Casa Manolo León — Restaurant in Seville

Casa Manolo Leon was supposed to be the highlight of my 60th birthday vacation. After months of planning, traveling over 9000 Km, and assembling friends from Germany and the Western U.S., we all met at this restaurant for my milestone birthday. Casa Manolo Leon wasn’t a random pick; I had dreamed of this Spanish vacation for almost 40 years, and I researched dozens of restaurants around Southern Spain and Portugal to find the ideal birthday spot. Based on the reviews and photos, I thought Casa Manolo Leon would be THE spot to celebrate 60 years. As it turned out--without exaggeration--our night at Casa Manolo Leon was the most disgusting and appalling night of my life. To be fair, the restaurant was not entirely responsible for everything that happened. But service prior to “the event” and the way they handled the situation were major failures.

We were the first to enter the restaurant when it opened at 8PM. The garden setting is beautiful, 5-stars. Unfortunately, our server was less so. In fact, for a restaurant that is considered to be one of the best in Seville, the service was mediocre. All of us commented that our waiter seemed unhappy and impatient. Simple things--like olive oil for the bread--had to be requested 3 times.

Shortly after we arrived, a well-dressed French couple was seated near us. After being seated for about 10 minutes, the French man received a phone call. Rather than getting up, he proceeded to talk--loudly--about business. Meanwhile, his partner--a stylish woman in her mid 40s--began to act weirdly. She seemed drunk, but it was nothing unusual. Unfortunately, things rapidly devolved from there.

We were trying to ignore what was becoming a commotion next to us. The staff was doing the same, but it must have been distracting, because our drink requests were ignored. Roughly 20 minutes into our seating, the French woman began sagging. Eventually her head was laying on the table. The French man was increasingly agitated, telling her to quit acting up. A couple next to them asked if they could help. The woman lifted her head and began talking incoherently. This did not seem like alcohol. After returning to her slump (and the French man carrying on his loud phone conversation), one of Casa Manolo Leon’s staff asked the man if an ambulance was needed. He seemed annoyed and brushed off the help.

5 minutes later, he was off his phone, and the woman was completely out. Most of the restaurant staff was trying to carry on with dinner. Suddenly, one of my friends noticed that the woman had what looked like blood running down her leg. We were all horrified. Several of us thought she was having a miscarriage. Within a minute, it was clear that it was not blood. She was losing her bowels, and it began flooding over the floor. The stench was overwhelming.

At this point, several of the staff ran over. The belligerent man literally grabbed the woman and dragged her out of the restaurant, limp legs dripping all over the restaurant floor. It was truly the foulest thing I’ve ever experienced. The entire restaurant emptied out, jumping from clean floor spot to clean floor spot. We ALL were in disbelief. Once outside, the French man was standing away from the woman, on his phone again. She was laying on the sidewalk, covered in her drippings. We sent a member of our group back in to state the obvious, which is that we would not be returning. About 20 minutes later, as we walked back into town in a state of shock, we saw the ambulance go by.

Of course, the “man” who dismissed his partner’s condition is most at fault here. But Casa Manolo Leon handled the whole situation poorly. They were intimidated into not acting sooner to help a woman that was clearly in need of help. The deference to an arrogant, contemptible man made this situation far worse than it had to be. Coupled with the insolent behavior of the waiter before this whole tragedy began, my 60th birthday went down as one of the worst...

The 1-star review is more for the administration and the owner, Agustín León. I had my wedding celebration there last Saturday, October 23rd, at the Manolo Leon Guadalquivir. Although the food was incredible, as we knew it would be, the way my ceremony was managed left me with a bitter memory. Both my husband and I felt like Agustín was very unprofessional and rude, not only to me, but to my guests as well. We ran late, but instead of politely letting me know that they had a party right after my ceremony in the space we paid to reserve, he started shouting at us and rushing us. As a restaurant owner, he really should work on his customer service skills.

As for the celebration after the ceremony, instead of leaving the central part of the patio just for my wedding party, they squeezed in three more tables with people. I understand that as a restaurant, they need to make money. But when you and I have an agreement that I will have the central part of the patio for my guests and I, and you will use the back part of the patio for other restaurant guests, I expected you to respect that. So keep that in mind as well if anyone is looking to do any sort of celebration with the restaurant. They might promise you one thing and deliver something completely different.

Also, if they offer the "copa de bienvenida" for your ceremony, don't bother. I paid apart for that per guest, and the restaurant ended serving drinks that were included in the menu that we had purchased for our event and disguised that as their version of a copa de bienvenida.

The sad part is that, even thought I brought all of these up, they did not even offer an apology. We had already paid for the entire bill and we were not looking for a refund but instead of acknowledging my comments, they chose to not even respond to my last email. Great food and really beautiful location but the management/administration has zero customer service skills, which is why my guests and I will most likely not visit Manolo León...

I booked a table a week in advance and left a note that I'm coeliac so that there wasn't any confusion. When I arrived no one mentioned to me about the coeliac options or acknowledged that i was coeliac. I had to ask what was ok on the menu and the waiter went through the options. We were served by two different waiters who were clearly not communicating with each other.

We ordered our food and I was specifically told that I would get gluten free bread. My husband got his bread in a basket and a while later gluten free bread sticks were brought out for me and I was told by the waiter that gluten free bread would come with the starter. When the starter arrived a plate of bread covered in oil also came out. A waitress was going to place it in the middle of the table but she placed it beside me. I never received other communication about bread until we nearly finished our starter. At this point the waitress came out and handed me a gluten free bread roll. It was then that we realised that the bread I was given was not gluten free but I had already eaten half of it. The waitress had to call the other waiter over who took our order to check that the bread wasn't in fact gluten free and we were then told that it wasn't. While the waiting staff were apologetic and trying to put it down to a language barrier, I found the manager was not at all sympathetic and was quick to point out that I should have double checked that the bread was safe before eating it.

This was the last night of a stress free holiday where we always felt that my dietary needs were accommodated for and taken seriously. However, this place was terrible in terms of it's service and communication. Very poor service overall and i would not recommend if you have any dietary...