Es posible que se trate de hechos aislados que para nada representan a la totalidad de los hosteleros, pero desde luego resulta sorprendente que de unos meses para acá, me da la impresión de que el trato en los restaurantes está empeorando drásticamente en todos los sentidos, o al menos en los restaurantes a los que solemos ir.
The last example happened to us a couple of weeks ago, when we went to a cider house in Gascona, the main street of restaurants and cider houses in Oviedo, but it was not the only case. The last time we went to dinner, the entire dinner went perfectly (except that they kept us waiting longer than expected for the second course) until it was time for dessert. Since it was a friend’s birthday, we decided to bring some cakes to put some candles on them and have her blow them out, so we put them on the table, stuck the candles in them and lit them. As soon as the waiter passed by us, he took all the cutlery from us without saying a word. The next problem we had was when paying. Dinner cost us a total of 50 euros and 30 cents. Since we were two couples and the smallest bill each couple had was 50, we decided that it was logical to each pay with a 50 bill and that’s how we split the return. The waiter took the tray with the 2 bills, but returned shortly after and threw the tray on the table at us with one of the 50 bills, literally telling us to put in 30 cents, without looking at our faces and getting angry. We were literally amazed and looking like fools; Had we given him a Monopoly ticket?
You will think, like us, that perhaps the reason for everything was that he was upset that we brought out the cakes instead of ordering dessert, it is possible; but the treatment received as a result of that is unjustifiable. What’s more, if it had bothered him, it would have been enough for him to have said, “Hey, excuse me, would you mind not eating the cakes after blowing out the candles?” and everyone was so happy and without the need to spend the rest of the dinner treating us like dogs.
To this case we can add others from other places, such as the one in which it took us about an hour to serve the second course and then they charged us 34 euros for 3 or 4 jugs of sangria or another in which 5 waiters who were doing nothing (I lied, they were watching football on TV) treated us as if they were doing us a favor by asking them if they had a free table without having reserved… In an empty place!
I wonder how long these sites that do business solely taking advantage of their location can last, because I’m sure that sooner or later the bad reviews will have an effect on them. And then don’t come and complain about the anti-smoking law or the crisis, because it is something that they are seeking for themselves and it is very easy to throw the ball away.**