Restaurante Etíope Habesha — Restaurant in Madrid

Disgusting behaviour!

We had a booking for 9 pm on 11 Nov 2023 for 6 people via the Fork app. Fork offered us a 30% discount on a la carte menu excluding drinks.

We ordered drinks (3 wines at €2.50 each and 2 waters at €2 each) as we sat. We then started placing our orders - ordering 2 starters each worth around €10 and 3 special mains (the mains in this restaurant costs around €10/€11 but we ordered the special main which is a big plate to share and costs €20 each. So at this point, we had consumed €11.50 worth of drinks and were ordering about €80 worth of food while more drinks, food (if needed) and desserts would come. We told the server to get us started with our order and see how it goes. The server abruptly raised his voice and started saying that we aren’t ordering enough food! Irrespective of what we can eat, he would like us to order at least €100 worth of food upfront because he will have to pay the Fork a commission!

Our entire party was taken aback by his insistence!

There are 3 issues here:

First - the food should always be around how much we can/want to eat and what we want to eat. This way, we enjoy the meal and no food goes to waste! I thought this was a fair and reasonable practice until today when I was instructed that the food to order should be as per the server’s expected bill amount (which like i state above, we would have eventually got to anyway!).

Second - 3 plates of food for €20 seemed enough for us given our appetite. Plus we wanted to also have starters, drinks and desserts so didn’t want to stuff ourselves with just mains! I’ve seen enough people starve in my life and know better than to waste / throw food away! I am surprised how someone in a restaurant business and even with some basic values would encourage this (apart from their obvious greed!).

Third - the behaviour! What mannerless, rude and uneducated server! I can’t believe I was paying someone like him to provide a service! We tried to reason out all the above but this man just WOULD NOT listen - he just kept talking over us!

The last straw was when he RAISED HIS VOICE enough to let the entire restaurant know that we were apparently ‘cheap’ for not ordering enough food! Going behind the bar (2 tables away) and continuing to shout that we should order more food is not just embarrassing for us but also disrespectful for our entire party, who I had brought to this (awful) restaurant to have a nice meal and time together! This was just not needed and completely unacceptable!

Signing up to third party booking apps (like Fork) is the owner’s decision. No customers force them to do so. I just booked what was available to me and followed all rules (no minimum order limit). If that isn’t sustainable to them, they should opt out and try to run an honest business rather than enticing and bringing in customers on false pretext and then forcing them using embarrassment and insults as tactics to squeeze money out of them. Times are hard for all but being dishonest to earn a quick buck - the server should be ashamed of himself! It was absolutely unfair that the server decided to ridicule us in front of other customers.

By the way, we left without eating but after paying for the drinks we had consumed of course, on which he charged us €12 instead of €11.50 and gave us a shady bill, which for individual items would have added to €11.50 but the end total was €12 (dodgy billing machine or dodgy server I wonder!?). As we wanted to leave asap to avoid further embarrassment and ridicule, we decided to not fight with him for 50 cents - a tip he gave himself for cheating and insulting us, I wonder?

No one should push for over-ordering food and thereby promoting overeating, or worse, food wastage when there are people struggling to have food on their plate! —————— Response to owner - booked at 19.34 pm same day (1 hour 26 mins before the reservation time), not a day before as owner says below! Shows how clueless this restaurant is!...

Experiencia vergonzosa. Ayer habiamos reservado para cenar en este sitio a través del tenedor y lo unico que nos llevamos fue una experiencia horrible ademas de un olor repugnante impregnado en el pelo y ropa (no deben de considerar adecuado tener una correcta ventilación). En cualquier caso nos fuimos sin cenar ya que el camarero/dueño/responsable lo único que quiso fue aprovecharse y al ver que no cediamos nos echó (viendo ahora reseñas, entiendo que hizo lo mismo con nosotros). Nos dijo un numero de platos a pedir según lo que el consideraba, y que tomándolo como recomendación me parece bien, el problema vino cuando nos exigió e imponia que pidiéramos lo que el queria. Así no consideraba oportuno que pudieramos pedir si queríamos 2 entrantes y 2 principales para compartir entre 4 personas (y que de hecho le dijimos que si nos quedábamos con hambre pediríamos mas). Pero no. Lo que en un principio parecia broma se tornó en algo completamente desagradable. Nos echó una charla diciendo que si no nos pedíamos mas el no ganaba dinero y no le compensaba especialmente por haber reservado con el tenedor asi que, o pedíamos lo que el nos decia o nos teniamos que ir "que en España no se hacia asi". Asi que ante ese trato y estropeada ya la experiencia le dijimos que nos cobrara la unica cerveza que habiamos consumido para poder irnos (habiamos pedido dos cervezas, una que se consumió y otra que la abrió pero no la llegué a probar porque estabamos pidiendo y no quiso servirnos la comida que queriamos y nos echó, por lo que no me llegó a dar tiempo y no me la iba a tomar de un trago ni la iba a pagar sin consumir, eso lo tenía claro y mas con sus formas y actuación). Ante esto se puso amenazante diciendonos que le pagáramos las dos o llamaba a la policía, a lo que visto el panorama y que nos estaba estropendo la noche, le animamos de hecho para explicarles lo que este hombre pretendía hacer (obligarnos a pedir lo que el queria, echarnos de no ser asi y cobrarnos algo no consumido y una vez que nos decia que nos fueramos). Como se daría cuenta que no tenia razón ante la policia de lo que queria hacer (y supongo que solo queria intimidarnos), finalmente dejó de insistir y nos pudimos ir de una vez después de pagar lo que nos correspondía.

Me parece vergonzoso que una persona así pretenda dar un servicio de hosteleria, se queje de que no le compensa económicamente algo que ha decidido poner él (en el tenedor) y que tengamos que aguantar un trato asi por el simple hecho de que prefiere no trabajar a pesar de tener el local vacio solo con dos personas que dar el servicio que el mismo habia aceptado con una reserva.

Claramente ni se nos ocurre volver, pero espero que al menos sirva para advertir a otras personas y puedan evitarse...

An Unforgettable Ethiopian Culinary Journey

Flavours and Smiles at the Rendezvous!

From the moment I entered this Ethiopian restaurant, I was transported to a world of exotic flavors and warm hospitality. The atmosphere was as authentic as it was friendly, with enchanting aromas that promised a memorable culinary experience.

Every dish was a masterpiece of taste: Everything was perfectly seasoned and presented. The flavors were so rich and varied that they danced on my taste buds, introducing me to combinations I'd never imagined.

But the real gem of this restaurant was the smiles and kindness of the staff. They shared their passion for Ethiopian cuisine with such enthusiasm that every bite seemed even more delicious. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking to explore authentic flavors in the warmest of atmospheres.

And to finish,...