of a measly string of bacon wrapped aroud two gigantic dates. The balance and proportion were all wrong. The lamb chops were drenched in oil with no discernible flavour at all. Lastly, we had the 6 gambas in 'homemade sauce', a dish I was looking forward to as I thought it might be a deliciously meaty set of king prawns. A plate thus arrived at the table with ten to twelve miniture prawns. The homemade sauce consisted of oil, some tomato skins and, what I think was parsley. They tasted of water and not much else. Perhaps the 'chef' ran out of seasoning that night.....

Like I said, I don't usually write reviews but, as this was our anniversary, and, with the whole experience being such a let down, I felt I had to say something to counter the other reviews here. I don't know, perhaps the chef had left, ingredients had run out. I'm not sure but I do know there are many better tapas places to choose from and ones where the chef might have stepped foot...

Hands down the worst customer service! As I walked in to ask for a table for two, a blonde heavier waitress kindly said I could pick any table for two, as the outside terrace was quite sunny I moved a 4 person into a table for 2. The owner came out screaming in Dutch: "Jongens, waarom hebben jullie de tafel veranderd?!! Je mocht daar niet zitten" ( Guys, why did you move the table, you were not allowed to). We immediately got up and walked away. As we were eating in another place, the situation still bothered so I decided to go back and speak to the owner. I told him the way he approached me was highly unprofessional, and that if he continues with such a disrespectful manner he will lose many more clients ( The owner lashed out on me and told me I was disrespectful en that my mother did not raise me right because I did not put the chairs back as I walked of, I responded that respect must be earned. The owner walked of and the heavier blond waitress (there we multiple blond waitresses) started to insert herself in the conversation, she was even worse than the owner. She started telling me that the owner did not call us "Jongens" but "jongelui' (youth), she then continued to be audaciously rude, saying that disrespectful clients like me are not welcome. I doubt that this unprofessional behaviour has any thing to do with my skin colour, I do not know. However if you want to be treated disrespectfully and gaslighted this is the...