A restaurant to avoid

La Tasca
Originally uploaded by Dominic’s pics

With Marcel away on a school-trip to Castle Toward, we thought that Charlotte needed a bit of fun, too, so we all went to La Tasca in Silverburn. I had already been to the La Tasca in town with work, and that was fine, so we were all looking forward to it.

When we arrived, we noticed that they had an offer called Tapas for a tenner – tapas ad libitum for £10 per person. It said everybody at the table had to join in, but when questioned, they said it was fine for the kids to have kiddie menus.

So we ordered two of the tenner menus, and three kiddie ones at £4 each. They said the adults could order four tapas each, with the option to order more later, and the kids could choose two each from their menu.

The drinks (tiny ones for the kids, but then they were included in the price) arrived quickly, as did six slices of slightly stale baguette.

But then we waited and waited. All drinks were long gone, and we spent ages taking turns to take the kids to the toilet on the second floor.

Finally, the food arrived. Ours were fine, but the kiddie ones were miniscule – not nearly big enough for a one-year-old, far too little for a three-year old, and about 1/20 of what a nine-year-old would eat.

So of course we had to share ours with the kids, and we needed more food.

The restaurant was now very full, and it took ages before the waitress got to our table again. She started to clear the table and ask whether whether we wanted tea or coffee, before we managed to make her understand that we wanted more tapas. She took our orders and disappeared.

The second batch of tapas arrived at 8.15 – more than two hours after we arrived!

But then we had all built up huge appetites, and we quickly realised we should have ordered many more, but with those waiting times we decided to go home and eat some soup and toast.

Fortunately our kids behaved well – most kids wouldn’t have stayed quiet in a boring restaurant for more than two hours with almost no food to eat.

Also, Phyllis noticed that the table behind were served so late that their second orders would be taken after the cut-off point for the tapas for a tenner availability. When they asked the waitress, she said she didn’t know what would happen!!!

Needless to say, we didn’t tip. Strangely, though, the waitress queried Phyllis why. When she was told the service was far too slow, she replied there had been a rush of people, and there was nothing they could do – as if it’s not up to the restaurant how many people to employ!

Although the food actually was nice, I must advice everybody to stay away from La Tasca, but especially families with kids. It’s a complete disaster!