DDL Boutique — Restaurant in Valencia

The experience I have had at DDL boutique cafe is singularly the worst experience I have had from a cafe, not only in Spain, but from anywhere.

On the first day, I arrived at the cafe just after 3pm to be told by a waitress that the kitchen closed at 3pm promptly and would no longer be serving hot food for the day. The waitress looked incredibly harassed despite there being only around 5 other customers in the cafe at that time. The waitress refused to apologise but simply handed over a card marketing the cafe’s website and half-heartedly suggested another cafe serving hot food, before walking away.

The second day however was by far the worst. I arrived at the cafe at 2.08pm. When I reached the front of the queue, a lady, called Karima, who purported to be the manager informed me, again without any semblance of an apology, that the kitchen closed at 2pm. This was the case apparently despite the fact that all of the menus on the tables displayed hot food, that I explained that only yesterday her fellow staff member had told me that the kitchen closed at 3pm, and none of the materials in the cafe publicised that the kitchen closed at 2pm. Instead Karima abruptly asked me to move to the side whilst she served other customers. She said that she did not know what I wanted: “did I want to order, or did I just want to speak?” She went on to say that if I “wanted to speak” then I would have to wait at a table for her. She did not offer to find me a seat, to suggest I could speak to someone else other than to her, to try to even apologise for the absolutely shocking lack of communication and poor service from her and her staff, or to offer any form of goodwill gesture. Instead, rather foolishly, I sat at a table and waited for Karima for over 25 minutes as the queue got longer, watching other waitresses sympathetically look over in my direction and tiptoeing around their manager Karima, after which I realised I should walk away.

The service at DDL Boutique, Valencia is by far the worst experience I have endured from a restaurant. Karima runs a disorganised, chaotic, expensive and cold-hearted ship, and she, personally, is in dire need of a crash course in good customer service, and...

I am very sad to leave such a comment. This place was my favorite in Valencia for a long time. But when the place that serves food doesn't take care of higiene, you can't keep silent. Today while having my breakfast here, I didn't find any soap in any of 2 bathrooms. I kindly asked the 1st employee to bring me one. I don't think I asked something specifical. It is a very basic request I think. I am also sure that any institution that works with the food is obligated to have a soap in the bathroom. Well, the first girl told me "will come back with the soap". Waiting for her, I was really surprised that she came back to the kitchen without telling me anything. I asked about the same to the 2nd girl. The situation repeated!!! I was really shocked and after waiting for the soap around 15 min (you can go to the closest shop and buy a soap for 80 cents!!!) I asked the same to the 3rd girl, adding the claim form (hoja de reclamación). The last girl solved my necessity of soap with the SOAP from the KITCHEN!!! So it is very obvious the whole place didn't have the soap from the opening in the morning. My question is WITH WHAT DO EMPLOYEES THAT TOUCH OUR FOOD wash there hands??? They are also humans that need to visit bathroom!!! They were ignoring to give me the claim form for more than 40 min. After contacting them on fb they brought one. After filling it in, I was never explained that I need to have my copy of it. So I guess they were planning to throw it away. They did not sign the form in front of me either. I did not know all these details since it was my first official claim. Fortunately I took a picture of it and I will check it with authorities of Valencia. It is a real shame and disappointment that people that work with food don't understand something so basic as the necessity of the soap. They neither know anything about customer service and respect. I was not asked any apologies, on reverse, they blocked me on Facebook. I understand that we all can have some mistakes but I think it is very important to acknowledge your mistakes and have a respectful conversation with your customers. What a shame,...

DDL is a trendy cafe and brunch spot in the heart of Valencia. It is quite sought after for brunch at the weekend, so be prepared to wait in line during popular times such as the morning. The vitrine boasts a great variety of fresh cakes and pastries - too many to decide on the go. There are also savoury options such as burgers and toasts. Regarding the food: I didn’t like my order to arrive not at the same time than that of my friend. I received my avocado toast and had to eat it (I had been waiting 30 minutes already, while seeing people who arrived later eating before me). So I ate, and my friend waited for the açai bowl. The system is quite messy: their blackboard states that you have to order on the till, while it should state that first you order and then you take a seat. There were quite some people coming and sitting, skipping the line all together. The result was that people queuing for quite some time and getting a number didn’t find their spots easily. Luckily some waiters were controlling a bit, but you should write down in clear words that you can only sit once you’ve placed your order.

On the food: the avocado toast was good (not exceptional) and the hollandaise sauce was a bit too lemony, but still, enjoyable. My yoghurt bowl had quite some fruit and musli, but very little yoghurt (at the bottom there was some strawberry jam). I had wished for a slightly less sugary option. The açai bowl was really good although frozen. Considering the very long amount of time we had to wait, and the fact that we didn’t receive our order together, I don’t recommend this for brunch during the weekend - but I do recommend this for a quick sweet snack in...