Kafe Botanika — Restaurant in San Sebastián

We had lunch at the Botanika on 20/2/19. The setting is lovely, and the food seemed well prepared, and good value - or so we thought until we got the bill!

My daughter speaks fluent Spanish so there should have been no communication issue. The waitress told us that there was a special which was not listed on the menu - we had no reason to doubt her. But when the bill arrived, we found we were charged (a lot!) for two separate dishes rather than the special afternoon option price for both.

But hey, we all make mistakes. The problem in this case was the awful belligerent attitude of the manager, who point blank refused to acknowledge that they could possibly have made a mistake (even to then put an argument forward why this would have been unlikely). Instead, he kept on pointing to the menu, insisting we had to pay the full price.

Although we enjoyed our meal up to this point it being in such a lovely setting, given what we ended up paying, it is clear that the food is hugely overpriced for what it is. It also begs the question that can the quality of the food actually be that good, when the attitude towards customers of those running the place is so poor...?

There are quite a few other very funky vegetarian / vegan options in San Sebastian. Seems little point to...

I'm English, living & working in Donostia the last 5 years. PRO: Botanica is a quiet, friendly, comfortable, attractive and convenient place for drinks, chat, light meals & refreshments. Constantly changing bill of fare. Just over the bridge from the rail and bus stations, short walk from the beach, the city centre. Airy and light. WiFi that works well. Lots of greenery, potted plants, orange trees, etc. CON: It's not cheap and the beer I'm drinking has a smack of rusty nails. BUT! the absence of loudspeaker racket, monster TV screen and people yelling at each other is super rare hereabouts. A must.

Oh dear! 20 minutes have passed and two guys in black T shirts have just installed a True sonic sound system a few feet away from me. Had to move a couple in the process. Laptop, headphones, all the usual gubbins. I remonstrated and was assured it wasn't a "molestia" . The sound, low key jazz is just about tolerable but, I ask, who benefits? It's this constant obsession with creating " ambiente" when the existing ambience (see above) needs no enhancement....

If you want to waste your time, pass by. I went there twice (still don't know why I retried). First time we chose a table outside, guided by a waitress. And waited for half an hour and nobody came to serve us, even though there were few clients. Second time we chose to stay inside, also guided by a waitress. A few moments later, another waitress came and told us that we cannot stay there, as we have to check with another colleague responsible with that. Really?!! Why were we invited inside if we couldn't stay? As a prank or what??!! Don't recommend!

Edit after reply 1: It isn't true we were told to ask inside if we could stay. That's just a lie to cover their mistake, instead of taking the responsibility. Just imagine what would be their job if us, the clients, would have to ask around things like this? Also, there was no Reserved sign on the table or somewhere a message mentioning to clients that they should ask someone in particular before sitting. They're really unprofessional and their reply just...