Awful Service at Tapeo

[BlueTrain84]

This past weekend I was a part of a group dinner at Tapeo for a friend's bachelorette party. The service was of such poor quality that I felt compelled to come to chowhound and share. First of all, our reservation was for 9:00 and the person who planned everything had explained that this was a special dinner. All 10 people eating dinner were present by 9:00, yet we were not seated until 9:20. Upon being seated, we ordered a few pitchers of sangria, some champagne, etc. Drinks came fairly quickly, but then the waiting began. By 9:45 we still had not ordered, as the waitress had not come back, and I asked her when she walked by if she could at least bring us the bread (which also had not come out). She replied curtly that they only give out bread after everyone has ordered. Is this because they think tables will stiff them and only order 2 tapas plates or something if they give out the bread too early? To bring out four pitchers of alcohol without any bread to a large party that is celebrating a special occasion is ridiculous. Once the food finally started coming around 10:00, it was spread out over about 25 minutes. I have eaten at many Tapas places and understand the nature of cooking/serving many different small dishes all at once, but this was really awful. One girl at our table was served her two COLD tapas plates (meaning they shouldn't take long to prepare at all) a good 20 minutes after every other plate was on the table. The food was all fine once it got there, but the poor service really put a damper on the dinner, not to mention that the check appeared on the table approximately 5 minutes after the last dish had been served. Next time I plan a celebration dinner, it will not be at Tapeo.

[MissCheese]

Sounds like a bad server in particular b/c so often these things can be smoothed out if the server communicates/responds to the situation at hand (for example, bring the customer some darn bread...). Too bad she didn't handle it better. I was there recently for a small dinner (just 3 people) but had such a charming waiter. Too bad you didn't get him!

[Ricardo Malocchio]

I like Tapeo, but I only eat in the afternoon, at the bar, during the 1/2-price tapas happy hours on Saturday.

But there was this one time I dined in the main downstairs room on an extremely busy Friday night, and had much the same experience as you. The service was slow, the food arrived cold, and the server seemed stretched far past her breaking point trying to keep up with far too many tables and far too many small plates and far too many unsatisfied diners, in an absurdly loud, annoyingly hectic, and decidedly anti-dining atmosphere.

I won't go back for that experience. For me, Tapeo is about a long, slow Saturday afternoon eating half-priced tapas and drinking sherry or maybe that wonderful flight of Spanish whites with a few other genial regulars and the wonderful bartenders. That other Tapeo -- the hectic, loud, poorly serviced nighttime weekend Tapeo -- is not one I'll ever patronise again.

[mrios]

I have to warn everyone not to plan a big event at this restaurant.

This summer I had my after-wedding dinner there and the person responsible for organizing at Tapeo, Tova, was worse than useless. She was rude and utterly incompetent: we had given her months of advance notice, but she was still screwing things up. She told us with one week's notice that our menu -- which we had agreed on months earlier -- was not possible unless we increased the per-plate cost by a ridiculous amount. She could have done her homework earlier, but instead we had to be given this bad news a week before our wedding when we were as busy as air traffic controllers.