Río Grande Sevilla — Restaurant in Seville

⭐☆☆☆☆

We were recommended this place by a local—someone passionate about food, hospitality, and making people feel welcome. After spending two hours at his bar sharing stories about Spain and our travels, we trusted his recommendation wholeheartedly.

Upon arrival, we were given a beautiful table with a view of the river and Torre del Oro and things looked promising. The initial welcome was warm, but everything quickly went downhill.

When our 18-year-old friend’s daughter ordered mini burgers and fries, the older server scoffed and said, “Well, why don’t you go to McDonald’s?” This sweet kid had just arrived in Seville after a grueling 12+ hour journey and simply wanted something familiar before heading to bed. The server’s tone was condescending and completely unnecessary. I swallowed my emotions and went on with the flow, wanting a good dinner experience for our table…

When the food arrived, her fries were cold and greasy—not even remotely warm. I politely asked for a fresh plate, which they brought out. She also asked for ketchup, to which the same server dismissively and arrogantly responded, “We don’t have ketchup in this establishment”. Bad service happens, but this wasn’t just bad—it was intentional, and the place was barely staying to get busier. That guy clearly knew how to be hospitable but chose not to be! And why would they have burgers and fries on the menu if they didn’t’t want to serve them or have ketchup! After uttering the second comment that he should have clearly kept to himself, he awkwardly tried to make up for it by offering an aioli sauce instead.

Then came the so-called “paella.” We ordered it for four adults, and what arrived was a disappointing plate of broken, fishy spaghetti with eight shrimp sitting on top (so 2 shrimps each!). BTW: THIS IS NOT PAELLA. I’ve had some of the best paella in Spain multiple times—this wasn’t even close. Before posting this review, I looked at pictures of paella dishes served by this restaurants last month - they clearly had rice on those pictures, not spaghetti so that was disappointing and felt like a total rip off. The same server also forgot to bring our wine and a side of vegetables we had ordered, which we had to remind him about.

So between the disrespectful service, the inedible food, and the complete lack of professionalism, this was one of the worst dining experiences we’ve had in Europe. Do yourself a favor and go...

I cannot express how utter disappointing this meal was. Everything from the service we received to the actual quality of the food was beyond tragic. We saw this restaurant was highly reviewed and the images online of it overlooking the river it looked beautiful, so we booked it for our final evening in Seville. Once we arrived, we were sat at a table inside and we asked the lady if we could be sat outside. We were told no because of the rain although the rain had stopped hours ago. Once we realised there was in fact guests sat outside, we asked our waitress if we could move outside as that was the reason we decided to try this restaurant and even pre booked in advance. We were then told no as we were only a table of two. Already slightly disappointed we put this aside as we wanted to have an amazing last night. We were given some bread to start which was fine and had some oysters. We discussed the ‘Seafood Paella’ with the waitress, and she was explaining the various seafood that was in it and it sounded great so we decided to go for it. When it arrived, we were extremely surprised to see no seafood other that 4 prawns… She dishes it up for us and to say this if the worst “Seafood Paella” I have ever eaten is an understatement. We had two prawns each, the fact that you can even call it a Seafood Paella is crazy. We are aware that Paella is a salty dish, this on the other hand was next level. It was inedible. We ordered some water to help but it was so salty we couldn’t eat it. When the waitress came over, I explained how disappointed we were as we barely eaten half a portion between us. She evidently was not interested.

We drank our drinks and then pulled the waitress to ask for our bill, it arrived, and we contemplated how we could pay the bill for a meal we couldn’t eat. After much discussion we decided we had to say something and asked to speak to the manager. We explained how we were deeply disappointed and instead of apologising and understanding how we felt the manager decided to argue with us. He told us how we “didn’t know what an authentic paella is, and that paella originates from Valencia and is different”. My friend explained that she does know and has even had Paella in Valencia! He reluctantly removes one portion of the Paella off our bill with no apology and we pay and leave. Do not eat here if you are English, the staff have no time for you! Do not eat here if you want a...

Really disappointed. We wanted to get drinks at 22.50. The lady on the reception asked if we want to drink or eat. For drinks we had to go to the down terasse. We go down, wait for the waiter who tells us that the bar is closed and we can get beer, vine etc. We asked if we can get a dessert but he did not know this word. After couple of mins of explanation we got that we can’t eat here and need to go to upper terasse.

Upstairs the reception lady was confused with our story, said that no deserts is possible because it is late. (According to google kitchen closes at 00.00) She asked afterwards to wait a bit, talked to her (probably) boss and asked us to go to the second entrance where the bar is open and we can maybe get desserts.

We came there, met other reception ladies that said that the kitchen is closed. We went down to another down terasse and took a table.

The new waitress approached us and asked what do we want. We said cocktails. The following dialogue was happening next: you need to change the table, there on the another side of the terrace is the bar , you can order there, she said can we order deserts as well? I will ask She came back in 4 mins yes, you can order deserts do we need to order drinks also there (at the bar) no i will bring them The lady is bringing the menu for deserts. We had to ask her to clean the table because it was sticky. She cleaned it. Unfortunately the table did not get covered with the curtain (all tables with people were covered with curtains) no napkins were brought to us, and unfortunately no drink card (only deserts)

After getting cocktails and food we never got approached by anyone offering another drink or asking if all is fine.

In order to pay and get a change we had to call a waiter for a long time. Twice.. the sights of certain waiters was also too snooty and arrogant. I guess that was because of the bag with souvenirs which we bought in nearby shop. Guys, really?

In previous place we paid 100% of tips. Here I was regretting that tips cant be negative.

Too expensive for the crowd of...