a Spanish place in Melbourne CBD - the good, the bad and the ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian epic Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles respectively. (taken from Wikipedia)
I must say that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a really good film. If you haven't watched it, you should.
I usually don't bother with writing blog reviews on most places that I have dined at in Melbourne because...
A few simple questions first...
Come come, let me tell you a little story about the restaurant I dined at on 17 September 2014 with another foodie, M.
THE GOOD
I had the pleasure of becoming friends with M on instagram and before we knew it, we decided to catch up for dinner one night. She picked this Spanish place, a place that we both have not eaten at before.
The service that we received from the waitress that was looking after our table was great, she was super friendly and very enthusiastic.
THE BAD
We started off with two small dishes; calamari and empanadas. There wasn't anything to rave about our two small dishes. The calamari was not crispy at all resulting in it being very chewy. As for the empanadas, I felt like I was eating mainly the pastry as there wasn't any filling at all.
The supposed highlight of our dinner was the paella, it looked pretty good when it arrived at our table but I can't say that the paella had any WOW-factor as the dish was lacking in flavour.
M and I agreed that the conversation that we had was way better than the food that was served to us at this particular restaurant. From what I posted on instagram just under two months ago, "I believe the person in the kitchen was having an off day (hopefully not every other day too) as our dishes lacked seasoning and it was not 'oh wow, I want more.'"
We may not be Spanish food experts but when one likes food as much as we do, you know when it's good food and when it's so so. Given that on the night that we dined at this particular restaurant, it was only two handfuls of people (less than 15) that were in the restaurant, the person in the kitchen could have taken their time to perfect the dishes that we ordered. Like I said, the person in the kitchen could have been having a real off day but if that's the case, maybe they shouldn't have been cooking that night for anyone.
THE UGLY
Here comes why I am actually even bothering with this blog post on the you know who of this particular Spanish restaurant. I am refraining from saying it's name because they've already threatened M with "legal action" and they weren't very pleasant about it. Read on.
M recently posted on her blog about our dinner at this particular restaurant and she made a comment about me feeling sick from the food. The Director of this place decided to email M today (10/11/2014) with the subject heading of "legal action" and proceeded to attack her in the email in regards to her blog post. Stating that (in the guy's words), "This is clearly an attack on our company without any evidence on your behalf just an assumption!! I have meet with my legal time this morning and if there is no retraction made within the next 48 hours I will be commencing legal action against you and all associated parties for loss and damages."
This all came about from the Director of this place because M made a comment about me feeling sick from the food. In his email to M, he also wrote "To state that your friend feel unwell the following day after eating at (insert restaurant name) due to us not having fresh seafood is aboustly an attack on us. Our seafood is delivered daily as one of the partners in the business owns 2 seafood outlets and buys direct from the auctions every morning .We also follow H.A.C.C.P guild lines strictly and our records can be viewed anytime."
I could have put the whole email in this post but I won't, slightly too many spelling errors and you might think the Director has simply written it as a not so funny joke.
I have told M to amend her post and hence why I am writing this post because I am the one who got sick. The hard truth is I did get sick from the food that I had at this Spanish place in Melbourne CBD, I even emailed M the next day saying "I am not sure about you but my stomach wasn't the greatest after our dinner last night, I'm putting it down to maybe the seafood wasn't the freshest." I mean I was nice enough to not have said anything prior because I put it down to me being unlucky and having that one piece of dodgy seafood. Yes the Director can say that their seafood is delivered daily and whatnot but the fact is that I did get sick, it came out from both ends (if you must really know, sorry couldn't save a sample as proof)
The thing that I am most annoyed about is how the Director of this place decides to threatened M in an email. Honestly speaking, all he had to do was write to M nicely and said "Can you please amend your post about the seafood being unfresh as that can be quite damaging to our business? Thanks." Then he can go on to explain that their seafood is delivered daily etc etc. He did not have to threatened M at all. Seriously, is that how a business is managed? By threatening people? Am I next? Again I will state, the truth is, I DID GET SICK from eating at this Spanish restaurant in the CBD. I am just glad that it was just me and not M as well. I mean I could simply state the name of the Director here but I won't, it's easy to enough to work it out if you google it.
On a better note, they must doing something right if more than 80% (under 90%) of voters on urbanspoon likes their food. It was just very unfortunate for M and I that we did not have a great experience at this place.
Needless to say, I wasn't in a hurry to pay this Spanish restaurant another visit after our experience but now, given how unprofessional their management is in regards to M's blog post, I am definitely not returning.
I must say that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a really good film. If you haven't watched it, you should.
I usually don't bother with writing blog reviews on most places that I have dined at in Melbourne because...
- I am a lazy food blogger, instagram is enough for me.
- Plenty of others have already blogged about the place (I usually agree with their thoughts)
- There's nothing worth mentioning about the place.
- I don't like writing bad reviews. I will leave that up to others.
A few simple questions first...
- Why do we blog about food? Because we want to, because people want to know about our experience before they decide to go there themselves, because urbanspoon has somewhat become the norm for foodies and most of all, because sharing is caring.
- Why do food bloggers get invited to restaurant openings and whatnot? Because the owners of those restaurants know that the word of a food blogger carries weight to all of it's readers and can make/break their business.
Come come, let me tell you a little story about the restaurant I dined at on 17 September 2014 with another foodie, M.
THE GOOD
I had the pleasure of becoming friends with M on instagram and before we knew it, we decided to catch up for dinner one night. She picked this Spanish place, a place that we both have not eaten at before.
The service that we received from the waitress that was looking after our table was great, she was super friendly and very enthusiastic.
THE BAD
We started off with two small dishes; calamari and empanadas. There wasn't anything to rave about our two small dishes. The calamari was not crispy at all resulting in it being very chewy. As for the empanadas, I felt like I was eating mainly the pastry as there wasn't any filling at all.
The supposed highlight of our dinner was the paella, it looked pretty good when it arrived at our table but I can't say that the paella had any WOW-factor as the dish was lacking in flavour.
M and I agreed that the conversation that we had was way better than the food that was served to us at this particular restaurant. From what I posted on instagram just under two months ago, "I believe the person in the kitchen was having an off day (hopefully not every other day too) as our dishes lacked seasoning and it was not 'oh wow, I want more.'"
We may not be Spanish food experts but when one likes food as much as we do, you know when it's good food and when it's so so. Given that on the night that we dined at this particular restaurant, it was only two handfuls of people (less than 15) that were in the restaurant, the person in the kitchen could have taken their time to perfect the dishes that we ordered. Like I said, the person in the kitchen could have been having a real off day but if that's the case, maybe they shouldn't have been cooking that night for anyone.
THE UGLY
Here comes why I am actually even bothering with this blog post on the you know who of this particular Spanish restaurant. I am refraining from saying it's name because they've already threatened M with "legal action" and they weren't very pleasant about it. Read on.
M recently posted on her blog about our dinner at this particular restaurant and she made a comment about me feeling sick from the food. The Director of this place decided to email M today (10/11/2014) with the subject heading of "legal action" and proceeded to attack her in the email in regards to her blog post. Stating that (in the guy's words), "This is clearly an attack on our company without any evidence on your behalf just an assumption!! I have meet with my legal time this morning and if there is no retraction made within the next 48 hours I will be commencing legal action against you and all associated parties for loss and damages."
This all came about from the Director of this place because M made a comment about me feeling sick from the food. In his email to M, he also wrote "To state that your friend feel unwell the following day after eating at (insert restaurant name) due to us not having fresh seafood is aboustly an attack on us. Our seafood is delivered daily as one of the partners in the business owns 2 seafood outlets and buys direct from the auctions every morning .We also follow H.A.C.C.P guild lines strictly and our records can be viewed anytime."
I could have put the whole email in this post but I won't, slightly too many spelling errors and you might think the Director has simply written it as a not so funny joke.
I have told M to amend her post and hence why I am writing this post because I am the one who got sick. The hard truth is I did get sick from the food that I had at this Spanish place in Melbourne CBD, I even emailed M the next day saying "I am not sure about you but my stomach wasn't the greatest after our dinner last night, I'm putting it down to maybe the seafood wasn't the freshest." I mean I was nice enough to not have said anything prior because I put it down to me being unlucky and having that one piece of dodgy seafood. Yes the Director can say that their seafood is delivered daily and whatnot but the fact is that I did get sick, it came out from both ends (if you must really know, sorry couldn't save a sample as proof)
The thing that I am most annoyed about is how the Director of this place decides to threatened M in an email. Honestly speaking, all he had to do was write to M nicely and said "Can you please amend your post about the seafood being unfresh as that can be quite damaging to our business? Thanks." Then he can go on to explain that their seafood is delivered daily etc etc. He did not have to threatened M at all. Seriously, is that how a business is managed? By threatening people? Am I next? Again I will state, the truth is, I DID GET SICK from eating at this Spanish restaurant in the CBD. I am just glad that it was just me and not M as well. I mean I could simply state the name of the Director here but I won't, it's easy to enough to work it out if you google it.
On a better note, they must doing something right if more than 80% (under 90%) of voters on urbanspoon likes their food. It was just very unfortunate for M and I that we did not have a great experience at this place.
Needless to say, I wasn't in a hurry to pay this Spanish restaurant another visit after our experience but now, given how unprofessional their management is in regards to M's blog post, I am definitely not returning.
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