"I booked a table for one last Sunday, 16th April and made an extra special effort of going early in the morning and made the booking in person with the very friendly staff, who I usually get on very well with. I arrived on time at 2pm (I am British well half Irish) for my booking and was seated at a table outside as I'd requested. After some minutes without any service, me being a very pro active person, I went to the bar myself and asked for a bottle of still water and a glass of wine, which was served without a glass for the water, so I had to reach over the bar myself and take a glass from the overhead rack above the bar not a problem, as I say I'm a go getter and don't stand on ceremony for people to do things for me, even though I am in a full service restaurant. I took my drinks back to my table and sat and waited for the waiter/waitress to come and take my order. After some several minutes, I decided to be pro active again and approached the Colombian chap on the barbecue to ask him if I could have a plate of the paella as that was all that I wanted for lunch. He said I needed to ask the waiter/waitress and he couldn't just do me a plate of paella. Fair enough, I'll seek out who my waiter/waitress is and ask them myself. I asked the owner who pointed me towards a woman and I politely asked her if I could order a plate of paella for my table. She seemed a bit stressed and put out by the fact that I'd had to seek her out to place my order, but I didn't want to spend all day waiting around for a plate of paella, or it would be better to just make it myself, it might be quicker! Anyway some tens of minutes pass by and no paella arrives, and I look around to see that all of the Spanish customers, who have mostly arrived after me, have been served drinks and are now starting to receive their food. Mine never materialises and I start to think about the calm surroundings of Marina del Este where I live and the wonderful service I always receive there, and so I decided to cut my losses and go back there. I go to pay the bill and ask the owner, Joaquin, for my bill, €20 for the drinks and the paella but I didn't receive the paella I point out. But you have must, says the jefe, it's here on the bill, but I didn't I protest. At that point, he asks the waitress who was in charge of my table why I hadn't received the paellas and they have an argument in thick Andaluz, which I can't understand a word of. €5 he says it'll cost me, once they'd agreed I hadn't received the paella, sorry no €6 he says, he'd forgotten the service charge or something. I can't get the money out of my pocket fast enough so I can get the hell out of there and go somewhere where I'll be treated like a regular valued customer. Oh, by the way, I'd eaten there the previous Sunday with my wife and be treated like a king and queen, but on this day, I don't know whether it was because I was dining alone, or because I was wearing a hat with flowers in it, I was treated with contempt and disrespect. Needless to say, I shall not be returning and they have lost a regular customer, who I know used to entertain their staff with my witticisms in Spanish, but there you go, unfortunately in Spain, especially on Sundays when the locals come out, the guirris go to the back of the queue, and even worse are actively discouraged from even going out for a meal. Don't worry, I'll take the hint and unlike Arnie, I won't be back."
Almuñécar
