Aioli Bodega Espanola — Restaurant in Sacramento

I am shocked at the reviews this place has received. I was always hesitant to go here and after one of my friends recommended it, my husband and I went here for a much needed date night. The owner is charming and the ambiance may appear European to someone who has only been to Barcelona once in 2006 on a church trip but we were far from impressed.

I made a reservation at 7:15, arrived at 6:45 to see if we could be seated early. After waiting around for over 10 minutes, the owner finally came over to us and told us to come back around 7. We came back at our reservation time and there were no tables. He knew we were coming and should have saved our table. This was okay, we waited, and if it were not for the context, then we would have easily let this go. When we were seated, we were immediately attended to, ordered our charcuterie and wine. The wine came out quickly. They didn't have the one we wanted but that was okay because the waiter was able to recommend a great alternative.

We then waited 30 minutes (8:00pm for those keeping tabs) until the owner came over and asked "how everything was tasting" we let him know that we hadn't had any food come out yet so he went and got us the charcuterie. This was the best thing on the menu. I want to preface the food part of my experience with a little background: I met my husband in Spain while I was living there and teaching. We have lived in Spain over 10 years combined. We were excited to get the chance to have some Spanish food in Sacramento. The charcuterie board was the best thing we had all night. My husband LOVES jamon and the meats were excellent.

We ordered the gambas al ajillo, which was borderline inedible and tasted like the gambas had been swimming around in sewage before being frozen then quickly reheated in an under seasoned sauce for us to "enjoy". The salmon was OK, but clearly cheap fish and it was improperly seasoned. It was in a simple garlic/butter/oil/caper/lemon sauce. Our second course was pulpo (one of my personal favorites), patatas bravas and bistek. The steak was good, and the accompaniments were excellent. Not very Spanish, more French influenced, but had a nice deep smoky flavor. The potatoes for the patatas bravas were very average, super soggy and not crispy like how Spaniards do it but the sauce was nice.

DO NOT ORDER THE PULPO (octopus). I understand it may be difficult to get fresh octopus, I understand that it won't be as in demand as in Spain so therefore it would be impossible to expect the same standard. That aside, this dish was absolutely inedible and we had to send it back. I almost never send dishes back. I took one bite of the greasy potato and rubbery, under seasoned octopus and had to spit it back into my napkin. Then the waiter offered to replace it was the sewage prawns- no thanks!

The waiter was quick to dismiss any of our requests, wouldn't replace the propane in our heater so we had a frigid night (2 hours outside due to rate of service) of bad food with rude service at a ghastly cost of $200. Our waiter was quick to point out how they discounted the octopus, how nice of them :)

I know if I took any of my Spanish friends to this place they would either throw a fit or laugh in my face. This place needs to do better and quit cutting corners with low quality seafood and a chef who is not checking seasoning beforehand. Bare minimum put some salt and pepper on the table! We will absolutely not be back and I wouldn't recommend this...

The one star I am generously giving is for the only African-American waiter, the only person of color on staff that night in the establishment might I add, that treated my boyfriend and me with respect. Apart from him, I’d give zero stars if I could. Let’s start from the beginning. Other potential patronizers of said establishment might need some background. My boyfriend and I are Asian-American and African-American respectively. Upon entering the restaurant, we were asked “Can I help you?” by an elderly white gentleman. Let’s call him the host. I’ve never been greeted that way in a restaurant; however, my boyfriend and I responded with “yes, we’d like a table for two.” The restaurant was far from crowded, and there were plenty of tables near the window. We were sat as far away from the window as possible. Our server was named Luigi, another elderly, white man, who judged us from the beginning because we didn’t want any wine or other alcoholic beverages. He took quite a bit of time to take our food order and never checked back in on us after doing so. Meanwhile, the host is making service inquiries at every table except ours and sitting everyone that comes in after us, who are coincidentally white, at tables near the window. My boyfriend ran out of water, and our waiter was nowhere to be found. The young, African-American waiter I mentioned at the beginning is the one who noticed and refilled my boyfriend’s glass. He is also the one who checked on our food for us since it was taking forever to come out and we had a time sensitive obligation to make after dinner. Luigi is the server that ultimately brought out the last tapa we had ordered. It was the wrong shrimp dish, as the menu has two. When I let him know it was the wrong one, he replied, “okay,” and walked away. I’ve never been so disrespected in a dining establishment in my entire life. They are clearly racist and don’t deserve patronage from people of color ever again. This review is to warn others to stay away. To add insult to injury, the food wasn’t even good. The patatas bravas were undercooked and the shrimp were not fresh. Please spend your money and time elsewhere. Having a token person of color on staff isn’t enough to disguise racism in 2023, so I’d recommend that the owners of this establishment work a little bit harder on not being so blatantly racist, especially towards...

I recently had an incredibly frustrating experience with Aioli Bodega Español. I organized a birthday dinner for a large group of 25 people, and the planning process was a nightmare due to the owner’s unprofessionalism.

From the start, the owner was exceptionally rude. When I inquired about the menu options, which included a pre-fixed menu and a pre-ordered menu, he was not only uncooperative but actively obstructive. His demeanor was dismissive, and he seemed intent on making the planning process as difficult as possible. Multiple times he stated, “It sounds like you can’t afford to eat here”,, which was both insulting and uncalled for. All I was asking was to create a pre-fixed menu for my guests and to make things easier for the chef and cooks.

Despite his insistence on preordering, he was evasive about pricing, which only added to my frustration. His refusal to provide clear information made it nearly impossible to finalize any details. The reason I didn’t want to preorder every meal was because I have guests with certain dietary restrictions, and although I expressed that, he didn’t want to consider that. Rather than giving me the price, he aggressively sighed and he abruptly hung up on me, leaving me without any resolution or recourse.

The day of the event was no better. One of my guests arrived before me and was met with an argument from the owner over the menu details. This was completely unprofessional and unacceptable. Because of this, we decided to go somewhere else because I didn’t want to spend my birthday dealing with rude customer service.

Overall, the poor customer service and the owner’s hostile attitude turned what should have been a celebratory occasion into a stressful ordeal. I would strongly advise against booking any events here based on...