Taberna del Alabardero — Restaurant in Washington

BLACK PEOPLE STAY AWAY.

Yesterday, after two previously good experiences here, I brought two guests with me to Taberna de Alabradero for a 7:35 dinner reservation. As the first to arrive, I approach the hostess stand where I was greeted by stares alone. I informed them of my 7:30 reservation (it was 7:32), and was sneakily corrected “seven THIRTY FIVE”. I was then told that I could “sit over there” (the bar) and would be told when the table was ready. At 7:45 after not having been approached by hostesses I asked if the table was ready to which I was met yet again with a condescending “do you want to sit?”—is that not why people reserve tables???.

We are sat, and two men approach the table one to pour our water the other handed us menus with no introduction as to who our server would be. After 15 minutes of staring at the menu I then called aside the man who handed us our menus to ask if he could get our waiter.. to which he responds “I am the waiter—you want to order?”.

We place our drink, tapas, and entree orders at the same time as we are on a 2 hour time crunch, which has typically been more than enough time to enjoy a meal on a Friday night here. We promptly get our drinks, and are offered bread. After about 20 minutes our tapas come out, and we ate those.

Then began our 45 minute wait for our entrees, patatas bravas, garlic shrimp, ribeye cooked well, and a fish dish. During this 45 minute period, our waiter did not stop at our table ONCE. Not. Once. Nor did he respond to our numerous “excuse me’s” in an attempt to get his attention. Instead, he walked by our table (which he had to pass to get to the other tables) and attended to the 6 other tables immediately surrounding us full of white patrons with whom he joked, laughed, and patted on the back, while attending to their every need.

When we finally were able to get his attention and ask about the food coming he responded “yeah, yeah it’s coming” and hurriedly walked away seemingly brushing off our concerns. Nearly 15 minutes later—a whole hour since we placed the order our food comes.

The guest who ordered the steak cuts it open to see that it’s medium not well (and before you judge the temperature to which they like their steak, read the history about why Black people tend to eat well done meat). We alerted the waiter and showed him the steak, and his only response was “what do you want?”—maybe the way we asked for it to be cooked?!.

It was then sent back, and asked to be boxed to go. We are nearing the end of our 2 hour time crunch and I ask for mine and the other guests food to be boxed. —I’ve been here twice and have never boxed my own food. It is customary for them to do it on your behalf in the back. The waiter proceeds to come back with three paper boxes and one bag and haphazardly throws them on the table. At this point I ask for the manager whom I explained all of this to which was a waste of time as he appeared to share whatever implicit biases the waiter did. First we were met with defensiveness “we don’t cook steak well done”. Then 1. It’s the waiters responsibility to inform us of that at the time of the order 2. Do not have the waiter ask what temperature we prefer then. Finally, His only suggestion of recourse was “I’ll talk to him”.

No apology, no attempt to compensate for the poor service, nothing.

We paid and left. And of course we were not offered any salutation by the hostesses as we left. I will NEVER patronize this establishment again, and neither should you.

Although, I will give them props on the authenticity of the Spanish cultural experience here. Paella, Flamenco, and a heaping side of AUTHENTIC...

I have been to many, if not almost all, of the finest restaurants in all of the DMV area, having lived here for 8 years and being a staunch lover of fine dining experiences. I regularly take my girlfriend to such high-end establishments every single holiday, while always looking for new establishments for us to explore. In those years, I have NEVER been so disgusted by a restaurant such as this. The receptionist was exceptionally rude (possibly even jealous?) to my girlfriend and treated her like filth when she requested to be seated before I arrived, mocking her and bringing her to tears (my girlfriend is very nonconfrontational, and was not expecting such treatment on Valentines Day from a disgruntled receptionist while approaching her in such a friendly way). When I arrived 5 minutes later and we finally were seated, we were unattended to for upwards of 35 minutes despite being seated in a very noticeable table in the middle of the room. Our waiter was unfriendly and arrogant, as if they were above doing their job (perhaps they thought this attitude was "classy", instead it was the epitome of "trashy"). The food & drinks themselves were fairly good, however the menu was incredibly infuriating as they have a policy that 2x guests must order the same entrée as they are cooked in the same pan: a policy I have never encountered anywhere.

If you are accustomed to fine-dining experiences, or simply are setting a reservation for a special occasion: avoid Taberna del Alabardero at all costs, it is simply an inferior eatery in need of a serious overhaul disguising itself as highbrow. I would never recommend such an establishment to anyone and am sorry to those who were dining with us (who all appeared to be experiencing the same aforementioned grievances).

The positives were as follows:

the decor and ambiance was quite nice (despite the tables being very cheap/wobbly).

the drinks were delicious (when we finally got them). However, the water looked dirty and had dark residue/flakes in it.

The tapas were perfect, in quality and taste.

There are MANY fine-dining restaurants within the DMV that provide all of the pros I listed above, but none of them possess the glaring negatives Taberna del Alabardero exhibited. Do yourself a favor, and get a reservation...

My husband and I were visiting DC and found this place. The food wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. It was the overall experience that we can’t get past. First the menu pricing is deceptive since it says $45 for paella, however, it’s double because they say min two people charge. Okay fine, I should’ve read the print instead of just looking at the prices. Still should be clear in my opinion. We didn’t have a waiter per se, there were four different people coming around and none of them really spoke English. Some were easier to understand than others. We finish our meals and This is where it gets strange. We call the waiter over, or at least one of four people that has served us. My husband asks for the check. The gentleman goes and gets it. They serve the large table next to us so we wait for a while for him to come back and take our card. He takes our card and a few min later comes back with it. My husband is confused because there’s nothing to sign. I’m like maybe since they add a fee for “fair wage fee” that you didn’t need to. He leaves an extra $20 tip and we leave. We walk out and stand at the corner while my husband is calling another restaurant for dessert for pickup. He has a man tap him on his shoulder. We turn around and it’s a guy holding our check and he said, “You need to pay”. I said “we did pay, or at least we handed the waiter our card.” He said “no, you need to come back.” We go back in and the other guy that took our card is in the back and won’t come out to say anything. The manager said can you check if we did run it? By this time we are super annoyed and embarrassed. I said, just run it again and we want to be gone. He finally does after running around for 5-minutes and comes back with a slip for my husband to sign. So needless to say we are checking our card but the whole experience was awful. If we wanted to leave and not pay we wouldn’t have been standing in front of the restaurant. Not only would I not go back, I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t speak...