Dinner at Hola this evening was a fiasco that left us laughing about the completely amateurish attempt at haute-cuisine tapas. We could not leave fast enough!
I have had better service in the food court of a shopping mall. It left us really wondered if the staff (who were all very friendly) were trying to be bad on purpose. A short list of transgressions include (1) Our drinks came 20 minutes after ordering. The waiter told us the cachaça based drink I had ordered was "extremely complex". To add insult to injury the waitress tried to take our drinks away before we had finished....I know the place is dimly lit but come on did you ask if we were done??? How oblivious can you be!!!!! (2) Three staff came to out table in the 40 minutes before one finally asked about our dinner order, (3) The waiter only noticed we had no utensils after our second course was served (we ate the first course with our fingers), (4) we requested water three times before finally being served a glass each with our final courses, and (5) the last two (from a total of five) tapas plates came to us well over 30 minutes after the prior plate.
There were fifteen patrons and three staff (including the owner) out front so there are no excuses for such poor service. If you are going to charge high prices and are attempting to pitch yourself as a fine dining restaurant you should at the very least ensure the level of service customers receive is professional.
In summary the food was creative but mediocre, prices were shamelessly expensive and service was clumsy and inattentive. Hola is like a parody of what fine dining should be.