La Casita — Restaurant in England

Alert - food poisoning DO NOT EAT HERE UNLESS YOU LIKE TO EAT FOOD THAT HAS BEEN EATEN BY OTHER CUSTOMERS.

I visited yesterday with my family to enjoy the final evening of our holiday. I ordered a vegetarian paella but a fish paella was given to me in error. I explained that they had got my order wrong and they swiftly took it away. Immediately afterwards, the lady on the next table who had been eating her paella for the past 10 minutes, alerted the waiter that she had been eating the wrong dish. She had ordered a fish paella but a vegetarian paella had been given to her instead. The waiter took her half eaten paella away and promptly delivered her correct order.

Shortly afterwards, a vegetarian paella was delivered to my table. I was surprised at how quick it had arrived considering I was advised previously there was a 20 minute wait on paella. On eating it, I noticed the pan was cold. Then I noticed the lemon had been squeezed already.

I asked the waiter to ask the chef whether my dish had been made fresh after the mix up. The waiter came back from the kitchen and advised the chef had said ‘he believed my food had previously been delivered to another table’. The waiter apologised and said that it had happened because ‘they were extremely busy’.

How disgusting?! Another customer had eaten off my plate and had even used her hands to squeeze a lemon onto my food!

I was very upset and asked to speak to the chef and a manger. I was told the chef was ‘too busy’ to talk to me and the manager was ‘too embarrassed’ to come out. How awful that they didn’t even give me the courtesy to apologise to my face!

Not only did it ruin the last evening of my holiday but I am now concerned about food poisoning! I have serious concerns about the food hygiene standards in the establishment. DO...

We visited for dinner, and the place was already full when we arrived at 6pm. The menu is tapas style, and they do have paella as well, but this comes as a smaller portion than you typically see. The two of us tried a variety of dishes – the beet meatballs and panko chicken were favourites, we also enjoyed the seafood paella, squid and patata bravas. The watermelon salad was so-so. The octopus was the only disappointing dish of the evening. We did also enjoy the churros for dessert. Our toddler tried a paella from the kids menu.

Service was a bit on the slow side, but not too bad overall. Funnily enough, we ended up going back the next day for takeaway (not planned, but other places we tried were too busy to do takeaway), and I was impressed how quickly they prepared my order, given the restaurant was once again packed with customers.

The bill for our meal in came to £125 excluding tip, of which £26 was spent on drinks. An enjoyable meal overall, and their menu was a refreshing change from the standard stuff being offered by so many other restaurants in the area.

PARKING: a few reviewers have commented on this. The restaurant has 9 dedicated spaces, which are a bit narrow, but not that bad (especially if you’re used to parking in London like me). On both days I went to the restaurant, and upon departing as well, there were spaces available, even though the restaurant was quite busy. Apparently, there is free street parking nearby as well, but I didn’t need to...

My wife and I arrived at 6pm to an empty car park and on entering saw that only one table was occupied. We were surprised then to be told that the restaurant was fully booked and to take a card and maybe book ahead next time. The young lady didn't check to see if a table would be free before say 7pm. Many restaurants even when busy would say a table is reserved at say 7pm but if you like you can stay as long as you leave before then. I guess she knew that all of her tables were reserved before 7pm and there was no chance we could be in and out before then. I have never been turned away from an empty restaurant before. Sadly we left but managed to find a welcoming restaurant nearby. Unbeknown to me my wife left a review which briefly stated that we were surprised to be turned away from an empty restaurant. The owner then responded to say "Get a life". I then looked at a number of other reviews for La Casita. It appears that the food is very good but there are a lot of customers who feel that they have been treated rudely by the staff. This seems to be a consistent trend with your front of house but when the owner is just the same it is no wonder. It is not sufficient to have wonderful food. Customers come to you for an experience. Customers take time out to write a review not for their own personal gain but to reward you or to help you improve. Believe me it is not a good idea to insult those reviewers whether their review is...