Garbatella — Restaurant in Portugalete

We went for a late lunch, after a short wait at the entrance a guy took us inside at the back of the restaurant. Luckily the menues were placed on the plates so we quickly chose pasta carbonara y arrabiata as well as a dessert for a member of our party who was not hungry. Then the problem started. We waited over 30 minutes for anyone to take our order, offer drinks, bread- anything.. As no one came wr had some sips of our own water to kill a bit the hunger and allow us to wait more.. During the time we waited for someone to arrive, I had the chance to look with my hungry eyes at the food at nerby tables.. I can tell you that it was a wake up call because none of it looked appetizing, deapite me being starving at the time. There was ball of red sauce tagliatelle in a bowl/plate that the person eating tried to take a separate piece of pasta, however at every try the whole red mass was going up.. Ok, I thought.. I looked at some pizzas and they were equally unappealing. I wanted to leave because no one was comming we were starving, but the tiramisu person from our group still wanted to try it- deapite its dry look and being placed on a cutting board or/ whatever hard surface it was.. We tried many times to flag someone to take our order! Finally the person who took us at the table reappeared and as we were no longer hungry but still wanted to order, we tried to get water, wine, dessert and a coffee. When hearing our order the waiter kicked us out saying it is a restaurant. I explained we waited too long and were no longer hungry, but instead offering a drink or something we just got kicked out.. maybe if I ordered a whole bottle of wine for myself it could have been acceptable for the waiter, but as I didn't feel like chugging a full bottle alone, we had to leave.. It was ~15.40h, so not sure what was the issue as this doesnt seem like the lunch hour and on top of it, should they have been more efficient or polite, we could have ordered of the overpriced pasta at 20+...

Para empezar, ha sido una experiencia ingrata y la primera vez que solicito una hoja de reclamación.

Mi pareja y yo acudimos al restaurante sin reserva el día 7 de julio de 2024, un domingo, sobre las 15:00. El camarero nos preguntó si teníamos reserva y, efectivamente, no teníamos. Una vez que nos sentó en la mesa, estuvimos esperando a que nos atendieran. Después de unos 10 minutos, le preguntamos a uno de los camareros si nos podían atender. Con un gesto con la mano (🤏🏼), nos dijo que teníamos que esperar. Su siguiente acto fue dar dos vueltas al local como si estuviera buscando algo, pretendiendo estar "ocupado".

Pasaron otros 5-7 minutos sin bebida ni nada, y reclamamos otra vez a otro camarero si nos podía tomar nota. Su respuesta fue la siguiente: "Por no tener reserva, tenemos que esperar a que tome nota de todas las otras mesas con reserva y luego nos atenderían". ¿Esto cómo lo interpretamos? ¿Que comeremos cuándo? ¿Que si no tengo reserva tengo que estar en una lista de espera y esperar? Perfecto, esperamos. Pero lo que nos dijo el camarero... jamás, pero jamás me habían dicho algo así.

Si desde un principio, antes de sentarnos, nos hubieran dicho que el protocolo del restaurante era de tal manera, hubiéramos decidido si aceptar o no. Pero una vez sentados, doy por entendido, como en cualquier otro restaurante, que el servicio que nos ofrecen sería igual tanto si tuviéramos una mesa reservada como si no. Desde luego, ha sido una experiencia única y desagradable.

En resumen, la falta de comunicación y el trato que recibimos fueron inaceptables. No recomendaría este restaurante a menos que se realice una reserva previa, y aun así, sugeriría que el personal mejore su trato hacia los clientes.

—————————————— I’ll leave my review in English for foreigners too. Just to avoid our bad experience.

To begin with, it was an unpleasant experience and the first time I’ve ever requested a complaint form.

My partner and I went to the restaurant without a reservation on July 7, 2024, a Sunday, around 3:00 PM. The waiter asked if we had a reservation and, indeed, we did not. Once he seated us at the table, we waited for someone to attend to us. After about 10 minutes, we asked one of the waiters if they could take our order. With a hand gesture (🤏🏼), he told us to wait. His next move was to walk around the place twice, pretending to be “busy.”

Another 5-7 minutes passed, still without drinks or anything, so we asked another waiter if he could take our order. His response was: “Since you don’t have a reservation, we have to take the orders of all the other tables with reservations first, and then we will attend to you.” How are we supposed to interpret this? When will we eat? If I don’t have a reservation, do I have to be on a waiting list and wait? Fine, we will wait. But what the waiter told us… never, never had anyone said anything like that to me before.

If from the beginning, before seating us, they had told us that the restaurant’s protocol was like this, we would have decided whether to accept or not. But once seated, I assume, as in any other restaurant, that the service offered would be the same whether we had a reservation or not. It was definitely a unique and unpleasant experience.

In summary, the lack of communication and the treatment we received were unacceptable. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant unless you make a reservation in advance, and even then, I would suggest the staff improve their treatment...

Had a great meal here when we stayed in Bilbao, I ordered the seafood pasta which was delicious. Portions were spot on not too much not too little just right. Followed by desert which was the death by chocolate which was very tasty indeed.

We visited on a quiet night so not sure what service is like when busy but our waiter was friendly and attentive and we felt we had better service here than the other places we visited while in Bilbao.

Prices were relatively fair but slightly higher than other local restaurants but for the quality of the food and nice setting of the restaurant I felt this was fair. Our main dessert and wine came and coffee and tea to finish came to a little over 60 which we rounded to 70 with a tip.

I would definitely visit this...