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Restaurante Diez – Failed

Located in El Born, this restaurant opened its doors about 2 years ago, taking over from the old El Arcano.

The inside has been renovated highlighting the rustic features of the premises, an old stable, exposing the stone walls and with very clever lighting fixtures which help give you a very good first impression.

So far, so good. I went there to have lunch with a company group last week; people from the same company had been there for dinner and recommended it. I booked a table without being told that for lunch there is only a set menu, no à la carte. Not a good start, as I did not have the chance of inquiring there and then about the options -two members of the group do not eat pork, which in Spain can be problematic.

Upon entering, we realised that they had a very large group in (around 35 people), which is usually a bad omen. It is uncommon to be in a restaurant which does not almost collapse in its service due to the pressure that having to serve so many people at the same time without having the rest of tables suffer the consequences.

Unfortunately, this was no exception. The service degenerated quickly between the starter and the main course, and with regards to the food, the starters were extremely simple and small portions. We decided to hope for the main courses to quench our hunger…But alas, not only did we have to wait for 20 minutes for the mains to be served. The kitchen made a mistake in serving ham-stuffed pasta instead of the mushroom-stuffed pasta requested, which had been ordered precisely by two people who do not eat pork. When we pointed this out to the waitress, she insisted on the fact that it was vegetable stuffing, that it was impossible for it to be ham, despite us pointing at the loose ham the kitchen had left on the plate. Eventually, she took the dish, but left before we could ask her to take the other pasta. When we finally got hold of her and asked her to take the other dish away, she refused to do so, without speaking a word she turned around and left to call the floor manager. The latter started apologising for the misunderstanding (finally, the first apology in 10 minutes) and agreed to take it back to the kitchen.

This obviously had a negative influence in the mood of our group members; besides the mistake the rudeness of the waitress was extremely annoying.

To finish it off, when ordering the desserts we experienced more of the same: they were small, industrial and of bad quality -the banana with chocolate sauce meant a saucer with half a banana sliced and chocolate syrup on top, straight from the fridge. A very sad affair.

We even had to get up and go to the bar to request and pay our bill, despite having asked our waiter to bring it to the table in three occasions (and hearing her mutter “what a pain”) and waiting for 20 minutes to no avail.

In short, a restaurant to keep well away from, despite its management having invested in online marketing to drive traffic through its doors -proof is that they even have a Facebook profile.

Average price: 27€

Daily menu: 10€

Opening hours, Monday: 13:00-15:30

Opening hours, Tuesday-Saturday: 13:00-15:30, 20:00-23:30

Opening hours, Sunday: Closed

Tags: Catalan cuisine · Daily menu

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