Restaurante Alfileritos 24 — Restaurant in Toledo

One moment you’re enjoying your second glass of perfectly drinkable $3 Spanish red, the next moment you’re surrounded by cops threatening to haul you off to jail. How does one’s fortune turn so quickly? Simply forget at your hotel your wallet, cash, and ID and have the bad luck of dining at a place such as this where the manager in charge decides to fully exert what little authority she enjoys in life overseeing a small tapas joint. No quarter shown for the hapless tourist. No grace exhibited by the manager in charge who chose to exert maximum pain over a 20 Euro obligation. She actually demanded that I leave behind all my possessions including my winter coat on a cold November at 11 pm and swiftly return with payment to settle up. When I balked, she threw me under the bus and summoned the fuzz, claiming that she had a customer who refused to pay. My observation here is that despite its reputation for having a laid-back Latin vibe, Spain's hospitality industry -- where travellers reside -- is one not uncommonly staffed by folks who appear to have had little training or thought put toward defusing minor crises. Rigidity and harsh confrontation over the most trivial of matters, as in this case here, are not uncommon in my experience. You’d be hard pressed, I think, to find a similar story set in States. Even at the roughest of dive bars they wouldn't treat a customer as a criminal when it's abundantly clear that there was no bad intention. Advice to the owner: Get your staff some E.I. and deescalation training before you find yourself facing costly litigation. The woman in charge was shouting even after the cops had come and questioned me, telling me in so many words, This is what you get when you...

When we arrive we immediately like the mix of lights against the towering rock and glass walls. There is an atrium in the middle with Christmas tree wreaths hanging from the glass sky light ceiling. We are seated in a cozy rock alcove. Wine glasses paired with our wine choice were so large but delicate. A normal pour looked small. Glad we had the whole bottle so we didn’t feel shorted! Complementary pate served with toast points was so good we requested more bread so we could finish it. My husband said the bread is the best bread he has ever had. We start with a shared assorted appetizer. What arrives to the table is now the most creative and tasteful of all we’ve had in Spain. It had ahi tuna tartare, pulled pork crunch roll, croquettes that melted and marinated venison filets that were so tender. So fun to try so many things! Then we had a Cesar salad with crunchy deer. The deer was crunchy but so tender. Salad was excellent. Lastly we had Golden Cannellone stuffed with three meats. The waiter pours a peppermint broth at table and it is delicious. It is so “golden” and we are so thrilled by the surprise of it, we dig in before taking a picture. The restaurant was by far the best place we’ve had in our Spain tours! We are going to break our rule and we’re going to repeat tomorrow!More great things to try on the menu! A Must...

Interesting cave-like ambiance and some tasty tapas but dining experience spoiled by mistakes and poor attitude by waitress and chef. First mistake - waitress served us a dish we didn't order. We did mention it momentarily upon first communication with the waitress but cancelled it immediately, before she started entering our whole order on the touchscreen. It was the first item delivered. She dropped it on the table and ran away before we could tell her that we didn't order it. When we finally flagged her down and informed her of the mistake she removed it without a word and much eye-rolling. Next mistake - brought us a salad dish which was missing any dressing as wells as 2 out of the 4 other ingredients which enticed us to order it in the first place. When this was pointed out to waitress she checked with the chef then told us that the he had run out of the ingredients, so he arbitrarily left them off. We sent the dish back - more eye-rolling by the waitress. Acceptable service would have been - chef informs waitress about lack of ingredients in dish then waitress asks if we will accept it or order a different dish. Ultimately, another server came by and apologized for the salad and struck it from our bill. We...