El Cid — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I would give half or less of a star if I could. Quite possibly the worst dining experience I've ever had. I enjoy fine dining, and look forward to experiencing good food, good drinks, and good times. This particular evening, I was there for dinner and the scheduled music event. My companion and I sat down at a patio table, and engaged in lovely conversation, where time escaped us. But that time quickly turned into 2 hours, before a waiter even approached us, but only after HAVING BEEN SUMMONED by my companion. We hadn't even received menus, so he went to get them. In the background, I could hear the bands had started. More time passed after receiving the menus, and we were neglected, getting ever hungrier. Again, we summoned a waiter, and placed an order. But after he stepped away, we realized that a group of people had been seated after we arrived, attended to and served without a problem, and they were gone by the time we had even placed our order. At this realization, we decided to cancel the order and go dine elsewhere. It was just after 10:30PM. My companion went off to the ladies room, and I followed nearby to seek the waiter. He was just inside the double glass doors where a door person was tending to the music event attendees. Though my companion made it through the doors no problem, and I was about to call out to the waiter just inside, I was stopped in barbaric fashion by the door person, who was very rude even after I explained that I was trying to get the waiter to cancel my order. She insisted that I had to PAY a $5 cover in order to get in the door. I was trying to cancel a $75 order. Dealing with this ill-mannered individual was clearly a waste of time, as she was highly unprofessional in her behavior, so I asked for the manager. The door person called over the booking agent, whom I thought was the manager, but as the discussion ensued, it became clear that I had been thwarted in making a legitimate complaint to the restaurant. The booking agent, "Kelly", proceeded to explain that her door person, more or less, had to behave in the manner she did to protect the door, and to ensure the bands get paid. I explained, again, that I was simply trying to call the waiter just inside the doors. "Kelly" continued to explain, more or less, that they had to charge $5 at the door because people often try to sneak in without paying. However, having heard that explanation, I then felt as though I was being treated as COMMON RIFF RAFF. I assure you, I'm not. A word of caution and advice to EL CID: You can never be sure who your patrons are, if you don't already know them by face or by name. Are they executives? Music or film industry heavy hitters? Perhaps, people with clout and influence? Or better still, patrons looking to enjoy fine dining experiences who would likely return with THEIR BUSINESS again and again. My advice? Bear in mind that the people you engage with in business dealings, such as the booking agent and her door person, are representative of YOUR BUSINESS. Add that to the poor restaurant service, and you have UNPROFESSIONAL AND MISMANAGED all the way across the board.

As for me, I'm not a heavy hitter, but I have my own place in the entertainment industry. I've been fortunate to work with well-known and famous artists. You could say it's a family business, from rock to hip-hop, really, even with ties to world class FLAMENCO performers.

I'd much prefer the Management at El Cid extend concerted efforts to rectify last night's occurrences, and set themselves on the path to greatness by improving their service and relations to patrons. But based on my experience last night, it seems highly doubtful.

Alas, my friends, word travels fast when uttered from the...

First timer on a Friday night.

Location: -Excellent ambiance! Loved everything about how the place looked inside and outside. VERY CUTE! Sat on the patio and enjoyed the cozy feel of the place. It literally takes you away from the hustle and bustle of Sunset Blvd. -Very cool inside with a stage for performance, dark and intimate. Although, that Friday was DEAD!!!! No one inside at all and just a handful of people in the patio. They didn't even have background music in the patio area. Lucky for us, we were a nice size group outside with good conversation...we made the party our own =). -Parking tho kinda sucks. Have to either park on the street (and its in a busy ass part of Sunset) or valet. Tip: Get dropped off or take an Uber/Lyft -It was a maze to get to the women's restroom from outside. -Not handicap friendly AT ALL! Theres tons of stairs you have to walk down (steep too) to get to inside.

Food: -Very tasty but small portion. Tried the ceviche with chips, potatoes app, meatballs, paella ($40 for not that big of a portion but tasty) and had 3 sangrias. EVERYTHING WAS DELICIOUS!!! -Happy Hour prices are wayyyyyy more budget friendly (sangrias $6 which is1/2 off and some apps for 1/2 too). -Although they did not provide full entre menu until 7pm.

Service: -We had 2 people who served us. One was a bartender who was keeping all our tabs and the other was an additional person helping out. The person that was helping was very nice and at tentative with a smile. But the bartender person was not so friendly and kinda short and cold. She didn't have a problem taking our orders but wasn't very friendly about it. -Annnnnnnnnnd she messed up on my bill. I was charged full price instead of happy hour prices. So I had to deal with getting that fixed. It wasn't that much of a pain, but still.

Overall, I don't think I will go back just because...just cuz its not super close to where I live and traffic getting there blows! But I would if I was invited to go there to celebrate a friend's or family's bday or some sort of occasion. Didn't catch a show there and I'm sure they are AMAZING when they do have them. If I go back and catch a show, great! If...

Didn’t think I would ever write something like this but here it goes. Was having fun with my roommate, we went to the comedy show before the club section opened for the night. We got food and drinks and everything was fine up until my friend noticed a woman who looked like she worked there - she kept staring at us, following us and filming us wherever we went. We didn’t really think much of it and tried to carry on with our night, up until I was walking to go get water and I look behind me for my friend. There’s a bouncer standing in front of her saying “I’m gonna need to search you because people are saying you fit the description of someone who’s been stealing phones”. I was shocked they chose to target my friend in that manner, who I want to mention is a brown Egyptian woman, and never even looked at me, a white person, even though we had been side by side all night.

After she gave them her bag and emptied her pockets and even offered to help in any way she can, they apologized profusely however this experience felt extremely disconcerting and uncomfortable. Definitely you don’t expect that when you’re going out to have a stress free night. Obviously it sucks people are having their phones stolen and security should be better than racially profiling their customers who are paying obscenely to be there. Really disappointing to see this kind of action and I feel there should be cameras in clubs where people pay cover charge to get in and there should be an alternative to dealing with this situation than singling out customers based on race or appearances. Anyways don’t think will come back as that experience left us feeling unwelcome and honestly...