VIPS — Restaurant in Valencia

My friend and I wanted to sit outside in the sun, so we sat at a table without an umbrella. We ordered the menu del día for 11,00 euros. It was a very windy day as it always tends to be in March. Nothing new. An umbrella that was not secured to its stand a couple of tables away, rose up like a missile, Knocked the back of my head and crashed into our wine glasses breaking them into a million pieces and then directly into my friend and her chair. She was smashed to the ground on top of broken glass. It was terrifying. People were gasping. My friend who fell on her left shoulder and hip, went to the bathroom to remove glass from her body. A waiter came and told me that they would give us the free lunch and "that's all we can do." That made me very angry. No sincere apology. Some other patrons said we should ask for a complaint form, oja de reclamación. We filled them out. The manager came out and filled in his part writing that the umbrellas had been correctly secured - which they obviously were not. There's a bolt that's supposed to be tightened when an umbrella is placed inside the holder. Both bolts on the umbrella stands were completely open. The umbrellas are just slipped into the stands and can easily be carried by the wind, although they are very heavy. It took 2 men to carry away the umbrella that hit me and my friend. The manager scratched out the word "correctly" after I showed him the problem. He then signed the forms without writing his name. I was forced to argue with him, uncomfortably, for several minutes because he refused to give me his name! I said that we have the right to know who's signing that he received the complaints. After a tense exchange he finally gave me his full name. Vicente should be reprimanded by the company. We could easily have been killed if the point of the umbrella had tilted toward us! His behavior after the incident was...

El mejor VIPS de la ciudad. Fíjate como será la cosa que me desplazo desde lejos solo para venir a cenar a este a pesar de que tengo otros dos VIPS más cerca de mi casa, pero no lo cambio XD Lo 1º y mejor del restaurante son los camareros, la primera línea de batalla: muy buena gente, muy amables, rápidos y muy currantes. Un diez para ellos. Podría decir que casi iría solo ya por eso. El local tiene una magia especial y encanto en su decoración para pasar el rato allí, que no tienen otros VIPS especialmente los más nuevos. Espero que en este no la fastidien la fantástica decoración con una reforma con esas horrorosas luces led blancas cegadoras que parece que estás en un interrogatorio policial. La carta de platos fenomenal, buenísimo todo y muy variada. Incluso puedes optar por servicios bajos en calorías, incluir ingredientes extras, combinar opciones, versión mini de los postres, patatas fritas correctamente cocinadas etc... Tras lo del coronavirus la carta quedó muy reducida pero poco a poco la han ido ampliando y ahora ya ha recuperado e incluso superado su antiguo esplendor. Maravillosa variedad de hamburguesas, sandwiches, ensaladas, entrantes, platos combinados y postres. Se nota que cuando un plato no gusta o se echa de menos lo resuelven rápidamente, como pasó con la tarta de queso que durante un tiempo la servían ¿caliente? y retornaron al formato antiguo. Se echa de menos la carta de zumos que había antaño y el célebre zumo de naranja y papaya. Una pena que su primo hermano el Fosters H. no tome nota de igual manera. Tiene mejores hamburguesas (buenísimas) , platos americanos (como en sándwich club) y postres que el Foster que algunos ni los tiene. Incomprensible.

Como parte crítica, esa insidiosa costumbre que tienen desde la crisis del 2008 de dar solo una servilleta por comensal. Antaño daban un montón o dejaban un servilletero. Entiendo lo de evitar el despilfarro pero al menos deberían dar por defecto 2 servilletas que es lo mínimo que vas a gastar especialmente si además comes postre. Tampoco se entiende que en la cestita de aderezos, ketchup etc.. no pongan los sobrecitos de sal también. Más que nada por no ir dando faena extra a los camareros lo cual repercute en su eficiencia y rapidez para otras cosas importantes como observar las mesas, servir los platos, cobrar las cuentas y...

It was bad. Things were forgotten. A while after ordering we were told that one of the dishes was no longer available so we picked another one. This (Wellington) was served still frozen. When ordering we were asked if we wanted fries with it which we did. However the dish was served without fries and when we asked about the fries the waiter said it should be without fries, even though he had asked us if we wanted fries. When we gave back the frozen Wellington we received it a bit later again and indeed half of it was warmish - the other half was still frozen. The other dishes we received were OK, but forgetting drinks and serving frozen meat...