La Cocina Sitges — Restaurant in Sitges

La Cocina helped create the best night of my life! As part of a two-week vacation in Spain to celebrate my 50th birthday, I travelled to Sitges in August 2018 with thirteen friends from the U.S. I wanted to treat my friends to a nice dinner while we were in Sitges as a way of thanking them for making the journey over the Atlantic to celebrate with me. I researched the top-rated restaurants in Sitges and La Cocina Sitges quickly stood out to me as the right choice. I selected the 8-course chef’s tasing menu with Sommelier wine pairing. It was seriously the most incredible meal we’ve ever had. Every course they brought out was exquisitely delicious; we found it impossible to pick a favorite. We were all fairly certain we got more than 8 as well; it seemed like they just kept coming and coming. The presentation of each course was fantastic as well, and the wine paired with each just amplified the flavors further. Andrew was our host that night and he not only decorated the restaurant with decorations for the birthday celebration, he played the most perfect playlist of 80’s British music that kept us reminiscing on the fun times we all had in our teen years. They also served me a very special 50th birthday dessert complete with some fireworks! At the end of our night we all stood and applauded Andrew, the chef and the wait staff for making us feel so special and for giving us the gift of such a wonderful experience. Adrian was also a delight to communicate with via email during the process of making the reservation so I don’t want to fail to mention him as well. We all know we’ll return to Sitges one day and will absolutely return to La Cocina...

The evening started well — the food was genuinely good — but the experience took a nosedive when I was served a beef dish I didn’t enjoy. I politely told the staff I didn’t like it, and instead of offering a solution, they insisted the dish was good and that I was wrong. I explained that even if the beef was technically good, I simply didn’t like the taste.

What followed was a frustrating back-and-forth where they continued trying to convince me I was mistaken, instead of focusing on customer satisfaction. They finally said they could bring me something else, but I’d still have to pay for the dish I didn’t eat.

When I asked them to please stop talking to me, they removed the plate from the table without asking, and then left me without food for about 10 minutes. No check-in, no follow-up — nothing — until we called them over ourselves, and they still insisted I had to pay for the uneaten dish.

I’ve just finished a 4-year degree in food science and have 1.5 years of experience working in restaurants. I know what hospitality and professionalism look like. And after mentioning this to a close friend who knows one of the staff, she confirmed I’m not the first person to be disappointed by their customer service.

This place doesn’t understand that good food is only half the job — the rest is how you treat people. I won’t...

Plus points, the food’s great, really inventive and tasty. Bad points, the service is abysmal, booked weeks ago and was put outside on a rickety table with cockroaches skirting around the street. Had a green worm wriggling around an oyster, was given a drinks menu 30 mins after receiving the food menu, the lady at the counter offered no intro, the two guys waiting the tables apologised every time they came to the table about the delays, and the whole experience for some starters, 1 main, and 2 desserts was nearly 3 and a half hours, which ruined our plans for the evening. La Punta, Bar Tomeu, El Pou (right beside La Cocina), or Casinet were all 5/5 places, super fast service and delicious food, catered for our kids and in laws so well and the food was special at all these venues. La Cocina was my wife and I having a night off, and it sucked. Again, high praise if you’re a foodie and have unlimited time, but you could see everyone around us was equally angered. People in the neighbouring place El Pou, coming and going, enjoying their night, we were stuck in this place. Im being generous with the three because I really did enjoy the food. If I was hanging out with the chef I’d give it a 5 but all the stuff in between the food absolutely sucked. No idea where the Michelin rating comes from, there’s much...