Sunday 6 March 2011

La Tasca Disaster!

Welcome welcome to my new followers, I hope you have all had a nice weekend!


This weekend I went to Bristol to visit Matthew who decided that on Saturday he would treat me (his amazing girlfriend :D) to lunch.  We were originally going to visit this little Moroccan cafe in the St. Nicholas Market but, it was colder than we had anticipated and sitting on a bean bag was not ideal for someone (me) who had a strained knee from running.  So, Matthew suggested that we go to La Tasca, a Spanish Tapas chain restaurant which I had never visited.  I was suspicious of entering the restaurant right from the start because of its dark red dungeon-esque lighting and full tables surrounded by screaming children and tired parents all struggling to see their own meals    **it reminded me of the Hollister stores where you need a caving head light to see what you are purchasing. 









  We were seated surprisingly fast but by the door where blasts of chilly air kept brushing our feet.  Our food also arrived pretty quickly (after we waited half and hour for service mind you) but it was all down hill from the second the soggy calamari dish touched down on our table.  There was also a huge pillar hiding us from all the waiting staff and it was a busy Saturday lunch hour so grabbing their attention was a big effort.  So, we were sat in the corner of a dark, dingy restaurant full of screaming kids for hours trying to get our waitresses attention.  Oh dear.  I was trying to summon up reasons as to why we were being ignored, at first I thought that maybe it was because of where we had been seated the waitresses couldn't see us, yet they kept coming to clean the tables next to us, and then I thought that maybe we should be a bit more lenient with the staff as it was a busy day.  I was going through the motions, like every customer does when they are being poorly attended to, or not tended to at all as it was in our case. 
I decided that in the end it was not the pillar's fault or the timing - as the restaurant was near empty within an hour of us being there - it was the un-attentive waitresses'.  In total we were in La Tasca, in Bristol, for two and a half hours and most of it was waiting around for our food to be taken away, for us to get more drinks and eventually our dessert.  Although when my crumble finally arrived it was icey cold/still frozen in parts and had to be sent back (it's nice to know that my food was fresh.)  By this point the restaurant had been half-empty for over an hour so for me (as a part-time waitress myself) I saw no excuse for food and service not to be kept up to a decent standard.
There could have been many reasons for this unfortunate La Tascan experience; it could have been bad timing, it was a busy Saturday lunchtime after all; it could have been the pillar's fault all along; or it could have just been that the waitresses were genuinely rubbish. Who knows?!  All in all, the whole La Tasca chain restaurant encounter put me off visiting it again; I cannot imagine it being an enjoyable affair even if I visited in my home town (Leeds). 

Have any of you had any bad or odd restaurant experiences?  Please share them in the comment box below! 

10 comments:

Lisa said...

La Tasca must be pretty poor all across the country then! All my experiences there have been pretty pants. Me and my friends only go there when it's 50% off food! (Cheapos, yes..) But still, the food and service shouldn't be half price as well!

x

Unknown said...

oh no sounds terrible, we have a La Tasca here but I have never been, nobody wants soggy calamari!

Natasha cooks cakes and bakes said...

I think you should go because every La Tasca is different, different staff and different chefs. But you're right no one wants soggy calamari. BLACH! Best wishes, Natasha x

chewwyuwe said...

Pretty much sums up my La Tasca experience!

Natasha cooks cakes and bakes said...

Of course it does Matthew! haha xxx

Unknown said...

I've always steered clear. They look too plastic-y for my liking

Kim said...

That's funny as I had a similar experience last time I went to La Tasca. A few years ago I went to the Chester one and everything was scrummy, it was a really nice atmosphere and the service was really good, but I went to the Trafford Centre one a couple of months ago and it just seemed to have gone downhill, food was quite greasy and lukewarm and we had to wait ages to be served :(

Natasha cooks cakes and bakes said...

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience there too. I think chains tend to get like that when they become more popular, there's a bigger demand for food so the quality of it slips. I hope you complained?
All the best, Natasha.

Unknown said...

Gosh I'm so surprised! La Tasca used to be my favourite until they updated the menu. The two La Tasca restaurants in Edinburgh are lovely so I can imagine it probably depends on the different restaurants. It's such a pain when that happens though!

Josie :)

http://sparklingstarlitsky.blogspot.com/2011/

Natasha cooks cakes and bakes said...

I had heard good things about it in the past which is why it was such a shame that our food and service was disappointing. I guess that is just what happens with chain restaurants these days; it is always going to be a bit of lottery.

All the best, Natasha.