Restaurante La Cuchara — Restaurant in Requena

Where do I start… the place is located in the old part of town which is a great location. Service is friendly, but there needs to be improvements. Family owned (couple) and they are trying to manage serving food, taking orders, cooking , taking customer request…. Too many things going on at once at the cost of your customer service. They are under staffed, service takes way too long especially when you’re waiting for your food… I don’t know where to start. I ordered the octopus, and lobster with rice and a plate of muscles, all the food is definitely fresh, but the rice with lobster was mediocre ( for a person who loves eating rice). It was slightly salty and the worse part, the lobster was cut wrong 😮😑. As a tip to the cook, even cooking with lobster, there is a way to cut it, and the way it was done unfortunately ruined my experience eating that dish. At one point I felt I was eating sea food and having to use my fingers constantly, stained in artificial saffron… I was annoyed, I had to request a pair of of crab crackers in order to access the best part of the lobster… you would think that they would offer this knowing that the lobster wasn’t cut in a way where a fork could be used to pull the meat. For the rest of the food it was average, nothing too special and for the price, not sure if I could justify 25€ per person to share a poorly cut lobster… Do note, the arroz con bogavante must be minimum two people, can’t do for one person. The waitress was trying to serve 5 other tables, while taking orders, serving and unfortunately just was not able to service her customers with the proper attention… hope fully these suggestions will make the experience...

Pongo.una estrella porque el minimo no son 0 estrellas. Nunca me han tratado tan mal. Reservé hace días por indicaciones de amigos autóctonos, yo naci y vivi en requena hasta los 18 años. La carta tenia entre el 70-80% de los platos no disponibles. Intentamos 3 personas adaptarnos a la paupérrima oferta. Conseguimos consensuar 2 platos con mucho esfuerzo, 3 comensales, de 1° y 2 de 2° otros 2 , porque 2 personas no les gusta la carne de caza, y la mayoría de los disponibles eran de caza. De todos los de cuchara,nombre del rte. ( solo 1, cazuela de gamo, disponible). Además, como la visita del fin de semana era enoturismo, iba a invitarles a mis invitadas con 1 de los caldos típicos de la zona, independientemente del precio. Hacemos el pedido a la camarera. Pedimos carta de vinos. Y de repente aparece un señor, entendemos que sobresapado en el trabajo, o la situacion estresante del domingo de alta afluencia, o por asuntos personales,que llega agitadisimo indicando, que, le tenemos que pedir más comida, que si no nos tiene que cobrar otra cuchara. Cuando le explicamos la razón de nuestra elección (80% de los platos de la carta no disponibles), golpeando la comanda con sus manos, de malas maneras, diciendo "esto no lo había visto en mi vida" nos tenia que cobrar 1 cuchara más porque tenia 1 mesa en la calle esperando. Cuando entendimos la gravedad de la situación, decidimos levantarnos y ceder nuestra mesa a las personas, que , a diferencia de nosotros, sin reserva, estaban esperando. Nos fuimos del lugar con intercambio de frases como "los de fuera no vais a venir aquí a exigir el que!" Nunca me he sentido tan mal tratado, y en mi propia casa. Suerte que unos metros más adelante está el Mesón Fortaleza, el de toda la vida, que nunca falla, y a pesar del aforo completo, habilitaron mesa para 3 personas, y comimos eligiendo en su amplia variedad de platos para compartir y...

Traveling in Spain for almost three weeks, and this was easily in our top three dinners so far. The croquetas de boletus were incredible, and definitely the best croquetas we’ve had, so full of flavor. Same with the anchovies on the salad, so fresh. Thoroughly enjoyed the chuletas de cerdo, and the tarta de manzana. Small and cozy, the service was very good. We’d stopped in for drinks, and our server kindly explained the tables are for dinner only. We’re so glad we stayed. Absolutely recommend! Note, this is called Restaurante La Cuchara. The older bad reviews must’ve been under the ‘simple’ name. Google should...