Espana Nouveau Mediterranean — Restaurant in McAllen

CUSTOMERS BEWARE OF THIS PLACE!!! 9/27/25 was my Fiancé’s birthday, I reserved a table 2 weeks in advance for 7:15 P.M. and in the additional notes I wrote that if they could possibly accommodate an area that was a little bit more romantic. When we arrived we waited 15 minutes for a RESERVATION, not to mention us just standing there. Hostess then asked for my reservation twice. TWICE under my name before telling us to just pick out a table. That was strike one, they had no regard for the additional notes I had left. Gabriel was our server, and by far the WORST service I’ve ever had from a server, in my entire existence. We ordered an appetizer, a couple of drinks and the owner maybe( very older lady) came by our table and suggested we order soon since they had a party outside that was planning to order soon so our food can come out accordingly, basically rushing us. It went downhill from here. I felt like trying their pizza and ordered that when Gabriel told me they were out of dough. How are you out of dough at 7pm on a Saturday? You don’t have any cooks to prep inventory in the morning? So Gabriel said” Well if you’re looking for another affordable option I recommend the burger.” He said that snarky comment but I brushed it off and proceeded to order La costilla a la Pimienta as it was my second choice. I specifically asked for the rib to have NOTHING on it, no glaze or any sauce that they put on the rib along with mashed potatoes instead of the sweet potato. They brought out my fiancé’s meal WITHOUT mine, strike two. How are you going to Expo out an order that isn’t ready yet??? Then another 15 minutes go by and my rib comes out and my fiancés oxtail empanadas are already cold from waiting for my food. The rib was brought out with a glaze and sweet potato the FIRST TIME. I kindly told the server that they put a glaze and sweet potato on and underneath my rib as I understood that the kitchen makes mistakes but it is also the servers responsibility to make sure the order is out the way the customer asked for it before taking it out to me. I waited another 10 minutes for my rib the SECOND time and it was brought with the sauce and glaze with sweet potato. By this time I was already getting a bit upset at the fact that I clearly told “Gabriel” how I wanted my rib and he still brought it out wrong the second time. He never apologized for bringing the order wrong twice and proceeded to go back into the kitchen after I told him it’s wrong again. I wait another 10 minutes for the rib the THIRD time and it’s brought with a glaze on the rib with mash potatoes underneath. Gabriel smirkingly puts the plate on my side of the table and asks is it to my liking in a teasing tone of voice. I told him no Gabriel no it’s not. I told you how I wanted this rib and it still had glaze. I then asked for the owner. She came by within 10 minutes taking her sweet time. I told her everything as it is in this review, and she just smiled and said “Well you’re going to have to pay for it” HOW ARE YOU GOING TO FORCE SOMEONE TO PAY FOR SOMETHING THAT WAS INCORRECT THAT MANY TIMES??? That’s when I knew this place was going bankrupt/under when the “owner”is trying to make you pay for something they messed up on. Not to mention on my fiancés birthday? I was livid. I told her respectfully, no I am not, I am not paying for something you all messed up on, if you hadn’t messed up three times on it I would’ve gladly payed for it but now I don’t want to eat here. She started trying to coerce us by saying oh well don’t you just want to have a good time and enjoy it for your fiancé? Trying to coax my fiance with her words and body language to make me stay quiet and “enjoy the night at a place that can’t get an order right” I said look ma’am we’re not eating here so just bring me the check without the rib and we’ll be on our way. She keep insisting after the fact that I asked for the check that the rib is now ready and if I’d like for her to bring it out, obviously a lie to get me to pay for a meal. All in all an atrocious restaurant. Please do...

Last night at Espana was a MESS. My wife and I were looking forward to eating here due to it being be our first date since having our baby, additionally we have always had a good overall experience from previous visits.

First of all, we get there around 6:45PM and get seated without incident. Once seated, the waiter took awhile to get to our table to get our drink order (one of themes of the night). By the time the waiter showed up, we were ready to order pretty much everything (drinks, appetizers, and entrées). After we place our order, my wife gets her mixed drink about 10 minutes after our order. I ordered a glass of wine, which took about 20-30 minutes to receive after our order. We got our food close to an hour after we ordered. One thing we noticed was that other tables around us were getting visited by their waiter quite often. Our waiter would check in with us about 1 out of every 3-4 visits compared to the other waiters.

Now we have received our food. Our appetizer was missing, which never came before our entrees. We asked the waiter to remove the appetizer from our tab. Our waiter proceeded to give us an explanation that there was a glitch in their iPad ordering system, which after some time, he realized had to order everything verbally and from memory. He stated that is why it took so long to get my glass of wine. My wife has a gluten sensitivity and one the things she was most excited for last night was the gluten free (GF) pasta. When she got her pasta dish, she had a few bites and realized something was off. I called over the waiter and ask if the pasta was GF. The waiter said yes, then did a double take, and sprinted off to the kitchen. We he came back he told her it wasn’t and referred back to the ordering glitch. He took the plate and said they would remake it. At this point, a floor manager wandered to our table and asked how the evening was going. My wife’s unenthusiastic response prompted the manager to ask further questions, which we told her about the GF issue. She offered us the mistake pasta dish, on the house. During our conversation, our waiter came up to her to let her know of some issue going on. She said she would be back to talk to us, but that never happened.

It took the kitchen 45 minutes to bring out my wife’s replacement dish. At that point, we ordered dessert and a to-go plate once we got the food because we didn’t know how long they were going to take. Not surprising, it took quite a bit of time to get our dessert (creme brûlée) and to-go order of fries. It also took awhile to close out our check because the waiter 1) didn’t check up on us consistently 2) he put items on our ticket that we didn’t order. To end the evening, our waiter proceeded to apologize to my wife for the poor experience, which he then proceeded to laugh it off like it’s a joke. We didn’t leave the restaurant until almost 10PM, and that isn’t because we chose to take our time.

In summation, the only saving grace of the night was the food, despite it taking so long to get. My wife and I consider ourselves to be understanding and patient people. I work in the foodservice industry and I try to be empathetic to kitchen issues, but last night was inexcusable. Espana’s service was completely lacking. Their service recovery was non-existent. I hope they take this criticism as an opportunity to improve...

Going to preempt my review with this statement. I don't care how much the meal cost I care about the level of service the quality of the food and the atmosphere... Pretty much in that order.

Be warned, I will start with the good.

Beautiful inside and out. Location is very cozy with beautiful artwork decorated on the walls inside and out.

Now for the bad..if you are a party of over 6 or 8 or whatever it is they charge an automatic 20% gratuity. I understand that there's probably a disclaimer on the menu that states that there is an automatic gratuity added. However that being the case it shouldn't mean a lack of attentive service or quality of service. You need to be prepared to have to almost constantly badger your host and or waiter for any type of personalized service.

We Went to a dinner with friends on December 6, 2024. We were a table of 8. We started inside and ended up outside in the gazebo/bar area. Our server/host Roberto while pleasant enough was quasi attentive and managed to get almost all of our orders wrong. I had the Chicken Alfredo which turned out to be a soupy bland mess, My wife had a fish dish which was "not good" (I wouldn't know I am not a fan of fish). And even though Roberto had his iPad or whatever he used to take out orders he still managed to get the orders incorrect and one of the people at our table didn't even get her food because he handed her dish to the wrong person and the dish was going to take too long to prepare so he ended up crediting her meal. I ordered an Arnold Palmer (I don't drink) which was terrible and just switched to water. My wife ordered two old-fashions which were absolutely delicious but he charged her for three and had to amend our bill. I had to ask for salt and pepper four times before they finally brought it to me. Once we ventured out to the gazebo area the experience didn't change due to inattentive wait service.

Overall the atmosphere is fantastic if you're going for the atmosphere I totally recommend this place. However if you're going for the food I would recommend another venue.

Between the eight of us we were probably a $1,200 (+/-) table there is no reason that they should have had the number of mistakes and general lack of attentiveness for our table we're regardless of whether it was inside the restaurant area outside in the...