Restaurante El 3 de Oro — Restaurant in Seville

Strange and mixed disappointments with pleasures. Saturday early lunch (13h00). Arrived at an empty restaurant and had a small tussle over our reservation and their choice of our table. We agreed and got started menu reading. We started with the olives and capers and bread. The capers we found we loved on the stem. Then we had the fine clams tapas and the salad of peppers roasted with red tuna. The peppers needed a little salt for punch and the clams were a mistake for us. They are tiny. There is so little clam flavor that it's only the garlic, wine olive oil that comes through while greasing up our fingers. Thankfully, they provided towel wipes for cleanup. Next were the pork cheeks and the cod fish sweetened. The pork was one dimensional and while well preppared, short on being interesting. The cod fish was pan grilled perfectly. The cream of fresh artichokes was so rich it overpowered the fish.

We found the subtlety of the dishes leaving us looking for something more.

I ordered a bottle of Spanish Chardonnay, when the manager poured me a taste and the glass was stinky from lack of proper rinsing. I took the other wine glass smelled it and gave it to the server for her to confirm the problem. My wife tells me that the waiters standing behind me were making faces at my wine tasting until they confirmed the smell of the stinky glasses when the manager gave the glasses to them. After tasting more than 100,000 wines in my travels and pro tastings, I don't usually doubt bad cleanliness and off tastes and smells and don't defer to waiters and managers.

In all, this restaurant has huge abilities and if I were to go here again, I would be asking for the food to be finished fully seasoned. I prefer chefs who make statements, even if I don't like the direction.

The bill was 95 euros with coffee, baked apple and cake.

Yes, I recommend...

Overall the food was very tasty in this establishment. We particularly liked the Prawns in Garlic and the Steak with Patatas. We also liked the Sangria which was very favourable. What really let this restaurant down was the lack of atmosphere and the service. We ordered 4 main meals of which 3 arrived at pretty much the same time, with the 4th expected in a few minutes (as per the waiter). However, about 5mins after the 3 meals arrived we were told that the prawns had run out (we ate early in the evening, so I guess quite a few customers were due to be disappointed), so a different meal had to be ordered and prepared. Therefore, by the time that meal eventually arrived the other members of our dinner party had finished their meals. Very disappointing!! In other restaurants I've been to, in particular those in the UK, when a meal order has been messed up, some form of compensation is offered, e.g. a free drink or dessert, however, none was offered here. Clearly customer service isn't a priority for this...

Going to places based on reviews in Seville is useless because Taco bell has over 3k reviews where as some great gems have maybe 20 , so me and the hubby decided to just wing it and pick a restaurant based on what looked good on the way .I saw this restaurant and immediately felt like this could be a good spot ,first of the menu is very seafood focused which is an immediate pull for me , second it had a very old world charm (we later found out that they had been open since 1917) and then the crowds. We were seated after a small wait and as is the norm you get the pan (I don’t think you can say no to that , its just added in the bill anyhow ). We got -

Iberian pork with goat cheese and Sautee vegetable Squid meatballs -comes with potatoes

I got my favorite Tempranillo and the hubby ordered the server`s recommendation of Vermouth.

This was one of the best meals we had in Seville , it was light yet very satiating and full of flavors. Service was good and pricing was...