MaríaTrifulca — Restaurant in Seville

We didn't have a great experience so we wrote direct to MariaTrifulca and chased up a few days later as we did not receive a reply. We know the inbox was monitored as we received replies prior to our reservation. We prefer to settle any issues direct but as MariaTrifulca decided to ignore both emails we have reluctantly decided to share our experience. See below for our experience at MariaTrifulca:

When we arrived at 2015 for a drink in the downstairs bar various staff members filtered in, obviously gearing up for service. The atmosphere was relaxed, almost college-like and seemingly oblivious that we and one or two other guests were there. It didn’t come across as professional or in keeping with your establishment.

We were shown to our table and handed over to our server. As became apparent, our server was either very new or poorly trained. My wife enquired about the red prawns she’d seen downstairs - we were quoted E126 for 6. Quite why the server decided on 6 - my wife could only realistically eat 2!

We enquired about the market fish - we were told it was sea bass or salmon. Our server told us the sea bass was very big and said she would show it to us. She then continued serving other tables and never returned. We asked again about the sea bass. Our server went away and when she came back she said there wasn’t any sea bass so my wife ordered sea bass from the menu options. Our server turned to walk away but I called her back to open our water. Our server did not seem organised or on top of her game and forgetting to open our water after visiting our table several times reflects this.

With our food order in we asked for the wine list and were pointed to the QR code - normally servers sell the wine list but last night we had to ask for wine. Naturally, having been given a physical menu we expected a physical wine list. We ordered a bottle of wine.

Our starters - white prawns and the prawn croquettes - were fine and the bread and olives very good. Our main courses, however, were awful. My wife had the sea bass from the menu - it was clearly not fresh and looked an over-fried mess. It was tasteless. My main course, the iberico pork pluma, arrived cold so I sent it back. In truth we should have sent both back but my wife is too polite.

When a new iberico pork pluma arrived it was again cold. I couldn’t be bothered to send it back again. I ate some of it and left the rest. If iberico pork pluma is supposed to be served cold then the server should have explained this to me when I sent the first one back. That our server did not tell me it should be served cold I must assume that it should be served warm/hot.

Other observations - our server said the iberico pork pluma only came with a couple of potatoes so it was advisable to order more potatoes. We ordered fries but when the iberico pork pluma arrived there were plenty of potatoes though again they were cold like the pork itself. The mixed vegetables we ordered were lukewarm, indeed the only hot item was the fries.

The whole experience was one of style over substance - great setting, ambience and views but it seems the restaurant has lost sight of its core raison d’etre - to serve and feed guests well. We felt sorry for our server - she was clearly out of her depth, disorganised and didn’t know the menu.

Our experience cannot be put down to communication problems - my wife speaks Spanish. We left Mariatrifulca and went to a nearby tapas bar where my wife ordered calamares a la plancha - it was far superior to what she’d just been served at Mariatrifulca.

We feel it was a big shame - we are staying across the river at Hotel Lobby for our honeymoon and have fallen in love with Seville. We definitely intend to return and had hoped dinner at Mariatrifulcar may have become part of that return trip. We are communicating our experience direct as we feel that is more effective and fairer than posting reviews on Google or other websites. Please ensure this feedback/complaint is forwarded to the restaurant manager at...

Please avoid this restaurant if you do not want to be a supporter of blatant racism and discrimination. Every single person we have encountered in Seville has been so warm, welcoming and friendly, until we arrived to this restaurant.

Firstly, we asked to speak in English to the woman who greeted us at the front and she persistently spoke Spanish to us which left us very confused. The next moment, she spoke to a couple of Western people behind us in perfect, fluent English which left us flabbergasted that she was choosing not to converse with us in English (presumably because we are Asian).

Secondly, we ordered Fresh White Shrimps in Garlic (24 euros) and yet the dish we received appeared to be more similar to some “White Prawn in Salt”? dish (35 euros). Hence, we checked with our waiter whether this was the white shrimps in garlic and he replied “yes, shrimps in garlic”. At the end of our bill, we were charged 38 euros for the 6 pieces of shrimps we ate and we respectfully raised this with the waiter. He responded that they have not had any garlic in their restaurant for 2 weeks and therefore it is impossible for us to have ordered the garlic shrimps?? I have never been more confused in my life and reiterated the story to him whilst he cut us off every sentence - “ok but did you eat all the shrimps?” “yea right well did you see any garlic in that?”. He was extremely aggressive, defensive and accusatory. Even if they accidentally ordered the white prawns in salt for us… where did the charge of 38 euros come from?!?

I hope that was enough to deter you from ever visiting this restaurant but if not, please read the rest of this review for the more minor issues with this restaurant.

We made a reservation in advance and we were the second group to arrive for the 8pm slot. Hence, we asked if it would be possible for us to sit by the riverside view. Before we even finished our sentence, one waiter shook his head and raised his hand to tell us “no”. We also ordered a bottle of wine and considering the price of this restaurant, we expected the waiter to pour us the wine at the very least… He merely plugged the wine bottle in a bucket next to us and then pushed the bucket very close to my sister into a corner - clearly indicating it is our job to pour the wine ourselves. I personally believe for the price you pay, and for a restaurant who advertised themselves as “fine dining” this is not the service you should be receiving.

We visited this restaurant 3rd of April 2024 and since the reviews of this restaurant are extremely conflicting, either something was very wrong with the specific staff that was on duty this day or the reviews are fake/purchased. Please do not visit this restaurant unless you would like to be subject to racism, discrimination, mistreatment and almost become scammed on a special day during...

Unfortunately, me and my wife were quite disappointed. First of all, there were too many dishes that were in the menu but not available: 3 starters not available. My wife is pregnant so we checked the menu and there were 3 not alcoholic options (other than juices) which were 0 alcohol beer and two version of martini without alcohol. The martini was not available so we had only the beer as only option. We have ordered 3 starters, the anchoas, the vieras and the shrimps. The anchoas and the vieras were very good, however the shrimps were super small and all identical. That combined with the consistency and the taste (no taste), were absolutely no difference from the frozen cheap ones that supermarkets sell. Hard to believe that was not the case. Then we had the meat (chuleta) which was supposed to be 30 days aged and served with "truffle potatoes". The meat arrived completely cold and without hot stone. When we asked for the hot stone we have been told it was gonna take 15 minutes and in the meantime the meat has been "kept warm". This changed completely the consistency of the meat which resulted hard and tasteless. Moreover, my opinion is that the meat was not 30 days aged, this was clear from the quantity of blood it was loosing and from the taste which was not the typical taste aged meat has. In addition, the potatoes were not oven baked but fried. With regards the ambient, we were in the mirador and we had 2 problems here. The first problem is that the person sitting facing the river had heat lamps and was comfortable, the person sitting on the other side was freezing. Moreover, the cover was not covering the whole table and when it started raining we got all wet even though it was a light drizzle. There was no possibility to change table because on the other side the cover was broken and not deployable and no other tables were available, nor it was given the possibility to move downstairs at the bar. Even though we had this experience and got wet while eating, we have been charged the 10% increase on the bill for being in the mirador and nobody asked us if the dinner was ok and the food ok. In my opinion this is not acceptable for a restaurant of this scale and definitely not for the prices charged. I am afraid we will...