Parador de Monforte de Lemos — Restaurant in Monforte de Lemos

Recently my wife and I stayed at the Parador in Monforte de Lemos. I made a not so complimentary review and the Parador responded. I took issue with their response, so I deleted my original review and am replacing it with this:||My orginal review - My wife and I were walking the Camino Invierno and thought it would be nice to take a nice break at the Parador in Monforte de Lemos. We are both seniors. When we arrived around 1 pm, we were very tired and sweaty. We had walked 16 kilometers that day. First issue we had was my reservation was wrong as it showed a reservation for one rather two. After resolving the reservation, we had to wait a few hours before we could get to our room. When we checked in, I asked about getting the clothes we were wearing washed. This consisted of 2 pants, 2 pairs of socks, 3 undershirts, 2 handkerchiefs, 2 pieces of underwear and 1 shirt. I was advised we could put our clothes into a bag and set it outside our room. When we checked out the following day, I was charged 100 euros for the laundry service. I expected the cost to be high but not 100 euros! I was shocked at the price and filed a complaint. The response to my complaint was basically to shrug it off, that the procedure was correct and that nothing could be done. I was not aware of the laundry prices. Had I been I would not have requested the service. In fact in the response, I got I was told it would have been desirable to have consulted with the Parador staff before requesting the service. Well, I did consult with them and never did they indicate the cost would be so high. Moreover, since my stay in the Parador I have had a chance to review things and now wonder then my reservation was messed up why did not the receptionist tell me there was a peregrino rate available? I felt I have been treated rather shabby, it is not they way to treat a customer or a way to build loyalty. I feel I can no longer recommend the Paradors.|| |Parador in Monforte de Lemos reponse - Dear Mr. Cullen, We regret that you felt so bad in our Parador because of the price of the laundry and that this was the reason for having a bad experience in our Parador.||As you were informed by customer service, the prices of the laundry are the same in all Paradores, the Parador de Monforte is no exception. Upon arrival, all guests are informed of everything related to the services offered by the Parador, such as opening hours of the different departments, rates of extra services, etc. You can consult it in the online concierge service.||The price you have been charged for washing the clothes requested is correct and this is what the company policy indicates. This is a four-star Parador, therefore, prices are in accordance with that category.||On the other hand, we are sorry that in your reservation appeared one person instead of two. My partner may have not understood you well, but we sent you an email with all the details of your reservation so that you could check everything was ok, however, this problem was solved in the check in.||Best Regards Head Front Desk|||My response - I do not think you all have any concept of what customer service is. If you did you would have attempted to resolve it. I came to you with a problem and all I get back from you all is it’s all my fault and that I should have known what the rates were so too bad but that the way it is. It is not that simple. You state and I quote “Upon arrival, all guests are informed of everything related to the services offered by the Parador, such as opening hours of the different departments, rates of extra services, etc”. Well, this is incorrect, when I asked about washing my clothes the ladies at the front desk never advised me as to the cost. Had I been informed to the cost I would not have done it. Secondly, we were peregrinos. I am over 70 years old; my wife is 69. We had just walked over 16 kilometers plus the steep hill to get to the Parador. We were very tired, and the front desk should have understood this and been more attentive. It is unfortunate but you, the Paradores, have lost me as a customer, I will never stay at one again nor will I recommend...

Very difficult to get to as the main road to get to the hotel was closed and there weren’t any diversions we managed to go all the way around to get to it but the sat nav was going crazy. Once there we managed to park and took our thing in. Reception staff were friendly and told where our room was. It was a stunning building and the room was very nice. It felt like a very special place being an old monastery. |The bed was quite comfortable but the room was warm. Despite the weather being wet and windy outside. We brought a fan which helped a lot with the warm room as the air con wasn’t great ||The shower was over the bath but was warm and powerful||Breakfast was nice here and lots of pastries and bread to choose from. Had fresh orange juice, water, coffee and was fresh. The first morning the waitress was great, she was very attentive and friendly. The second morning was disappointing. We arrived a bit later, the waiter showed us to a table in the corner the farthest away from the buffet. It felt like we had been forgotten about as no one brought us coffee and our cooked option didn’t arrive. I noticed the waiter and saw him give another table their coffee a minute after she asked for it so I called him and asked for a coffee and our breakfast, he wasn’t particularly friendly and went to get it. He brought it out and the bacon was a bit chewy and the scrambled eggs were like an omelette. The pastries were sparse and weren’t replaced despite still having an hour till the end of breakfast||Mer had dinner in the hotel on our first night and the service was great. My husband wanted lamb but they said they didn’t have it. But offered him the veal alternative. I had the suckling pork. My husbands food was lovely the meat was very tender and he enjoyed it. Mine came out and the skin on the pork was dark yet it was soft and chewy, I asked the waiter if it should be like that and he said no. I asked him to crisp it up as crackling should be crunchy not chewy. He looked unhappy about this but took the crackling away|The pork was very fatty, it seemed as though it had been boiled as had lots of jelly like textures in and was quite slimy. The waiter brought the skin back and it looked as though it had a blow torch on it as it was now crunchy yet black in the middle. It wasn’t the best but it was better||We enjoyed the stay here but found the restaurant very limited so needed to go out to eat. The staff were quite friendly but some were better than others |When we checked out I told the receptionist about my fatty pork and she said that is what the dish is like (I’ve had this before and it was nothing like this). I paid the bill and we left. We liked the hotel but...

Very difficult to get to as the main road to get to the hotel was closed and there weren’t any diversions we managed to go all the way around to get to it but the sat nav was going crazy. Once there we managed to park and took our thing in. Reception staff were friendly and told where our room was. It was a stunning building and the room was very nice. It felt like a very special place being an old monastery. |The bed was quite comfortable but the room was warm. Despite the weather being wet and windy outside. We brought a fan which helped a lot with the warm room as the air con wasn’t great ||The shower was over the bath but was warm and powerful||Breakfast was nice here and lots of pastries and bread to choose from. Had fresh orange juice, water, coffee and was fresh. The first morning the waitress was great, she was very attentive and friendly. The second morning was disappointing. We arrived a bit later, the waiter showed us to a table in the corner the farthest away from the buffet. It felt like we had been forgotten about as no one brought us coffee and our cooked option didn’t arrive. I noticed the waiter and saw him give another table their coffee a minute after she asked for it so I called him and asked for a coffee and our breakfast, he wasn’t particularly friendly and went to get it. He brought it out and the bacon was a bit chewy and the scrambled eggs were like an omelette. The pastries were sparse and weren’t replaced despite still having an hour till the end of breakfast||Mer had dinner in the hotel on our first night and the service was great. My husband wanted lamb but they said they didn’t have it. But offered him the veal alternative. I had the suckling pork. My husbands food was lovely the meat was very tender and he enjoyed it. Mine came out and the skin on the pork was dark yet it was soft and chewy, I asked the waiter if it should be like that and he said no. I asked him to crisp it up as crackling should be crunchy not chewy. He looked unhappy about this but took the crackling away|The pork was very fatty, it seemed as though it had been boiled as had lots of jelly like textures in and was quite slimy. The waiter brought the skin back and it looked as though it had a blow torch on it as it was now crunchy yet black in the middle. It wasn’t the best but it was better||We enjoyed the stay here but found the restaurant very limited so needed to go out to eat. The staff were quite friendly but some were better than others |When we checked out I told the receptionist about my fatty pork and she said that is what the dish is like (I’ve had this before and it was nothing like this). I paid the bill and we left. We liked the hotel but...