I had high hopes and was very excited to try this new tapas restaurant in my area called Tapagria. My wife and I have been to numerous tapas restaurants in the GTA (Bar Isabel, Patria, Carmen and Tapas at Embrujo) as well as in New York (Soccarat) and in Barcelona, Spain. Needless to say we know what to expect.
We wanted to try the Paella and knew that it had to be ordered immediately as it would take roughly 45 to 50 minutes to cook. We ordered the Paella and a pitcher of Sangria immediately and asked the waitress to come back to take the small plate orders.
We ordered four small plates in addition to the Paella. The evening started out promising. The small plates we ordered came quickly and were very well done and tasty. The pitcher of grapefruit sangria was also very good.
Then the wheels started to fall off. We waited 45 minutes for the Paella but it had not yet arrived yet we noticed a large table behind us who came in later than us got a paella delivered to them. I immediately thought that our order had been given to them and around 10 minutes later the General Manager came over and confirmed my suspicions. He apologized and asked if he could comp us some other small plate as we waited and told us another Paella would be delivered in the next 10 minutes. We declined and stated we would just wait another 10 minutes for our Paella. The Paella arrived 5 minutes later ....... but the bomba rice in it was under cooked! We sent it back and the waitress asked if we would like it cooked some more or would like something else. I just asked her to take the Paella off the bill and charge us for what we had eaten up to that point. After waiting 50 minutes already for the Paella we were not in the mood to order another dish and wait for it. The waitress did state that they felt bad and wanted to comp us dessert and suggest the Spanish Toast. We accepted. You would think that after this experience we would at a minimum receive two desserts. Well think again .... they brought two spoons and one dessert ($8.00).
The General Manager came by again and apologized again trying to insinuate that the rice was not under cooked and it might be the crispy bottom of the Paella (this is known as soccarat). I then mentioned that i do know what soccarat is and that I also know when rice is under cooked. Rice is not supposed to be hard or dense in the centre and hello I am Chinese and know rice! I then stated it was pretty poor that they only comped one dessert for two people. He replied that they did provide two spoons. Whaaaaaat!!!!!!!!
I paid and asked to speak with the owner. He didn't provide much better customer service or explanations. Again he stated that they had tasted the rice and it was to their standard. He also stated that they did ask if we wanted something else which we declined. He stated that he only gave us one dessert because we did not what to order anything else and just wanted the bill originally. So I asked if they comp dessert for two people are they only provided one to share! I then asked if we had ordered two different desserts would we have had to pay for one of them. His response was that he would have taken it into consideration.
Now I am not so concerned about the damn dessert and the cost but as a customer it is very important to me as to how you treat me as a customer and what lengths you will go to correct a mistake or do the right thing! Do not treat me as if I do not know what I am talking about.
What ever happen to the saying, The customer is always right!
Sorry not at Tapagria!