Dis-Service

Yesterday, a friend and I took a double decker bus tour of the city. I decided Monday would be a good day to do this, since almost all museums and tourist spots are closed on Mondays. It was a great opportunity to see the whole city and pass various sites that we otherwise might not have seen.

After the 3 hour tour, we decided we were hungry and went to grab lunch. We found a restaurant with an enticing poster of their sandwiches. The picture was so compelling, that we had to go in and try them. The hostess asked us how many people were eating with us, and proceeded to walk us to our table. She gave us a menu, which we flipped through, and were unable to locate any sandwiches.


WARNING: All of the following interactions occurred in Spanish.


When the waiter arrived, I asked him where the sandwiches were on the menu. He told me that the section of the restaurant we were seated in did not serve sandwiches, we would have to be on the other side of the restaurant to eat sandwiches. I didn't understand how we were supposed to know that, so I told him. I'm sorry, we didn't realize that, can we please switch to that part of the restaurant. His response: I'm sorry, but you're already seated. This was not a misunderstanding, this was just straight up rude.

I tried to control myself, and my friend and I agreed to just suck it up and order off the menu - everything would be fine. When he came back to take our order, he proceeded to take my friend's order, and then collect all the menus and leave. He didn't look at me, or even stop to ask if I wanted anything. He literally blew me off and walked away like he couldn't leave our table fast enough. After lifting my jaw off the floor and regaining composure - kind of, because I was honestly enraged at this point (that is fancy for completely pissed off) - I stood up to go talk to him. Upon seeing me stand up, he called across he restroom to tell me the restrooms were down the other hall. Thank you sir, but I don't want a bathroom, I want food.

As my friend just sat their sipping beer, I went up to the waiter and asked him why he did not want to take my order. He explained that he thought I wanted to use the bathroom, not eat food. To which I had to further explain that he only took my friends order. At this point I was getting loud, and his co-workers were beginning to listen in. I explained, in plain English Spanish, that I would like to order food, and would he please be so kind as to take my order. At this point, he began backpedaling and started making excuses for himself that he thought my friend had ordered for the both of us - this of course makes no sense given the size of what my friend ordered, but at least his fellow waiters relaxed a little and it bought him time to fix his mess.

From that moment on, he totally changed his character, and began kissing my feet. I found out later this is because complaint forms are standard protocol in Spain, and had I asked for one (because at this point he realized I knew what I was talking about) he could have been fired. He gave us free drinks when he brought out the check - and a free refill, and proceeded to apologize every time he came back to our table.

It was clearly a total act, and I did not give in. He was a total donkey, and his behavior was completely uncalled for. Good grief!