What a joke of a restaurant…read more
I was so excited to book a reservation at Casa Trabanco for my family while traveling in Northern Spain. Based on their website, it looked like it would be a charming, unique experience. I even emailed back and forth with them ahead of time to confirm our dietary restrictions.
The property itself is in a beautiful area of Asturias, and the outdoor seating spaces are gorgeous. Unfortunately, that's where the positive experience ended.
We arrived right before other guests who appeared dressed up for a private event or wedding reception. Despite all the people, initially we only saw one waiter. He was frantically running around and when we tried to speak with him, he ran off, actively avoiding us for the rest of the time. Another waitress showed up later only to casually mingle with the dressed-up guests.
Finally, I managed to track down a short blond woman who appeared to be a manager or owner. When I told her we had a reservation, she looked at the computer and flatly told me no, we didn't. Then I showed her the printout in my hand of our reservation confirmation, but she refused to acknowledge it, denied us a table, and wouldn't even make eye contact.
In total, we spent 30 minutes trying to get indifferent staff to help us, and we felt completely invisible. We even took photos of ourselves sitting at a table with menus just to prove we actually showed up in case they tried to charge us for a no-show.
It felt as though because we weren't part of the flashy, well-dressed crowd who pulled up in luxury vehicles, we didn't matter.
To be met with such blatant disrespect and dismissiveness is unacceptable but it was more of a burn that we also traveled out of our way because we felt like it would be a rewarding experience.
A restaurant is supposed to be about hospitality, but Casa Trabanco clearly only cares about certain customers. (Did we get treated poorly because we were foreigners?? I wonder.) Save yourself the drive and go somewhere that actually values your business.
TLDR; How can a restaurant look at a printed reservation and say no, I don't accept that; you don't have one.
Don't bother with this place!