Los Arcos — Restaurant in London

Restaurants are part of something called the "hospitality" sector, Los Arcos' only contribution to hospitality is as a shining example to everyone else of what not to do.

Table booked almost 2 weeks in advance for a party of 5 at 8pm on a Satuday night, via phone because apparently we're still in the 1980s.

We arrived on time, restaurant was very busy and very loud, a more diplomatic term would be "lively" I suppose. We were shown to our table, given menus and shortly thereafter drink orders were taken. We were given some time to browse the menu. Being a tapas restaurant there were lots of dishes to choose from. After perhaps 10-15 minutes we were ready to order. During our time looking at the menu, we weren't asked if we were ready by any of the staff. We spent some time trying to chat but could barely hear the person across from us. I had to lean in to hear the person next to me and they were like 2 feet away. Half an hour after we'd arrived, we managed to flag down one of the sparse waiting staff. We said we were ready to order now and she asked us if we were sure we wanted to order. She explained they were short-staffed and quite behind.

Can you imagine being asked by someone if you're sure you want to spend money at their establishment? I know Capitalism gets a bad rap but it's a pretty simple system: I want something, you want my money, here's my money, give me the thing.

We asked this lady - who was rendered barely comprehensible by the "lively" atmosphere - how long she thought it would take, she said she would check and disappeared, never to return. A different server came to our table after another 10 minutes and said it was a "30 minute minimum" wait for food. Minimum?! So what's the maximum? An hour? A day? You gotta put an upper limit on there! Bear in mind we got there at 8pm, we're now at 8:45pm, this place closes at 11pm and we're looking at a MINIMUM of 30 minutes before the first of our dishes starts to arrive? On top of that, we're supposed to trust that estimate is accurate when early impressions would suggest that the people running this place can't even spell "customer service" let alone practise it.

Finally, an older gentleman who had the aura of manager/owner arrived at our table. He explained that they work very hard and are very busy and the food is very good and takes time to prepare but they are not McDonalds and- Yeah, sorry boss, you're right, you're not McDonalds. McDonalds actually SERVE their food. You don't wait 45 minutes to get it either! You wait 4 TO 5 minutes. Also, "Arcos" is Spanish for arches, the McDonalds logo is called The Golden Arches or "los arcos dorados" so yeah, you kinda are McDonalds actually.

This man wasn't apologetic or understanding, he came across instead as dismissive and defensive. He gestured vageuely to the massive party of 12+ near us, mumbling something about needing to sort their order out and busy something, again, it's very hard to hear anyone in this place. But that was it. His attitude sealed it for us, we took off, thanks for the free drinks, see you again never.

While I was there I saw maybe 4-5 waitstaff and perhaps 2-3 people in the kitchen. We were sat opposite the serving window and I could see through the door into the kitchen when it was opened. I get the distinct impression they were not "short" on staff that evening, I believe they are perpetually understaffed, running the bare minimum to save on overheads. I even received a call that morning at around 11:30am to confirm my booking. I was not told at this point that they would be short staffed but fine, maybe whoever was missing hadn't called in sick yet. When we were greeted, we were not told they were short staffed. Nor were we told when they sat us down, took our drink order or in the 15 minutes that followed.They had ample opportunity to let us know and they either completely forgot or this is how it always is and it didn't feel unusual for them. They were happy to take our drink orders and begin the "get their money"...

I went to Los Arcos twice last week with my wife. First visit was to their lovely bar area for some drinks and a couple of tapas. The service was amazing, friendly, caring, and with staff immediately paying attention to us from the moment we arrived. You can see everyone in the staff has been well trained and it feels like you're being welcomed to the place by a friendly Spanish family, rather than a bunch of people who just work there. The few tapas we sampled, delicious. Ambiance, great: you're surrounded by lovely traditional precision set tilework around the place - showing excellent dedication to details all around! Could not fault the experience at all, five stars. Encouraged by this, I booked a table for a dinner at 20.30 on a Friday night.

Enter a different reality. The place was overbooked so it took us 10min to even catch the attention of the staff to be welcomed. They suggested we start with drinks at the bar and then move to a table in 20 minutes or so. 57 minutes later, we finally managed to get an actual table, after much struggle to catch someone's attention. The table we sat at was empty much earlier...

Once at the table, we were given olives which I thought was an apology of sorts for the delay, but this was unclear. We were charged for them initially in the end. Then it took another 15min to get an order in, despite of our best efforts to catch the waiters attention. After the order was in, things did get better though. Food came fairly quickly, the quality of service we received on our first visit returned...even the elderly Spanish gentleman who I assume is the owner came to chat with us and many other guests. Food was delish, with the wild boar being perhaps a bit overdone for my liking, but otherwise everything was spot on.

Upon departure, we asked the olives and the discretionary service charge to be removed from the bill, explaining we waited an hour to be seated from when our reservation was meant to start, and then some more waiting. Boy did we get a bad look from the waiter, overshadowing any apology he tried to make.

Los Arcos, you're a gem of a restaurant but you have to get your table booking management right, even on busy nights! And if you mess up, how about an honest and clear apology? (For example, "sorry, we didn't do this right. It will be an hour and if you want to wait, have a drink on us at the bar"). Would probably be cheaper than losing possible repeat customers...Despite the lovely food, our night finished with a bad taste in our mouths. We got home so upset and tired.

I'm torn. You have almost everything in place to offer a truly exceptional dining experience, but then this basic stuff goes wrong magnificently and gets on the way of it. This was about to be my new favourite go-to place for a good dinner out, or for drinks and light tapas. Maybe I will come again, maybe this was just a one off? I really hope so, but if I ever revisit, maybe I will avoid booking during...

LEMON GATE! Arrogant manager !! Me my mum and my Bestfriend and her mum came to this restaurant hoping to have a lovely welcoming experience, however the tables turned when we asked for a jug of water ice and lemon. We was kindly greeted by our lovely waiter (which I didn’t quite catch his name) and he politely asked if we wanted any drinks. My friends mum asked if we could all share some tap water with lemon and ice, he then said that the manager charges for a slice of lemon per tap water, we was all gobsmacked. The manager comes over to us and asks us if anything’s alright and if we wanted drinks and we mentioned that we would get charged for a slice of lemon. We all was having a laugh as we don’t take anything to serious we was all in shock How he proceeds to RUDELY say to my friends mum that “we are not a charity we are a business and can’t be giving away free lemons” and also then explains his spendings on lemons and how “one lemon costs 45p which makes a box of lemons £31 which would only last a week if we have them to people in our tap water”. He then walked away, We all just looked at eachother in shock and started to laugh as we was all flabbergasted by utter rudeness and unwelcoming comments he was making. So we politely had our meal and the food was pretty nice and we went down the road and bought him a pack of 4 lemons as a little present for him, and we attempted to hand them to him as a kind gesture and he refused to touch them and then started to point at us and make comments to the other people in the restaurant. Then the other customers laughed at him on the way out realising how rediculous he sounds. Baring in mind we spend over £150 in the restaurant however couldn’t even get a slice of lemon in our drink. Such a shame as everything else was nice but wouldn’t come back because of the...