Baristas Club — Restaurant in Bilbao

I visited this café a year and a half ago, but to this day it still hurts to remember what happened there. I was on a short vacation in Bilbao with my son, who was two and a half years old at the time. As many parents with small children know, finding food for a toddler while traveling can be a real challenge. After a long search, we finally found this café and were genuinely happy to have a place to sit down and eat.

I approached a waiter and asked if it was possible to make a dish from the menu — a mango smoothie — but with a different fruit instead of mango. It wasn’t an easy conversation because the waiter didn’t speak English very well, which I completely understand. Of course, no one in Spain is obliged to speak English. Despite the language barrier, it seemed like we understood each other, and he told me it would be done. I went back to my table to wait.

After quite a long time — about 20 minutes — when nothing had arrived, I politely went to ask what was happening. This time, I spoke to a different person, and then a third person who hadn’t been involved in the situation at all suddenly started speaking to me in a very rude and aggressive manner.

I want to be very clear: I don’t believe anyone should be required to make something off-menu. If they had simply told me no from the beginning, I would have absolutely understood and accepted it. What made this experience so painful was not the misunderstanding itself, but how I was treated. I wasn’t complaining, I wasn’t demanding anything unreasonable — I was only asking about the status of something they had told me they would make.

After that conversation, I went back to my seat in the corner of the café and quietly cried. It was incredibly hurtful to be spoken to so harshly when I had done nothing to deserve it.

Later, when my husband wrote a review about this experience, the café responded by blaming me, saying it was my fault for asking for something that wasn’t on the menu — which isn’t true. I would have been perfectly fine with a polite refusal.

Misunderstandings can happen, especially with a language barrier. Not being able to prepare something off-menu is completely normal. But what was truly painful — and what still hurts even a year and a half later — is how inhumanely and rudely I was treated in that moment. It wasn’t about food or orders, it was about basic human kindness and respect. And I...

It's rare I leave a review but was very disappointed today after our last lunch / experience of Bilbao. As a group of 4, we ordered 4 brunch dishes. When 3 dishes arrived after 15-20mins, they were all incorrect. 2 dishes were corrected but the 3rd took another 10-15mins to correct (after coming out wrong again), with no sign of the 4th. We asked where the bagel was and it seemed it had not been recorded / received by the kitchen. We had to leave for the airport so went up to pay. The 4th finally arrived which we had to take away in a bag. There was no offer of a discount / exclusion on the bill. We were offered 1 free dessert which we declined. As well as the mix ups and delays, I was also disappointed that a simple request to exclude avocado / replace with something else was not possible as alterations are not accommodated. There seems to be high disorganisation, and poor care for customer experience and dietary...

Soy una vecina del casco viejo y frecuento esta cafetería desde que abrió quizá por eso no me dejo deleitar, únicamente, por el excelente café que sirven y los aperitivos dulces y salados que también son de mi gusto. Pero servir un buen café no lo es todo, de hecho no es suficiente. El trato de los encargados del local , él y ella ( a la sombra de las sombras) es muy precario. Sobre todo para los trabajadores, que han sido todos y cada uno MARAVILLOSOS y se han acabado yendo o les han echado de las peores maneras, sin poner en valor sus sobradas capacidades para atender el café de las mejores y más cualificadas formas que puedes encontrar en un lugar de estas características. Una chica argentina, un dulzor, dos chicas americanas , lo mismo. Gonzalo, siempre un buen trato , una educación ... exquisita. y los chavales que aún continuan , un euskaldún requemajo , que sigue entrenando su paciencia día a día y su compañera de las mañanas que es un caramelito de fresa. Unos chavales que te hablan en todos los idiomas y que son ... pero MAJISIMOS. Pues no hay forma de que haya buen ambiente en esta cafetería ... los dueños son ... se pasan el día detrás de ellos como de los clientes , pero no de una forma _superviso mi negocio de buen rollo. Se respira tensión en el ambiente. Parece que les están vigilando todo el día, tanto a ellos como a los clientes. Gracias a sus capacidades sociales es que se mantiene ese negocio y funciona tan bien. Por las del dueño, seguro que no. Pero es que la mujer de él , que es la que se enfrenta sistemáticamente a todos los empleados y se dirige a los clientes con una contención de falsa amabilidad descarada cuando a la mínima salta porque todo le molesta... parece que lo que quieren es que desayunes todos los días allí por el módico precio de 20 euros , no molestes y te vayas rápido. No pidas azúcar, no tengas criterio, no dejes a los niños muy sueltes ... consume y lárgate, cual turista se dirige al aeropuerto y no va a volver nunca más. Y cada vez la gente que seleccionan más chivas expiatorias, esta tarde me miraba una como a ver si te hago sentir incomoda que hace un ratito que te has acabado el café, no seas descarada chica. Así no. Yo he dejado de ir. No les importa ni lo más mínimo, estoy segura de ello. Pero como se que las reseñas de Google si les importan aquí tienen mi puesta en valor de todos los chavales tan majos y profesionales que han pasado por allí desde que abrió...