Vermúdez — Restaurant in Valencia

Last night we had the misfortune of dining at Vermudez. We were seated on time, but from that point on things went continually downhill.

At least three different servers delivered to our table, but none appeared to have the responsibility of ensuring customer satisfaction. They rushed about constantly, delivering plates and avoiding communication with us. Serving portions were on the tiny side of small. We were a party of six, and the plate of asparagus we ordered (esparragos trigueros) arrived with just eight little asparagus spears, nicely spaced across the white plate. There was more white showing than green. And all for the tidy sum of seven euros.

One of the plates we ordered was vermouth meatballs (albondigas al vermut). They were tasty, but the serving size included just five meatballs, for the six of us. There was no advice offered by the waiter regarding quantity when the order was placed. So it came as a surprise to us that we were going to have to shave one-fifth off each of the five meatballs and then squish the five little pieces into something resembling a meatball in order to be fair to the person at the far end of the table. (DISCLOSURE: I was the one seated at the far end of the table, so it's remotely possible that that fact might colour this review.)

The lagarto Iberico that we ordered was exceptionally gristly, so several times we found ourselves, individually, in that awkward moment when you have to remove something from your mouth and return it to your plate in order for it to eventually make its way to the landfill.

Another of the plates we ordered arrived with two fried eggs on top of the small tuna cubes. In reality, the eggs were a couple minutes short of being considered fried, and instead we were looking at clear, transparent egg white. When we pointed that out to one of our many servers, he shrugged and suggested that some people liked it that way. He had probably recently watched that first Rocky movie from 1976. Unfortunately for us, he didn't offer to replace the dish with another, so we picked away at the tuna bits and did our best to avoid anything that had raw egg on it.

We ordered a second bottle of wine, but it never arrived. However, it did appear on the bill, until eventually we were able to have that corrected. And the bill ... good luck getting someone to take your payment. At different times we caught the eyes of three serving staff and held up the bill with a credit card. Each time we were rewarded with a hand-waving acknowledgement, which we took to mean that they would be right back with the credit card machine. That was a misread on our part, because apparently the hand signal meant, "I might bring the machine over later but I probably won't because I'm busy doing other things and you'll just have to wait and besides it's not even my job to handle the credit card transactions and right now I don't feel like telling the person whose job it is that you've been waiting to pay for ten minutes because it's Monday and I don't like being helpful on Mondays or any other days."

Our overall impression of Vermudez was that the portion sizes are small, the prices are on the high side, the wait staff is motivated to deliver the food in rapid-fire mode and to exude no personality or helpfulness as they focus solely on turning tables as quickly as they can, true service (the kind involving two-way communication) is lacking, and the value-for-money equation doesn't exist for the customer.

We declined dessert. Instead, we headed to another restaurant a short ten-minute walk away, where we ordered three plates plus beverages plus dessert. Our server there pointed out that a couple of our choices would not be an adequate size for a party of six, and recommended that we double the order, which we did. The server was professional and involved with her table, and it made for a pleasant end to an evening that had begun on a really bad note.

Zero stars for Vermudez. ...

Hands down the best restaurant we ate at during our stay in Valencia.

The front room was full when we arrived without a reservation, and we were seated very quickly at the back, which has a lovely cocktail bar vibe.

The burrata with confit tomatoes is excellent, and a very generous portion. Definitely get it if you go there, take it from an Italian! The meatballs had a different twist on the usual tomato sauce, which was interesting to try. My partner loved the Paloma cocktail he ordered, and couldn't stop raving about it. We were too full for dessert, no doubt thanks to the huge paella we had for lunch, but would have loved to try the cheesecake, which looks beautiful in pictures.

We spent a very reasonable amount for a meal we found quite filling (two dishes to share, plus a small appetizer and bread): without the 10€ cocktail my partner got, the food would have come to around 15€ each. We were surprised it was so cheap! Also, great service from a super friendly waiter. Will definitely go back if I'm in Valencia again...

Tried giving this place a second chance after having been there once before and waited 30min to be served but ended up leaving because no one came to ask us anything. Went there again, this time with a reservation and was disappointed in the overall experience. Everything seemed to be rushed as if they were trying to get rid of us. Even trying to take plates away while people still had food on their plate and were clearly still eating. Seems like a place that you would need to know the people that work there or be Spanish as they definitely treat people differently. The food was OK nothing too exciting as what you see on the pictures. Price to quality ratio isn’t great. Looking at other low reviews, people seem to have similar experiences of being rushed. Couldn’t recommend it to anyone visiting. Vermouth (what they are known for) also wasn’t amazing. Had better in other places....