La Parada Century City — Restaurant in Century City

General What started off as a relatively good start to the evening veered south very quickly in terms of quality, service and ambience. For anyone looking for good quality food at the price point advertised coupled with good service, this is not the place for you. As an avid foodie who enjoys dining out at various restaurants, this experience was really atrocious and I don't use that term lightly.

Service Whilst the waitress was pleasant in nature, she seemed to be all over the place in terms of service. Mind you, we had been seated at 18:30 for dinner and the restaurant was not full by any means with only a handful of tables occupied. Word of warning: Don't ask for a takeaway box... you will wait 20 years and sprout even more grey hairs than normal.

Ambience As time went on with more tables being occupied, a vibe started to form until it got to a point where it felt like I had a speaker positioned right next to me blaring music into my ears. Don't get me wrong, I love music and especially when I am in a club or bar but in a "Bar De Tapas"? I am not sure if La Parada was in competition with Tigers Milk next door to see who had the loudest tunes but I am sure one of them was crowned Champion that night.

Food Good lord... this was bad on a whole different level. I said to myself prior to writing this review that I would try to be kind but after much thought... 20 seconds later... I think not. Pulled Beef Pasta - what a joke. Pro's (It pains me to write this): Not dry - I cannot categorise it as a sauce... perhaps best described as a liquid with a consistency and flavour profile of tap water. Cons: Literally no flavour (not even salt) - independently confirmed by the other diners at the table. Pulled beef (the almost non existent protein of the dish) - I just did not see nor taste any "pulled beef". If it was there, you could have fooled me. Wagyu Beef Burger - There is literally nothing special about this burger at all. You are honestly better off ordering a Zuneys Classic Burger with Wagyu Fries (if you know, you know) which is 10,000x more flavourful, juicier and cheaper. Word of advice, if you're going to add a Wagyu burger to your menu, make it special because it is a special breed of cow which laid down its life for us humans to enjoy so it requires the love and attention it deserves when being prepared.

Overall I believe that as I work hard to earn money and want to spend it on dinner for a night out, I have some expectations in terms of quality. Whilst I am not looking for a 5 Star WOW factor, I do expect a decent meal with good service coupled with a good ambience. FYI - the lit candle on the table did nothing but add to the annoyance as it did not suit the setting - just saying. Furthermore, I believe in honesty hence my...

To whom it may concern.

Last Saturday 11/5 my friend and I attended a conference at Century City.

We went for lunch and decided to go to LA Parada, as it was close by.

I have mailed this to the email address on your website...no response...then to your branding company, still no.response from anyone.

So here goes...on your reviews...I trust someone will respond.

Dear Management

Firstly I would like to compliment you on your beautiful tapas bar/restaurant.

We were at a Conference and during lunch break, very much full of anticipation, sat down for coffee and a meal at your establishment.

The coffee was great. 10/10

Now however, the service...your staff were inundated with conference goers, they very obviously could not handle the rush, the staff very friendly, under stress, tried to handle the situation.

The meal....The lady prepping our meal was visible from the table where we sat.

It was a shock to see her working with bare hands, putting the salad in the mixing bowl, then sticking her bare hand into the Darling Yoghurt tub, scooping it out and then proceeding to mix this lot in the mixing bowl, then with the same hand going back to the Yoghurt tub and taking another scoop of Yoghurt with now the salad mix hand...then again back into the salad mixing action.

I am the last person to be squeamish, but this just got me in my gut...I could not face eating that meal....

Please retrain your staff...please....

I will not be back to any La Parada ever....

I refrain from posting this as a public review, as it is not my style to trash businesses..

Please retrain your staff...

Kind regards

Karen Moyle

Good evening,

I am forwarding this email to you as La Parada is one if the brands on your portfolio.

As up to now, I have had no acknowledgement of my email below.

This is a serious matter and leaves a very bad impression of what La Parada Century City think of their customers.

I see you represent quite a few name brands... dear me, I hope someone will respond to my mail.

I am amazed at the service, care or rather lack of it.

Yours sincerely,

Karen Moyle

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I had an extremely unpleasant and unprofessional experience at this place, I made a reservation for 12 people well in advance, I made it to the restaurant for my reservation on time and they had given away the table and completely forgotten I had made the reservation. I showed them my reservation confirmation number and sms, and they did not have space nor a table as per my booking. So basically making a reservation at this place is a complete waste of time. I stood there completely embarrassed with all the 12 friends I had invited to watch the big rugby match with and they made a complete fool out of us as there was not space in the restaurant. I have made sure to tell everyone I know about how horrible the treatment at this restaurant was. I was being assisted by a staff member who seemed to be intoxicated and could not do anything to accommodate us even though I had made the reservation 2 days in advanced with a staff member called Thabo (who wrote my details down but didn’t care to log the reservation) and I called in twice to confirm that the reservation was still valid since I did not receive an sms, after I eventually got the sms, I got there only to be embarrassed in front of my 12 friends whilst in a jovial mood to watch the springboks rugby, you guys and your staff absolutely ruined our evening because we had to scramble to make last minute plans to still be able to go to a restaurant where we’d be able to eat and watch the match. I won’t forget the humiliation and unprofessional manner in which you guys dealt with this issue, I will make it a point to let every one I know off know about this and I’m sure my 12 friends will as well. Running a customer service centric business with intoxicated waitresses and hosts has made my experience at this restaurant absolutely disgusting and I wish you guys they very least of success because you treat...