Restaurante Cotolay — Restaurant in Santiago de Compostela

It is unfriendly toward foreign tourists. They add 10% service charge to the bill. It is the first time I have seen it in Spain. Also, they charge us for the tapas we did not order. I thought it will be free like in other restaurants in the area. Food was average. This place got In Rick Steves book and owner is abusing foreigners trust in the book. I hope he will remove it from future additions. Overall, it was not a good experience, slow service, spoiled evening. There are better restaurants in Santiago de C. PS They have answered my review. By the way, I have record on my credit card that prove I was there. They removed 10% extra charge after arguments, but not charge for tapas. It was my second visit, some hours before I have bought a drink from them for my stomach and that time it was OK. On this trip I was in 14 cities in Spain, never extra charges or other abuses happened. I usually read reviews and do not to sketchy places. All restaurants that Rick Steves recommended usually were good, but this was not. I talk to other people after, and they say Cotolay do not do it to locals, but foreigners usually eat over there just one time and would not pay attention or just let it go, it is a vacation, some euro less or...

During a visit to Portugal, my wife and I took a day trip to Santiago, Spain; and one of the many highlights was dining at Cotolay Restaurante. We enjoyed fresh warm bread, fresh mixed greens salad, a potato soup and a soup made with pasta and fish, mussels on the half shell, and paella made with rice and chicken perfumed with fragrant saffron. For dessert we enjoyed a slice of cake made with crushed almonds and sprinkled with powdered sugar, accompanied with a cup of coffee. Every dish we ate was obviously made with love, and was so delicious and flavorful. We definitely want to go back to this place in the near future. The staff was so friendly and made us feel like part of the family. I can tell you one thing, and that is they will not allow any food to go to waste. They scraped every morsel onto our plates, until we left out of there feeling and looking like the pillsbury dough family because we were so pleasantly full. LOL! I just couldn’t resist. Check this place out if you’re ever in...

Food was okay, but the service made us very uncomfortable. Almost immediately the waitresses started talking about us from a few meters away. We don’t know much Spanish but we know when people are pointing at us and referring to us by our nationality. We tried to get the attention of multiple staff members but were what felt purposely ignored. We had to ask for the check 4 times over the course of 20 minutes while there was only one other table being served at this point. Foreign Camino walkers -...