Mesón Portaletas — Restaurant in San Sebastián

Tourist trap - Terrible Experience at Meson Portaletas

I recently had lunch at Restaurant Portaletas and had an extremely disappointing experience that I feel compelled to share. My friends and I ordered the black rice paella, hoping to enjoy a delicious meal, but what we received was far from satisfactory.

First and foremost, the black rice paella was undercooked, dry, served in a silver square tray which was placed in the oven and lacked flavour, nothing as you’d expect from a paella. It was a complete letdown in terms of taste and texture. We paid - 54€ for this absolute rubbish!

What made matters worse was the service we received. Our waiter, whose name we were denied, acting as responsible for the restaurant, was incredibly rude and unhelpful when we expressed our dissatisfaction with the meal. Despite our polite request for a refund or a replacement dish, he adamantly refused and even questioned our taste preferences. We asked for a replacement that would cover the value we paid and he refused to serve us anything else, bringing back the rice already cold from the kitchen. We were totally robed as we left without our food and without a refund.

Such a negative encounter with a restaurant's staff is not something I expected, nor is it something I am willing to tolerate. Customer service should be a priority for any establishment, and Meson Portaletas clearly fell short in this regard.

I hope that by sharing my experience, others can be spared from a similarly disappointing visit St Sebastian. I believe it's crucial for restaurants to maintain high standards in both their food quality and customer service, and my recent experience sadly highlights the failure to do so at this...

My family and I ended our holiday at this restaurant based on good reviews. Big mistake - the rude staff ruined our night and the turbot was inedible.

We asked the waiter if the turbot had bones and he assured us it was a boneless fillet. We also asked about the monkfish and were told it had a few bones, so four out of six of us chose the turbot based on this.

When the fish arrived, it was on the bone, head intact, and full of bones. Two of the four dishes had hardly any meat. We immediately called the waiter over to ask why it wasn’t a fillet as advised and why there were an excess of bones. He was extremely rude and unprofessional and refused to address the issue. Instead of offering a solution, he slammed the plates on the table and refused to take them back. We said explicitly that we would not be paying for these two fish dishes, as we had been lied to and my mum and sister couldn’t eat theirs.

At the end of the meal, and after being ignored by the waiter following our complaint, a waitress finally apologised for what had happened. However, when the bill came, all four fish plates were charged at 30 euros each. We asked to speak to the manager, but were told he was "sleeping at home." The acting manager was rude, refused to acknowledge the waiter’s behaviour, and insisted we had to pay for the two fish meals we could not eat. We had photos of the untouched fish to prove our case, but he caused a scene and was aggressive with my parents.

After much back and forth with the waiter, which was incredibly embarrassing for us as customers, they took the two fish dishes off the bill but alluded to us being thieves. This was the worst service we've ever experienced. Avoid this place...

We wanted to dine in and get some quick tapas for lunch. Immediately we got profiled (we are heavily tattooed) by a waiter who didn’t wanted us there from the beginning. He told us we were not allowed to sit in the normal dining area where people get served their tapas, but we were placed somewhere in the back where he was sure no one could see us. We didn’t get service and had to order at the bar while other people got their tapas at their table. We ordered some tapas with the lovely bartender; which we immediately paid. We just took our last bite of the tapas and the (passive) aggressive waiter took away our plates immediately. We walked out to continue our day when the aggressive waiter came after us shouting in the streets that we didn’t pay for our food. He was very aggressive/intimidating and ordered us to come with him back to the restaurant. Obviously we still had our receipt but he didn’t believe us and kept shouting. Eventually, the gentle bartender apologised for the waiter, because we obviously paid and did nothing wrong. Don’t go there if you want to be treated with respect. The food wasn’t worth the aggressive treatment. I as a vegetarian didn’t have any decent options either. Never been so mistreated in...