Taberna Española — Restaurant in Asuncion

We enjoyed our lunch here. We walked the very short walk from the center of town, the neighborhood is not beautiful but okay and felt safe enough during the day. We had a jug of nice basic Sangria, good bread, refreshing non-spicy gazpacho, and the Gran Paella which looked great (see photos) and was pretty good. We have very high expectations for food and while we enjoyed the paella, must say I’ve had much better, more tasty and more flavorful paella in other countries. To be fair, Asuncion is far from the sea so I suspect the seafood was right out of the sea in other places, being so far from the sea I should say the paella here was pretty good given that. The service was okay here, we did have a snafu when the check came, there was a charge for extra prawns (shrimp) in the paella, which we did not request, however the waiter was speaking a bunch of Spanish rapidly and maybe he thought we were agreeing to extra shrimp ??? He rapidly and without hesitation struck the extra shrimp from the bill with a smile, by the way the quantity of shrimp we got in the “Gran” paella looked normal to us for something labelled “Gran” but apparently one only gets a couple shrimp if you don’t order extra? That made us feel a little weird as we don’t really know if they hope people won’t check their bill for extras or whether we nodded our head to something by accident, unclear. Anyways the waiter was nice about it. The decor here is super fun, loved the “free no-WiFi zone” sign and the bell you ring to call the waiter (see video). Glad we experienced this place, it’s almost 5 star but not quite...

I had a very disgusting experience here tonight. Just because I happen to be a foreigner, the server asked me for a tip. You know what? If you equally ask for a tip to other Paraguayan customers, maybe that would have been fine. But when the other table, a Paraguayan couple, was paying for their meal, I never ever heard a word like "tip" or "propina". Appreantly they had just paid for what they had and that was it.

Also, one thing for sure is that when I came here for the first time 10years ago, or when I came here for the last time apart from tonight 3 years ago, I never was asked to tip.

Americans spreading their cancer culture of tipping abroad is a one thing but the server asking for a tip just because I'm a foreigner is a different thing. I was baffled and gave a tip of less than a dollar since he seemed to be adamant about it, but since when was it a Paraguayan culture to tip after a meal?

This specific mentality that you can ask for something more because your customer is a foreigner is flatout repulsive and we are not made of money just because we are foreigners. How shameless. I was feeling bad for the restaurant at how empty it is on a Friday night but...

If you are looking for a a cultural food experience in Asuncion, this is a must try. The service is top notch and the food is delicious. Just ring the cow bell above the table to call your waiter. Take in the ambiance and history of the place as you wait for the food. There is very little English spoken here and the menus are in Spanish. I suggest trying some of the appetizers. They are really good and you can get combinations of tasty food to get an idea of what you may want for your main course. They also have a variety of delicious desserts. This is a great find a little off the...