La Bota — Restaurant in Leiden

I found this receipt today and I felt that I want to share the frustration of that night. I went there on April 30, 2022, with some fellow participants at an Erasmus+ Training. The food was moderately good, BUT the staff was very rude. Specifically, I asked if it's possible to split the bill and pay separately (we were 10 persons), the waitress initially said yes, but when we went to pay (in groups of 4 as she asked), her colleague said something in Dutch and she said "sorry, only one must pay for all of you". I replied: "sorry, but this makes a trouble for us..." hoping that they can do something. All could have end right and there, if she had sayed "we sorry for informing you otherwise, but it's not possible to pay separately". However, this is not what happened, instead, her colleague stepped in and replied in a really cold and aggressive manner "this is not my problem!", I said "yes, but you made it now my problem", she then replied: "YOU came here." Well... you may guess if I ever gonna come there again, or if I am going to bring people that visiting Leiden for an other Erasmus+ training. A person that we hardly knew had to pay the bill and then we had spent quite some time to find ways to return the money. All in all, they will be polite, for as long as you are not annoyed by something they did, cause if you do, "YOU went there" (and apparently they get to behave...

Overall we had an unpleasant experience at La Bota and I have subtracted stars for the following reasons:

-2 stars: did not follow covid-19 regulations set by the Dutch government (did not check the corona entry pass which is mandatory in the Netherlands!!, extremely crowded inside and no separation of guests, servers/staff did not wear masks, no flow of fresh air)

-1 star: food was mediocre. We were four people, ordering four different meals, and we each had something to complain about our dish. Strongly overcooked salmon, cheap burger buns, stale fries, and as other reviewers pointed out already why is cinnamon added to the coleslaw side salad (tastes very odd and in no case did that match the flavor profile of the dish)!? You should not eat at a restaurant and have the feeling you could easily prepare the dish better if you were at home.

-1 star: we were billed incorrectly. The bill included 2 items we did not have which increased the bill by ~25€ (the staff removed them once we...

I've had some good experiences at La Bota when it's not too busy. The food is okay, especially for the price. But I went recently when it was busy and they just didn't seem able to cope. After we sat down, nothing happened - no menu or drinks - for 30 minutes. I called the waitress over and she came and asked us what we wanted, as if it wasn't clear. During this time she and her colleagues had been stood around talking rather than coming to our table. We then waited about an hour for our food to arrive. So now we're one and a half hours in, and it's got cold and dark outside, so we asked to be moved inside - and are told there's no room. Before our food finally arrives, I saw it sat in the cold air outside the kitchen for several minutes. I emailed to complain about this experience and never received a response. It's the sort of casual disrespect of customers which is all to common in The Netherlands, and while I once thought La Bota was different,...