Cafe Sevilla of Costa Mesa — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

I notoriously get terrible service, when I go out its a hit or miss just because of the prejudice I face. But this venue has exceptionally horrendous terrible service if you get any. I went on a rainy Wednesday evening, although the venue was dead there were no tables for walk ins so my husband and I were offered the bar. We were given the end of the bar close to the band, and we waited patiently to get served. If a manager is reading this, my bartender was an older latino with a confused and arrogant look on his face. If you re watch the security footage, I am sure you can spot us and watch this entire interaction go down. We were given regular menus, when we asked for the OC restaurant week menu we were first given a grimace and it was awkward for a second. Then he turned on his heel and handed one menu to us with his thumb and forefinger, literally dropped it and walked away. There was no summery of the menu, description of any food or suggestions on drinks. When he returned, I asked him for a suggestion for a drink and to have him speak to me was like pulling teeth, it was actually I that suggested a basic sangria. I was not offered any other choice, whether it was the white sangria or any other drink, so I took what I was given. We were waiting for a solid 15 minutes with our drinks, my husband needed a soda refill, I couldn't take it anymore so I called him for service. I asked him to please put in our food order and a refill on my husbands glass; again there was no suggestions, no descriptions, no upselling or speaking whatsoever. In my line of work we call him an order taker, someone who finished a shift at McDonald's and clocked in a Sevillas. Honestly he seemed like a nightlife bartender that only wants to get people drunk off two ingredient drinks and shots for his entire career. While we were waiting for our appetizers, I could clearly hear him candidly and gleefully talking to the guests directly to my right, suggesting and describing EXACTLY WHAT I ORDERED! (Croquettes, albondigas and the paella) Suddenly he was fluent with the menu and giving all types of service to every diner in the establishment except us. Our appetizers came and went; no silverware was provided, we were not checked on, no refills or waters whatsoever. Again our entree came and went, this time the server assistant was very attentive and brought us fresh silverware and plates. This bartender was literally avoiding eye contact with me and dodging me at every corner, I honestly don't know why. The best part of the night was when my husband told the bartender that the wine I got was "ta bueno". The bartender had the audacity to look at me and tell me "That means it's really good, in case you don't know. HAHA" And laughed at me! Bro, this is my husband and I am fluent in Spanish, how dare you come at me like that? If I wasn't working for a luxury hotel in this community, this def would have ended differently. Come for live music and salty food, dont stay for the drinks. I would rather drive all the way to LA and dance at La Floriditas or Stephens Steakhouse in Commerce than endure the travesty that is Sevillas. Hope ya'll survive...

I will say this review is no reflection of the two individuals at the bar that took care of us during our time or the quality of the food. The food was exceptional...drinks were to die for.

Josh was an unreal bartender witty funny...charming. Made great suggestions and spent several minutes chatting with us, about local life of Newport and Costa Mesa. Ray, who was Josh's counterpart behind the bar during our stay was also amazing. Josh and Ray are a great team.

The reason for the poor review is because of the Bar Manager and the Kitchen Manager.

We came in after the brunch rush and before the dinner rush...at that usual sweet spot time of 1pm and 5pm local PST--that is always the prime time to enjoy a low key non busy time of great drinks & food.

It was towards the end of our stay at Cafe Sevilla that I noticed a gentleman dressed in a Cafe Sevilla uniform with a gym bag over his shoulder walking into the main portion of the restaurant. Shortly after I notice the same man now sitting at the bar with another manager typing arrogantly away on their laptops at the bar.

1st order of business employees or managers should never be at the bar on their laptops. This is extremely unprofessional. They may be working but these gentleman had an arrogance about them that sends off an image that their 💩does not stink. Completely unprofessional.

Further to the unprofessional nature of your managerial staff. My girlfriend desperately needed a charger to handle a top profile legal case with her law firm. The two managers who were on their laptops informed us that we do not have chargers, when they clearly had their laptops plugged in & charging...🤔. Rude.

Lastly, when we were about to close out our tab with the exceptional food and amazing service that Josh provided us...it was this same smuck manager that came behind the bar to close out our tab. Which I found extremely odd! This gentleman was not the one who was talking with us the entire time providing great conversation, nor was he the one who recommended amazing drinks, nor was he the one who made said amazing drinks.

He did ask us if we wanted another drink of course--which was a failed attempt to keep us in our seats so that the misogynist bartender could charge us more. I informed him that my girlfriend had a headache and we needed to leave, he said something to the effect of I have aspirin back here. Which may I ask... does anyone EVER take aspirin from bartenders working behind bars in Costa Mesa? We're lucky he didn't try to slip us a 💊 or two. 😯

When the bill was finally printed it did not have the happy hour prices, the arrogant bar manager overcharged us out of spite. Discrimination.

In closing I will say you..."you" being who ever is in charge of hiring the managerial staff or experienced night time bartenders--you may want to reconsider your hiring choices.

Again poor remarks are not for the food or drinks. I will come back for those just not the service of the evening bartender/managerial...

I never write bad reviews... but Sevilla has remedied that. I was in a party of 11 for New Years Eve, we each paid $75 ahead of time for a 10:30 reservation, thinking we would get $75 worth of beverage/food/service. I would say that we basically paid to be ignored and told "what do you want me to do? I'm busy!" when we ask for WATER. We got there ahead of our reservation, waited in line for 35 MINUTES. Then when in, they had us standing and waiting FOR ANOTHER 20 MINUTES before they cleaned a table to seat us. By this time, we had looked at a menu, ordered our food and drinks immediately knowing there would be a wait... boy was there a wait, I think our food is still being made to this day. IT NEVER CAME OUT. FOR 2 HOURS, we flagged our waiter down multiple times asking for updates, and he started quickly sprinting past our table, clearly serving others, giving them food and drinks and avoiding eye contact. Wish I got his name, tall chunky white guy, short buzzed darker hair. I even had to ask another waitress to get our waiter, and it still took him another 20 minutes to come by. She seemed nice tho and a lil apologetic. I get it, you're busy, but like, if you see an upset party can you not maybe go check on the order and give us an estimate? Instead of repeating "well what am I supposed to do for you?" Uhh.. I don't know.. your job? He didn't even pretend to care.

The only thing we got was a couple vodka sodas and 2 pitchers of "margaritas" (or as one in our party put it... more like sweet lemon juice). I WOULD NEVER TREAT A PAYING CUSTOMER THE WAY WE WERE TREATED. The problem is, we paid ahead of time and lost our leverage and they took advantage of that. It was disorganized and unprofessional. I was really looking forward to trying the paella. Heck, if even the charcuterie board came out or a basket of bread or crackers I might give another star. But we left at 1 AM wondering if we should stop at Taco Bell. Because we had nothing in our stomaches except the watered down margarita. Also, never got the water. The teeny tiny pitcher in the photo that looks like it might hold water.. das the margarita.

... The music was good though, they chose a good DJ.

All in all, would not recommend going here. 0/5 stars. Actually, -75. Given that's how I feel in my wallet. In addition to paying double for the Uber that night to get out due to the holiday rates. No more pre-pay events for me. And we hope to get our money back, definitely a scam.

P.S. I added a photo of the table after 1.5 hours of us sitting. So you can see that he did have time to kindly throw some hats at us as he ran past. See the empty table in the picture behind with the hats? Yeah it stayed that way. but hey now I have a funny story about how we paid money to starve on NYE. If you start the year off at the bottom, the only direction left...