La Marcha Tapas Bar — Restaurant in Berkeley

Just dined for our second time last night. Tldr; their FOH service is embarrassingly some of the worst I've seen, especially for the caliber of food and atmosphere I feel they're trying to achieve. Their food is consistent, fresh, and absolutely fantastic. At this point I've been able to try 80% of the menu, minus their wines, and would go on to recommend everything on their menu. The paellas are perfect, well balanced, authentic.

For context, my perspective is coming from someone who has worked both FOH/BOH+management for elevated dining establishments for many years. I don't necessarily expect all restaurants to follow high standards but I DO expect a minimum quality of service that comes from having any sense of how to interact with people rather than skills/competency.

My first experience I came as a walk-in 3 top on a busy weekday. They don't staff hosts, so it took around 10 minutes to be -acknowledged- and added to the waitlist via OpenTable. It took a while to get seated once we were notified, but it didn't bother me that much because they only had two people staffed on the floor that night: one server and one bartender--no runners. Because of that, I won't complain much about the service because there's only so much you can do with a full house and two FOH staff. When we did get service, they were very nice but obviously stressed out.

Our second experience just solidified my inital suspicions about the service. I did another weekday walk-in this time as a 4 top just before rush. There was no OpenTable self check-in this time, so we had to wait to be spoken to which took about 15 minutes. We probably would have never been talked to had it not been for my partner who stopped a server to find if any tables were available. We were able to get sat immediately after that. This time they were much more appropriately staffed, 3 (one of whom was probably a bartender) servers and a couple runners/bussers. It took several minutes to be given menus and several more minutes after to have our orders taken. I decided to order everything we would want for the evening at once because I was afraid we wouldn't really be checked on through the meal (which ended up true), and everything came out perfectly paced. There were a couple of times water was spilled on us from careless pours followed by no apology and no clean up... I would compare the service we received to be on par to cheap hole-in-the-walls.

In hoping the GM reads this, please train your people better for the love of god lol. At least train for decency to one's fellow man. Also run more bathroom checks... it's not that hard or time consuming to restock toilet paper or paper towels during service. I hope this restaurant is able to grow above and beyond...

Finally tried this little gem on San Pablo Avenue after passing it for years saying, ‘I gotta try that little gem’.

A couple friends and I managed to get a same day reservation at the corner of the bar, which worked out perfectly.

We ordered exclusively from the tapas menu, and I’m glad we did although I’m sure their paella and mains are equally exquisite.

Everything from their BIMI to cheese platter, to croquettes and churros for desert were a delight. Each plate had its own distinct and satisfying flavor, and nothing we ordered disappointed.

I suggested the octopus which sounded splendid, but my friends protested that octopuses (octopi?) were too smart to eat, so we compromised on their dumb cousins, squid. Dumb maybe, delicious certainly!

Being a dedicated carnivore, I had little hope for the mushroom croquettes , but they were also scrumptious. Better yet were the chicken and crab croquettes, with each of us expressing a preference for one or the other. If you have to chose, I say go for the crab and my friends would say go for the chicken. The best solution is to order them both!

The atmosphere of La Marcha is ‘classy casual’, and very lovely. Every table seemed to be celebrating something, much like you’d expect on a warm summer evening in Barcelona.

As the saying goes, “You can judge a person by the company they keep” and I think this can be applied to La Marcha’s ownership. He/She/They must be remarkable people to attract the kind of talented chefs and servers who made our evening complete.

I was too shy to ask our server her name, but I think one of the other (regulars?) called her Seejay (which isn’t a real name… I Googled it), or Cindy (a name I haven’t heard since the Brady Brunch). I’ll go with Seejay because it is as uncommon and unexpected as this young lady. Anyway, you’ll know who I am talking about when you go there. Seejay fills the room with her beauty and charisma, and she seemed to be one-person army. I don’t know if they were understaffed that day, or if Seejay just takes on the responsibility for the entire restaurant, but she seemed to be everywhere at once, and yet the level of service she provided my party made us all feel like we were sitting in the VIP section of some swanky club. I hope and trust that the ownership recognizes what a blessing they have with Seejay (or Cindy… whatever).

Well, that’s about it. If you are still hesitant to give La Marcha a try, then all I can say is that you are more squid...

La Marcha was good but I definitely would not go out of my way to eat here again. The food was pretty solid; the patatas bravas had a really nice smoky paprika sauce that came with it, the grilled onions with romesco sauce were also great, & the paellas was solid (although the saffron & salt was a bit lacking), but the whole experience was soured by a couple of things:

We made a reservation for a party of 10 (it was my birthday), and at the end of our meal, we wanted to get deserts, and the hostess said "I'm not sure that's a good idea because there's a party waiting for your seats already". Seriously? What gives. We've already reserved the sats & spent close to $50 per person for the dinner, and we couldn't sit down & give you more money.

Then, I also remembered when I first entered the restaurant, the hostess took a walk-in party of 2, andsaid "I can give you a seat at the bar, but I'll need it back in a hour. Can you guys do that for me?". The couple obviously looked puzzled but took the seats anyways. Holy moly, if the Spanish people (who eats lunch and dinner leisurely for hours on end) knew what you guys did, they be pretty ashamed, La Marcha. Totally not the spirit of Spanish food or Spanish tapas.

It was almost impossible to split the bill. First they said that they could only take two cards. Then, after putting out cards down & writing the exact amount to charge, they said they could only take two cards with the same charge amount. C'mon! This is 2016. We have Square for that for goodness sake. Do not make it difficult for your customers to give you money!

The sangria was $45 a liter. FOURTY FIVE. And you could only get the discounted happy hours price if you sat at the bar, but oddly enough the whole restaurant is called a "tapas bar". So is the whole place a bar? Or is it only the bar within the bar? If you're trying to lure people into your restaurant with happy hour prices & menu, please don't have disclaimers.

Not sure yet if i'll come back. I'll definitely would not be making any more party...