Olivares Tapas Bar — Restaurant in Lincoln

THE WORST TAPAS IVE EVER HAD. Arrived for my booking on a Saturday night, was greeted by two staff arguing / shouting at each other about who should distribute the menus (Right in front of all their customers). Then waiting 10 minutes to be acknowledged and asked whether I had a booking. Passed this off, as it was busy so understandable sometimes they can't be the quickest. Finally got seated and ordered food + drinks... Drinks arrived and were all good (Other than two flat cokes and a disgusting Mojito). Food arrived and it started well with the bread and Ali Oli, then it was a downward spiral from there... Camembert, vile (Might as well have called it soggy cheese with raisins and 5 crackers), the mushrooms where rubbery and covered in an awful white wine sauce. Chorizo, it just wasn't Chorizo at all, the prawns were actually alright to be fair to them and also the Calamari was bang average but edible. They had forgotten about our chicken dish but when they finally asked us about it we had just turned it down because we were worried as to what that would be. Now for the CRAZY part. It was clear we had finished so the waiter came to take our food away. He asked how it was and we were honest, just saying that we were really disappointed however we would just like the bill so we could pay and leave. He said he would speak to someone on our behalf to try sort something for us (the waiter was great about it and couldn't have done more, credit to him). The, what I presume to be, owner / manager came over and started off calm asking why we were disappointed. We just mentioned that the food was highly disappointing and really not nice at all. He then starts shouting at us and interrogating us as if we are in the wrong for saying we were disappointed. Patronising us as if we had no idea what we were talking about, at this point we were being made to feel really uncomfortable. And you could tell other tables around us were shocked as to what was happening. We were shaken as to what was happening, so asked for the bill as we wanted to just pay and leave. He would not let us and kept asking questions, at this point we had not mentioned the poor service when we arrived so decided to mention that also which he did not take lightly. He then proceeded to portray us to be blaming the staff for our poor food (which was not the case at all), he started blaming their age. Saying 'Oh they're 15/16 what do you expect', and then further went on to say 'I will make them pay, they will pay your bill for their mistakes'. Trying to clearly guilt trip us and again, make us feel it was our fault for not enjoying the food. We told him no and we said that was not fair on the staff and we wanted to pay for our bill and leave. He kept shouting no no! And then made us leave making us feel awful for the staff. I cannot imagine working for such a horrible man, he was absolutely awful and we have never been made to feel so uncomfortable in a restaurant before. In such a nice spot in Lincoln, its completely ruined by such an awful experience and a man that clearly can't take criticism. Obviously, he has to always be right and can never be wrong, so please make sure you never try to complain at this restaurant if you don't enjoy the food because it won't go well. I also really feel for the staff there as some of them were great, particularly the man who we were originally speaking to. We will NEVER be coming back, and do not recommend it whatsoever. So many better...

I am starting my review with the following statement that gets added to the bill so reviewers can see how this restaurant operates without having to read the full review

' 10% TIPS INCLUDED - FOR PARTIES OF 1 OR LARGER,  10% GRATUITITY IS APPLIED AUTOMATICALLY. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS SPEAK TO THE MANAGER'

We had 4 tapas and some bread and also ordered a bottle of wine. We asked for a bottle of Rioja that was listed on the menu but we were told that was not available, so we moved to the one above it instead. We waited for our wine but then we were informed by our waiter that instead he could offer us a different red and that it would be £40 (approx.)  I said well the wine I ordered was around the £30 mark and didn't really want to pay £40 - mainly because I am not sure why the customer should have to fork out an extra £10 because they cannot locate the wines they have listed on their menu. He informed me that he would knock the service charge off the bill. I thought this is strange because we are only a table of 2 people, why would there be a service charge? Thankfully one of his colleagues located the bottle of wine we had ordered and the issue was resolved. Our food arrived and we must say, it really was mediocre. The gambas were incredibly expensive for the size of the portion and the size of the prawns. When the bill came we could see that they had added a 10% service charge with the statement on the receipt ' 10% TIPS INCLUDED - FOR PARTIES OF 1 OR LARGER,  10% GRATUITY IS APPLIED AUTOMATICALLY. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS SPEAK TO THE MANAGER'

What a strange approach and way to manage tips - tips SHOULD be discretionary, not mandated. Tips should be left based on the service received and the dining experience. Secondly, stating that 'for tables of 1 or more' automatic tips are applied,  you cannot get tables of less than 1 so basically this restaurant is stating that all diners will have this automatic tip applied.

Would  we have left 10% for the food and service received , no we wouldn't have done. Will we be back or recommend this restaurant? No...

We visited the restaurant during the eat out to help out scheme and had a very poor experience. I emailed them twice regarding this experience and have not heard back, so I have decided to write it here. Firstly, the social distancing present is very poor, they are still packing the restaurant like any normal night with no spaces. Upon arrival, we were told a variety of dishes were no longer available. We arrived at 8 o'clock, a time requested by them, ordered our drinks at 8:30, and finally got them at 8:45. We then ordered our food at 9, it took a whole hour just to order. When ordering, we were told even more dishes were not available. Being a family of vegetarians, this meant the dishes we could have were even more limited.

The dishes that we had were considerably smaller than your typical size. We started with two portions of Pan Ali Oli/Balsamico, we were given one small basket of bread with two small pots of each dip. We ordered two, so were very disappointed to be given such small portions. The manchego cheese dish had three small slithers of cheese, the camembert had no crackers, we were given small slithers of Spanish omelette, the patatas bravas all had minimal amounts of sauce on them. Overall, we were extremely disappointed with the food we received. We ordered 14 dishes in total, and we all left hungry. This should not happen at a restaurant.

With the new government scheme, they knew the restaurant would be busy, therefore, they should've stocked appropriately. If dishes were running out so quickly and early in the evening, someone should've gone to the shops to restock, being in central lincoln shops are very close by. If they were running out of food, they should've not taken walk-ins and focused on the bookings they already had. We felt that we were given half the food because of the discount, but they were still receiving the full price, so we should not be given smaller portions.

We will not be visiting your restaurant any time soon. It is a shame that our experience there has...