La Tasca (Canary Wharf)

Worse spanish restaurant.

Ordered seafood paella. It was tasteless, bland, even after we asked for salt and pepper to add it ourselves.

The waitress told us 'salt is not healthy, that's why we don't put too much salt. I usually eat paella with soy sauce'. Hello? Soy sauce is healthier than salt? Eat paella with soy sauce? Both these don't justify for the lack of flavor.

Then another waitress came to show concern. I said, there was not enough salt, not enough saffron. She responded 'we don't use saffron, we use other spices. Saffron is too expensive, and you can't even get in this country'. Hello? I can get saffron from waitrose, which is 5 minutes walk away. We paid 22 GBP or so for paella, is that not enough for a little saffron? Spanish paella w/o saffron? Then don't advertise as making food the traditional way!

Tasteless food, poor handling of customer complaints. WILL NEVER GO AGAIN.
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spicyfoodie - View all reviews by this user
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Saturday, May 14, 2011

Possibly one of the worst spanish restaurants I've been to.

We had to wait for ages until the food was served cold.

Extremely disappointed, not worth the 45£ I paid.

Avoid.
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romain Triboulot
1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, April 24, 2011

I have to say that this was the most boring and most disapointing restaurant visit in a very long time.

I took my partner for a spontaneous visit on a piping hot sunday lunch. We were seated by a moody waiter/manager who seemed to be stressed even though there was only a few tables occupied. The lunch offer that is displayed by the entrance is not presented to you in the menu at the table as you need to ask for it (feeling that you are asking for the cheap option) and the waiter has to go all the way back in to the restaurant to pick up two new ones. The cheap version was actually not made for a hot day, more a winter selection, so we choose "a la carte" instead, but was also more"winter tapas" not appropriate for the summer season. What bothered us the most is the passionless feeling of the place from the waiter to manager. How can that be possible when they are promoting Spain?

We ordered freshly squeezed orange juice and a sangria to start. The orange juice that was brought to me was something like the worst tesco concentrated brand you could have. When I told her she just asked me what I wanted instead. That is fraud, especially at £2.50 for a glass with ice. Is it the same in all branches? I will never know. The sangria had two slices of apple inside, so we had to change that one too. Still no apology or consideration. We just started to feel like awkward customers which is so horrible. We had five tapas: Valencia paella, Aubergine, tomato and cheddar (!!!) bake. Ham croquettas, Mixed salad with avocado. Patatas Bravas. And.... it was so boring, so tasteless so nothing to do with real cooking.

I will never go back and I can somehow understand the reviewer saying that he used to love La Tasca. Maybe big money corporation has taken over passion and simple concept.

I will never go back.
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Martin
1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, July 18, 2010