Opinión detallada de koshkha
koshkha
Northampton, Gran Bretaña99%
It seems I never learn, or at least not the right thing at the right time. I learned to try to keep my mouth shut and go along with other people’s suggestions and then I regretted last night that I didn’t speak up and suggest a different dinner destination. I knew we’d get ripped off and sure enough that’s exactly what happened. Mind you if we hadn’t gone, my colleagues would never have realised what I might have saved them from so I guess a lesson was had all round.
We arrived at Barcelona airport on the flight from Amsterdam. It was my first time in the new terminal and I was impressed. They weren’t so impressed that I had a bag in the hold and we had to wait. They suggested that we skip going to the hotel and head straight into the city for dinner. I agreed although I pointed out that 7 pm was a little early in Spain. Never mind, we landed straight in a traffic jam and took an hour to get to the restaurant so we weren't quite so unfashionably early. My colleague instructed the driver to go to the Olimpic Port and at that moment my sense of déjà vu kicked in. We will get ripped off. But don’t say anything; they won’t thank you.
The taxi driver found lots of ways to add lots of extras including driving into the parking area and adding a couple of Euros. It set the standard for the evening. We drew up outside the row of covered pavement restaurants which I’ve visited many times. In September they’re a bit like big wedding marquees and it’s much nicer earlier in the year when you can really sit properly outside.
I vetoed the Barca del Salamanca where I was colossally ripped off a couple of years ago and where the amount of wasted food was obscene. There didn’t seem to be a lot to choose between the rest so I went with the flow. We were lured into a place called La Taberna Gallega, literally the Gallician Tavern which promised "genuine Spanish kitchen" according to the chap who was hustling us in.
We had suitcases with us so they made a fuss of trying to give us a table with lots of space for the cases. This meant we got a table for 6 or 8 people with just the three of us oddly spread out. The tables were decorated with yellow table cloths and blue and white china. They brought us an English menu (my colleagues were Dutch but that would have been freaky if they’d had Dutch menus). We spent about 15 minutes checking the menu, looking around, spotting that there didn’t appear to be a Spaniard anywhere in the place and confirming that it was an out and out tourist trap.
A waitress came to take our order. The boys wanted sea bass and ordered it grilled. I should have done the same but didn’t want to end up with exactly the same and went for turbot, heaven knows why or what I thought it would be like. It was a snap decision and one that I regretted later. For starters I ordered a salad of lettuce and anchovies (I adore Spanish anchovies) and the men-folk went meaty ordering not just a plate of Jamon Iberica but also a so-called Iberican assortment. The waitress asked about wine and we asked for a bottle of dry white. She suggested something, we nodded and then slapped our foreheads for not checking the price. Little did we realise that the wine was the least of our worries.
The wine arrived and was not really what any of us would have called dry. "What did I think?" asked my colleague. "I think it smells like over-ripe bananas but I’m too British to make a fuss so I’ll shut up and drink it". He wasn’t brave enough or sure enough of his convictions to start something. The starters arrived after about 5 minutes and we had far too much. I don’t really think Rob and Robert had checked the prices or they might have realised they’d ordered loads. The Jamon Iberica and the salad arrived together along with some rather poor Catalan tomato bread. The Roberts tucked in only to find that a second plate of Jamon Iberica mixed with strange thick sausage slices followed soon after. We were looking at over 40 euros worth of sliced meat and they’d ordered it for a starter. My massive mountain of delicious lettuce heart with big chunks of tuna, four gorgeous juicy rich anchovies and a smattering of tomatoes and black olives was definitely a better deal at under 10 euros but was still a lot bigger than it needed to be.
Main courses were similarly gargantuan and over-facing. The sea basses did look gorgeous and the waft of garlic heading my way as they steamed across the table smelled divine. My turbot followed and my response was mixed. On the plus side it came with some delicious potatoes cooked with red peppers and served in a sauce. On the down side the dish was much too big and the turbot was wobbling with fat. I hold up my hands to my ignorance of turbot but if I’d realised it’s a white fish with a massive ‘fin’ of wobbly fat at the top I’d have definitely gone for something else. The bones were tricky and looked quite deadly, the fish was firm but tasted of very little and I was disappointed. My dish was the cheapest of the bunch and in terms of what I got from my 17 euros it looked like a bargain but in terms of what I could actually eat it wasn’t so appealing.
I don’t know why we had desserts. We certainly didn’t intend to but the waitress took so long over coming to offer coffee that we snapped and ordered. I had a mass produced frozen yoghurt and berry cup off one of those ridiculous picture menus you see everywhere. The Roberts tried a little harder and went for Crema Catalana which was apparently excellent. With coffee they brought along small shot glasses of lurid yellow sprit that looked like a cross between TCP and dissolved urinal cakes. These were served with little pieces of cake which were the last thing we needed after such a mountain of food.
It’s a good thing we were sitting down when the bill arrived as I thought Rob would have a heart attack. Whilst we were examining the bill to try to work out where it had all gone so wrong, the waitress came with another bill to add on top; apparently she’d forgotten the desserts. In total 170 euros for 3 people for a far from splendid or elegant meal. The devil is in the detail and it was all the extras that sunk us. The wine wasn’t too badly marked up at 25 euros but there was a charge of over 5 euros for the poor and unrequested Catalan bread. The jamon Iberica was roughly double the price of most restaurants but to be fair it’s the fault of my colleagues for ordering too much. The kicker is in the layer upon layer of extras. I am not surprised if the prices on the menu don’t include the service but I DO expect them to include the tax for heavens sake. Service on top of tax on top of over-inflated tourist trap prices is just the kind of thing that gets the Olympic Port a deservedly lousy reputation for ripping people off. Sadly it was something I knew before, kept quiet about and I now have two more colleagues who know what I already knew. Be careful in the port. Not all the sharks are in the water.
La Taberna Gallega5
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