La Bandera — Restaurant in Manchester

It's such a shame. We had a Groupon voucher (my valentine's present from my partner). She had paid the extra to have a free drink each as well as the food. The offer was very clear that we could have any wine or beer upto the value of £6. When we arrived we were told we couldn't upgrade anything... i.e. we couldn't pay extra to get an £8 tapas dish as we were only allowed dishes upto £7.50. That was fair enough and as we expected. Next we were told we could only have a small glass of house wine or a bottle of San Miguel. We showed the waitress that the Groupon offer was for any wine or beer upto £6 and she said we couldn't have that. At this point we asked to see the duty manager as it didn't seem fair to attempt to argue it with the waitress as she wasn't the person in charge on the evening. The duty manager was very rude and condescending. He said that Groupon just had a set deal that they signed up to and that although the voucher and the Groupon advert said upto £6 that it was just the set Groupon deal and that as a restaurant they didn't have to give a wine or beer upto £6 as they only offered a small house wine or a San Miguel and that it was upto them what they offered and if they decided to say we could only have dishes upto £4 then that would be fine as the terms of the offer they had signed upto were Groupons terms and not theirs. This clearly isn't how terms and conditions work. When we signed up we paid £8 extra for two drinks upto £6 each and we were forced to have two house wines at £3.75 each... nobody would pay £8 for two £3.75 drinks if they knew they weren't allowed what the voucher actually offered! We really wouldn't have minded too much or even thought to leave a review if the duty manager had just been a little apologetic, or even just polite. The waitress was friendly and professional and we left a tip for her. It really wasn't us being petty but the duty manager made us feel pretty horrible and my girlfriend who had bought the Groupon as part of her valentine's present to me was really tearful and distraught by the whole experience. The evening was really soured by something that could have been dealt with so much better. I don't really know what else to say. I'm guessing that based on another bad review I've seen on here that the response may try and say that the small print says something other than this, but we have checked and double checked everything and it definitely says any wine or beer upto £6... it really isn't ok to sell something based on the terms as set out in the offer and then say that the terms on the website and the printed out voucher aren't the terms that the restaurant offer... or at very least just say sorry for not sticking...

La Bandera means Flag and this restaurant serves the best and authentic Spanish food. We were a group of 11 ladies who decided to try some Spanish food with Sangria. The Sangria looked very unusual to us, but oh boy! We ordered 4 litres in total as we loved it so much. The Mimosa was also tasty. Now let's talk about the food. This is all we tried : Croquetas del Dia - Homemade award winning croquettes – squid ink and ham

Berenjenas Gratinadas - Baked layers of aubergine in a rich tomato sauce and cheese

Potatoes bravas – fried potato cubes served with Aioli and brava sauce

Champinones rellenos con Pisto - Stuffed mushrooms with a Spanish ratatouille and cheese gratin

Pulpo en dos Coccipnes - Twice cooked octopus served on a bed of Spanish paprika mash, topped with mojo rojo

Calamares - Fried squid strips in batter with citric Aioli

Polo Al Salmorejo– Chicken strips cooked in a red pepper based traditional canarian sauce, topped with almond flakes

Lubina Embarada - Skin on sea-bass fillets cooked in a Canarian mix of spices, onions, peppers, olive oil and vinegar

De Marisci en su Tinta - Mixed shellfish with king prawns, octopus and squid served black

Churros con chocolate

Pimentos del Padron - Traditional Spanish fried peppers served with red wine infused salt

Pollo Fuerteventura - From the white beaches and winds of Fuerteventura comes this chicken in a cream and pink pepper corn dish.

The service was excellent. A big thanks to Nessa and Manmeet for their excellent service and also for the free rum shots in the end which was a surprise. Keep up the good work. Thanks to the barman who made the excellent drinks. We had booked online as we were a big group and the process was...

We attended for the bottomless brunch, party of 13 on a hen party. Slightly disappointed that we had to split between 2 tables initially, but it was what it was. Started off ok, bottles of cava for each table and then the fun began! 3 times drinks were dropped/spilled over my friend, I get accidents happen but no compensation for the mishap offered. Orders taken for the meals and requests made for cocktails. Bear in mind it's BOTTOMLESS, we were expecting our monies worth of drinks,unfortunately unless you drank the cava you got a long wait (40 mins and over) for 2nd drinks.

Food served, smaller than expected portion sizes for the price,however it was quite tasty. That's when the right dish was served 🙈 The orders (for 3 dishes per person) got totally mixed up and we had to swap dishes between our party on the table! one friend ordered the vegetarian option,after 2 wrong attempts the correct 3rd dish never did show up!

We did make a few complaints due to slowness of service for drinks and with only 15 mins left to go we were given an extra 15 minutes on the table and a complimentary shot.

The bill arrived and we were mortified to see the cheek of quite a hefty service charge. Needless to say we refused to pay it (service charge) and left. Management said they were short staffed, but if your catering for a bigger party, staffing issues need to be arranged. Sorry we won't...