Cigala

This is a horrible, horrible restaurant. The waiters are cold, surly and inattentive. The food was terrible and overpriced. And the manager of the restaurant was incredibly rude to me and my friends. Please trust me and avoid this restaurant at all costs.

Went with partner who was receiving treatment at a hospital close by. Looked fresh from outside so in we went. Ignored by waiter (despite restaurant being almost empty) so we chose a table for ourselves and sat down, only then to be told rather brusquely by another that it was reserved (though no sign to say so!) – nevertheless we decided to stay and found another table. Waiter then came over with bread and oil which he proceeded to spill on the table whilst pouring it ,as he was looking out of the window. Bread was stale though we were told by the manager that customers came back for it! (I know what Spanish bread tastes like and this wasn’t it!) Most of the tapas dishes were quite nice actually (if rather overpriced) though the baby crabs had absolutely no meat and were taken back, albeit rather ungraciously. At least the manager had enough sense to remove the service charge from the bill but we won’t be returning!

Last night I was quite excited to go to a Spanish restaurant I had not tried, being Spanish I take a lot of pride on Spanish good quality produce and I was ready for a good time. The place was extremely loud and the service not very efficient (we never got tap water) but that was not the problem. We got a bottle of dry white wine (£27) and decided for 7 tapas: When the tapas started arriving my meal became a let down straight away, the price-amount on the plate was just a rip-off, a tapa of octopus made me think I was about to eat Paul ( he did predict Spain to win the world cup!), 5 miniscule pieces of octopus on small potatoes. Spanish tortilla or potato omelette had no potato in it, and there is a saying with pizza that applies to Spanish tortilla, but in this case, there is such a thing as bad sex. Anyhow, cuttlefish 1/4 size, a prawn tortilla completely burned with no prawns to be seen or tasted, every tapa was a disappointment apart from the pimientos and scrambled egg with chorizo which I am surprised they managesd to cook properly. Spanish tapas are not difficult to cook or complicated, they are not dishes to sell like if they were rich and complex French cuisine. It came to 80 pounds with 9 pounds service charge...The head behind cigala must think we are all going there just once...