Europa Restaurant & Bakery — Restaurant in Spokane

Upsetting staff. We were greeted with hostility when we walked in. Perhaps because we didn’t reserve a table. If they don’t accept walk-ins, there should be visible signage and it should say that on the website and Google. If they DO accept walk-ins, they should allow it and not be rude about it. What kind of gray-area kid stuff is that? Not to mention there were only two other tables there and it was 4:15 PM on a Thursday. Being rude and snooty is an outdated restaurant mode. You can throw a rock in any city and hit a good restaurant, but what sets apart the great from the mediocre is the full experience of being treated, fairly and nicely as well as enjoying a fine dish. Our hostess was rude to us immediately. I would’ve preferred them to send us away, then to accept us begrudgingly and treat us the way we were treated.

My friend and I were having a quiet conversation, partly about whether or not we unknowingly did something to upset the staff, when our server approached the table shaking the cocktail intensely without smiling or gesturing. It seemed outright aggressive. She popped a martini glass on the table and poured it. As she poured she lifted the shaker higher and higher and higher, splashing the lemony purple drink on the table, then my clothes, and even into my eye which burned and stung. This moment seem to last forever, even allowing enough time for my friend and I to glance at each other with confused faces. I even had enough time to out loud ask, “why?” as I was getting splashed all over, basically being like “stop.” When I mentioned the splashing to her later, because I couldn’t stand the awkwardness of everything that had happened so far, she said that they “are a fancy restaurant and that’s how they do things there.” I’ve been to “fancy” restaurants all over the world. In Vienna, Rome, New York, Berlin, Madrid and never once have I seen somebody pour a drink like that Tom Cruise in Cocktail at my table before. This isn’t SeaWorld, so why would it be appropriate to be splashed by a sticky Sweet purple drink? On top of everything it didn’t even fill the glass. Probably because most of it ended up on my clothes, and in my eyes. Her indifference about the small injury to my eye made me feel awkward, especially after I mentioned it. She then continued to tease me about the splashing for the rest of our experience there. Asking if she needs to “file an incident report” and later brought it up when she was pouring coffee making me feel worse. I’m not a fool, and I would consider myself fairly aware of people and situations. At least enough to pick up on this unnecessary hostility.

Just because a restaurant has old furniture and serves Americanized Italian food with too much cheese and Cisco ingredients (I have actually eaten here before) considers itself fancy, it doesn’t give them the right to abuse a customer. It just seems so backwards to accept walk-ins (if that’s what indeed set the staff off initially) and then treat them bad. The staff and management at Europa need to figure out how to rectify this issue.

I went in there to celebrate a heart valve replacement after a traumatic surgery and left with an eye injury and stains on my clothes, feeling bad about myself in the process. I will not be recommending this place to anybody, and I certainly won’t be coming back ever again. Which I’m sure they’ll be glad because they didn’t want us there in the first place.

Side note: This small town has a lot of restaurants like this. Over priced and undercooked with a big chip on their shoulder. This mode of hospitality is outdated. Places like Baba and RÜT are good examples of things DONE WELL and are the total package of good food and service. They make this place seem like a Pizza Hut comparably.

It’s a shame because it’s a really beautiful room with a pleasingly warm and nice atmosphere, but it’s all squandered with bad,...

I have never felt more stressed and uncomfortable in a dining situation as I felt when I came here. Some friends and I came for happy hour, and we had gotten off work early for it, so we rushed over so we could get the deals. We used the wrong door by the bar and were directed to the front so they could walk us back to the bar to seat us. We placed our drink order and appetizer order. The waitress we had, I think, takes her job a little too seriously. My friend asked for a straw after she brought us our drinks, and she barked at her that, "legally she cannot bring drinks with a straw and has to wait til its asked for." It was very off-putting. We then ordered another round before happy hour was over. The waitress then told us she was doing us a favor cause she put the order in, but she couldn't bring us the next drinks til our cups were empty. We thought a 4th friend might join us, and we relayed this information to our waitress. She told us that we would have to move to another table that was the exact same size as the table we were at. We asked if we could just move a chair because we didn't want to move and we liked the chairs we were sitting in (the furniture is mismatched so no two chairs or tables are the same..it's like being in antique store). She told us no, we couldn't just grab a chair from another table because it was going to get "very busy" and that all the tables were "reserved." Now mind you, there's like two other tables, and the rest of the restaurant is empty. So we kind of brushed it off cause we were still unsure of the other party, but then our waitress came back and was insistent on us moving to the other table. It was so bossy and forceful that it was unsettling. At this time, a couple had walked in just like we did and sat down in the bar area at a little couch and table near us. The waitress immediately came after them, she immediately got on them about how they need to check in and it's reservation only, but they could sit there, but in the future they need to be respectful and go to the front. Another couple came in right after them and were seated at the table behind us. The man asked if she was their waitress, and she then told them that the term was disrespectful and outdated. She preferred the term "server" or "bartender." Thankfully, our other friend never came, but we were willing to box our appetizers to get out of there and meet her somewhere else because we were so uncomfortable with our waitress. My friend was afraid to ask for another napkin and ended up just going to the bathroom in order to wipe her hands. In the end, it was all we could do to get out of there. Melissa (the waitress we had) reminded us that next time, we need to make a reservation for happy hour and that they are "reservation only." The food and drinks were delicious. Our waitress was a good server, but her attitude and personality were atrocious. It's clear by the other reviews that others have felt the same way. It's also very odd that they are reservation only but aren't busy. The next bar we went to our bartender at that bar told us that they tried to make a reservation for 8 a couple of days before and were not able to get a reservation because it wasn't enough "time." She stated that whoever she talked to on the phone was super rude about it and wouldn't book them a reservation. It's kind of a shame because the apps were good. There was just so much other stuff going on that clouded...

My family and I went to Europa to celebrate a birthday. We entered as a happy group of 8 people , but left feeling extreme disappointment. It started off well, the waitress took drink orders, and returned with them in a reasonable amount of time. When she brought them, we ordered a hummus appetizer because some of the group were starving. Then we sat and waited, and waited, and waited...etc. Our water glasses remained empty....our dinner orders were not taken......Finally Jessica, our waitress showed up, but with no hummus...We asked if there was some problem with the hummus, because some were really starving at the table. She didn't say "I'm sorry, let me check on it." as she should have. She simply said...."the kitchen is busy" and walked away. AFTER ONE FULL HOUR......I kid you not. We had been busy talking, and it would be hard to move my elderly parents to another restaurant, or else we would have just walked out at that point. Finally the hummus shows up...and it is terrible. A dry tasteless paste of garbonzo beans, hardly any lemon or tahini paste. It was not creamy and full of flavor. But we just resigned ourselves and ate it, and had to ask if we could order our entrees. My sister has a few food allergies, so had some questions to ask, and the waitress was really put out that she would have to ask the chef what items had soy in them. In other places, the wait staff has very kindly went to the chef and asked suggestions and something is always found. We also had a Vegan in our group and he was also treated with impatience and rudeness. One of the party was so upset that this event was going so bad that she went to the bar and asked to speak to the manager so she would not make a scene at the table and upset us even further. The manager took 10 min. to come to speak to her and when she was told the hummus took one hour to arrive, she immediately argued without any apology whatsoever. She said it didn't take one hour. ( It did!) She even threatened to remove her from the premises, so the member of our party simply said it was useless to complain because she was one and the same as our waitress Jessica. Rude. A worker from the bar (Sarah) took over our table. She was very kind, though our entrees were far below par. My gnocci was in burnt butter and had a bad taste. Most of the others were not thrilled with their food either. Sarah brought a chocolate mousse for the birthday dessert, which was nice. But no one else at the table was in the mood at this point to order dessert. We just wanted the night to end. Several of us in our group have worked in the service industry at one time or another and none of us would ever have treated customers in this rude manner. So.....spend your hard earned dollars at a more pleasant dining venue elsewhere. Avoid this place so you don't walk out feeling you had rude service, and bad food. I don't mind spending more money to have a great meal, and I often do. But this was terrible and expensive, so I left feeling cheated. It used to be a nice place with the previous owners...but these new owners know nothing about making the customer happy. Perhaps the server felt she could just treat us rudely since she gets an automatic 18% added on a table of 8. Stay away, enjoy your night...