Pamplona Tapas Bar — Restaurant in Lafayette

First time visiting Lafayette and impressed by the variety of restaurants in downtown area. However my critique for Pamplona Tapas Bar is based on 18 years in hospitality industry, traveling the world and exploring different restaurants and cuisines. Hostess: she sat me immediately. Good job on the speed but welcoming guests would be a plus.

Waitress: I am very big on hospitality and not just service. HUGE difference. My waitress was constantly in a hurry. I mentioned it's my first time, and her response was ill give you few minutes to decide. No greeting, no hospitality whatsoever.

Here is what I would do: Thank you for visiting us, my name is .... and would love to guide you through the menu. Please feel free to look at it and will be back shortly. This takes 15 seconds. Once I go back in exactly 2 minutes, (bring glass of water) I recommend some few items. Then take the order. Service needs lots of work and I urge the management to take part of that.

Food: Beet Salad presentation was beautiful, texture was on point, the mixing of vegetables looked fresh and smelled nice. The portion is good for 1 person. Cranberry raisons were hard, chewy and dominating the flavor.

Brussels sprouts: I like the combination with pomegranate. Gives it that crunchy sweet and sour taste. Brussels were super oily. Fryer needs new oil.

Tuna Tartar was ok, more citrus would gives more tangy taste that could Balance the ingredients in the plate. Presentation was nice.

Going back to hospitality: Wasn't offered any desserts.

I am fully aware of the situation where staffing a restaurant is difficult specially post covid. Invest in your current staff on hospitality training. Add value to their experience and I guarantee your numbers will increase.

Hopefully this will help your staff, kitchen and management with...

I used to consider Pamplona to be one of the best restaurants in Lafayette, but after last night—which was the worst customer service experience I’ve ever had at a restaurant, much less a fine dining restaurant—I won’t go back. We had a reservation at 5pm during their Christmas pop up. They told us that we had a limited time at our table because they had another reservation behind us at 7:30pm. We ordered our tapas a few dishes at a time. I think our waitress forgot to put in one of our dishes because it was taking a long time. I politely reminded her about it and we were patient. We finished eating that dish around 7pm, paid, and around 7:10 a hostess told us we needed to leave. We told her we were told that we had until 7:30 and that we’d like to finish our drinks. We continued getting harassed like this by staff until we finally left our table—15 minutes early and without being able to finish our drinks. I rarely ask to speak to management, but this situation was so outrageous that I wanted to give them an opportunity to make it right. When the manager came out about 10 minutes after I asked to speak with someone, he was arrogant, clearly not happy about having to speak with me, had almost 0 remorse for the situation, and told me he didn’t know what to tell me because there’s nothing he could do for me at this point. I’ve never felt so disrespected or not wanted at a restaurant before. We’ll take our $300 to Charley...

Service was great, atmosphere at the entrance and bar was awesome. Food not as good as it was years ago. I skipped the Halloween one this past October because of the negative experience we had the year before but had high hopes for the Miracle Christmas dining experience because I had went the first year they started and it was so amazing. Got placed in the back room by window where not much is going on so that killed the atmosphere experience for us. Mac and cheese was 5 stars, hummus 1 star, lamp sliders, 1 star. Friends did not like their menu options either. Very over priced for the overall experience. We ended up leaving and going to another restaurant/bar on Johnston St. for drinks. Next year, we will still skip the Halloween one again but will take our chance at getting a seat at the bar for the Christmas one in 2024 over booking reservations for table/dining. I am impressed with the bar area and entrance area 100%. Staff is very friendly and provided good service. Great job on that for sure. Drinks at the bar seems to be...