Bages 964 Oller del Mas — Restaurant in Manresa

We came for dinner on our last night at the hotel and the entire meal was a disaster. Despite speaking English, we were given menus in Catalan and had to wait over 10 minutes to get the right ones.

When the starter arrived, part of it rolled off the plate onto the table as the server set it down. He just stared at us until we awkwardly agreed to eat it off the table…he didn’t even offer to take it away and give a new one!

Our mains only made things worse. My dish arrived lukewarm, barely above room temperature. My partner’s dish, a plate of meatballs, looked fine, until we cut into them and discovered they were completely raw inside. It took another five minutes to get anyone’s attention, at which point the waiter skeptically said he’d ask the kitchen. We received no follow-up, no apology, just the same dish returned to our table ten minutes later. One of the already cut-open meatballs had clearly been cooked more, indicating that yes, it had been undercooked before. Yet, when we checked the remaining meatballs, they were still completely raw.

No one checked on us. No apology. Just silence and poor service. Eventually they removed the dish from the bill, but the damage was done. They did offer any kind of compensation other than not charging for the spoiled dish - €75 for a terrible last evening with a starter eaten off the table, a cold dish and a raw main.

For a hotel restaurant, this was completely unacceptable; unsafe food, slow and dismissive service, and zero care for guests. We left hungry...

Too much love will kill you…

I thought about the title of this Freddy Mercury song was just perfect for my review about this place. They get all my stars because they are trying really hard as a new business to accommodate all customers needs. Literally. That night they were prepared for 5 people or two tables. Instead they had 9 tables to attend with the same staff. Poor guy did a very decent job, but with this type of shortage, kitchen messed up a couple of times with the dishes. Not their fault, nothing to complain about, we are not tyrants here and instead we had a laugh about it… but be careful guys and handle the success properly since not everyone reacts the same way about this things and not everyone is as understanding. Now the food… it’s true that the menu gets confusing as the chef is tending to always mix fish with meats and the other way around. It sounds weird… but it turned out to be pretty good. As I always do, in order to be able to produce a well based review, we shared all three mains which basically was pretty much all they had as main, and it turned out to be good enough for me to come back. We were staying at the hotel, so next morning came back for the included in the rate breakfast and I could confirm the high quality of the kitchen and their product selection. Then, on top of that, you have the Montserrat mountains view right there for you, which makes the experience completely unbeatable...

FOREIGNERS BEWARE. Had a very bad experience at this restaurant. The language barrier is very bad (english and french). I wouldn't normally comment on this since we were in a foreign country and it's understandable but if you are going to offer an english version of your website, you need to understand that this will be interpreted by foreigners as being english-friendly (with having someone on hand that can speak basic english). When we walked in(around 8pm) it was very quiet, only another 2 people were present, We saw a wonderfully lit and complete bar so we thought we'd get a pre-dinner cocktail. After about 10 minutes someone finally came over to see us but spoke only spanish. We explained we wanted a cocktail and he didn't understand. He went to speak to someone and came back and said ''no cocktails tonight'' with no other explanation. On top of it, because we didn't speak spanish, the person became very irritated and went back around the bar and started visibly bad-mouthing us with another person. None of this is on par with a premium dining experience. I could go on but I'll stop there. Only nice person was the somelier Fransesco. Food was great though. Just maybe best for locals or spanish...