Casa Isabel — Restaurant in Valencia

I never felt so bad and so intimidated as when I visited this restaurant.

We stopped and were lucky to find a table on a busy Sunday lunchtime.

We were sat in the middle of the room, opposite the kitchen. I didn't like the atmosphere at all, loud and messy with plates being thrown and waiters bumping into you when passing by.

We ordered a paella. The waiter tried to convince us to order something else. He mentioned the wait was 30 to 40 minutes so we could use a started. We declined and he insisted.

Anyways. As he told us the wait was up to 40 minutes we immediately realise we miscalculated out times and informed him that maybe I'd be better to cancel the order as we had a train and it'd take us about one hour to go to the station (so we would've had about 1 hour in total to spend there). As we explained this he reassured us not to worry.

After 20 minutes and then after 30 minutes I informed him again. He kept saying '5 more minutes', '3 more minutes'. This brought is to the passing of one 50 minutes with no food. So we had to leave. We politely explained to the manager about this and if they could give us our food to go. She agreed and in that moment the paella turned to the table.

This would be ok. I mean, misinformation but also our miscalculation of time.

The problem is that the waiter saw that were about to leave and started to literally shout at us. Imposing and standing on top of us (still sitting) kept shouting in Spanish (we communicated in English until then). I can understand Spanish but I can't argue in it, especially when I feel under stressed, verbally abused and intimidated.

He went on for what seems forever. The whole restaurant had eyes on us, I never felt so embarrassed.

In the end the manager apologised to us while we were leaving. Nonetheless, they made us pay the full bill (fair enough) and with all the arguing made us also miss the bus and had to spend an extra 15 euros on a taxi.

Again, I don't doubt that this was a misunderstanding and our fault in sort. But the information he gave us was clearly just an attempt to sell another paella and the poor, shameful, disrespectful and abusive behaviour can't really be described and should not be allowed or forgiven.

I really hope management does something about this.

By the way, in the end we did eat that paella (Valenciana with chicken and rabbit) later that evening when we got home. It was Ok, nothing bad to say about it, but it wasn't great, definitely had better. Maybe if he had it fresh it would have been better, we'll never know as I will never return...

UPDATE: Before you go here, especially as a tourist, look at the low reviews, again and again of the owners being expentionally rude, several reviews of the owners yelling at the customers as they did to me, belittling of visitors from the U.S. and then LYING, arguing and belittling in their review responses. No clue why they are shown with above 4 stars. Normally not one to put the energy into a bad review but this was unnaceptable and had to be stated. - Now owner is having the audacity to say I THOUGHT I was ordering onion rings. Also referencing me being from the U.S. negatively is very inappropriate. I have eaten calamari from several resteraunt both here in valencia and in barcelona while visting here and enjoyed at all places. This entire experience is extremely uncalled for and disrespectful.

REVIEW; Calamari was nasty. Size of a giant onion ring that tated like rubber and had strings you couldn't bite through. We each ate one piece, told them it was not good, they still charged us. Told the manager it was not good and she just said sorry.

I went back a few minutes later and tried to talk to the owner simply stating it didn't seem inapproaporate to charge someone after eaten one piece and saying it was bad. The man literally yelled at me in front of the entire restaurant stating everyone eats it just fine. The original lady I spoke to then proceeded to take a piece of calamari off a tray ABOUT TO BE SERVED to a guest with her bare hands and shoved it in her mouth saying it was fine. They then both continued yelling at me and I turned around and walked out. I am honestly appalled at my...

We had 4 people at our table. 2 people wanted paella, 2 people wanted tapas. Waiter said paella for 2 people is not allowed, everyone has to have paella! I’ve had paella many times and understand the “2 person” rule, what I don’t understand is how 2 people having paella at a 4 person table is any different than 2 people having paella at a 2 person table? Either a stupid rule or an attempt to rip us off?

So instead of spending $60 on paella, had drinks and a couple tapas.

Since there was no beverage menu, we asked the price of wine before ordering, the waiter said 3€ per glass. We were charged 4€ per glass. We asked with the waiter and he rudely told us we were wrong, that he never said 3€ per glass (I know the difference between “tres” & “cuatro”!). He would not change the bill. Then we noticed the bill contained a 17€ charge for one glass of Sangria?? We told the waiter, then he changed it to 5.50€.

The waiter overcharged us for the wine and tried to overcharge us for the sangria (I’m sure he was hoping we didn’t notice). Then he was very rude when we caught him.

Bottom line… the location is awesome, the tapas were mediocre, and the service was terrible. Oh and the Paella? We don’t know because we refused to pay $60 for paella for four, when only two people...