Iberia Restaurant

My wife and I have been going to this place for a few years now. It's really a nice cozy place to spend the evening eating tapas and drinking nice wine. However, on our most recent visit, we experienced what is definitely a management shift in customer service. They now charge a 19% service charge - which apparently is written on the menu, but we overlooked that. No big deal here - but as others mention it's a tough sell to pay 19% on top of an expensive bottle of wine. The service really doesn't scale depending on price of the bottle - so we personally feel its unreasonable to ask customers to pay 19% of service.

What really got us this time was when my wife asked for hot water w/ lemon. Subsequently she asked for honey... When our bill came, we were being charged $4.50 for "tea". We disputed this claim w/ our waiter, and he was sympathetic, but after conferring w/ the manager - he said it's his (the manager's) policy to charge for hot water. Our service staff never mentioned this to us! Dont get me wrong, the service was typical Iberia service (but not bad). We asked to speak to the manager, our waiter went to see if he can talk, then he informs us that the manager is busy and cant see us. Wow! We rarely ever have issues w/ restaurants, this by far is the worst experience ever! $4.50 for hot water give me a break.

I think the tipping point was the fact the manager couldnt make time for his customer, and additionally when we got up to go find the manager, he had just left! This really puts Iberia off our recommended restaurant list (which is an extremely small list). The only way we would not go back to Iberia is if the management team is changed. Manager Jose Luis Relinque must be changed. Theyve lost our confidence extremely poor customer service, lack of common decency, and just purely profit driven has put this cozy hole in the wall out in the dark for us!

I am a Spaniard that has met the owner Jose Luis personally, who is also from Spain. Last Thursday I had a party there, we were 11 people total. I called him a week before and told him just in case I needed reservations. He told me that he would charge me $35 per person because in the dining room he does not serve tapas, I told him I thought that was expensive given the fact that we wanted tapas and the average tapa at the restaurant is $2.95. He assured me that he would prepare me plenty of food and I would not be disappointed. He quoted me $420.00. Well, needless to say, not only was I disappointed, but extremely embarrassed as well. He seated us outside with the train going by every 5 minutes, when I specifically asked him to seat me inside, (that is why I was paying $35 per person). He brought exactly 7 tapas to our table. I asked the waiters, Fidel and Jaime to get Jose Luis for me because I wanted to speak to him, they told me he was not there, which is impossible since he is the cook. Today, August 13, when I confronted him over the phone he told me that he was there, so he lies as well. There was not enough food for everybody, one lady had to eat two slices of bread and two cheese scones. One girl who arrived from the airport did not get to eat at all because while we were taking pictures and obviously distracted, one of the waiters cleared the table and took the shrimp plate with all the shrimp but four that had been eaten. To top it off, the $50.00 cake I brought , they kept after charging me $50.00 for cutting the cake. They kicked us out because they wanted to close without any explanation as to why I could not get my cake back, there was half left. And by the way, a soda from the tap is $4.50 and the water is $7.00. And the best part of all, these are his words to me today, August 13, 2007, that the meal was more expensive because we were seated outside, you have just got to love that. Apparently eating with flies around you increases the price of the exact same food and drinks threefold. I have been there many times before with my family and friends and that was definitely the last, it was a rip-off and trust me, if the owner Jose Luis does that to me as a Spaniard, who knows what things exactly cost, Americans beware, it is armed robbery. Just look at the menu and you can see the prices for tapas range from $1.90 to $4.95, which means that those 7 tapas should have been for one person at $35 per person. I will never step foot there again and I will suggest the same to everyone I know.

I have been to Iberia a couple of times. As a Spaniard, I have enjoyed their food, but last Saturday my sister booked a friend's bachelorette party there. The owner, Jose Luis, promised my sister that it would be a great party and he would make sure we had enough food. $700 later, we were hungry and Jose Luis says he does not agree that we were not satisfied. First, watch out, they charge more for food outside than indoors, but do not state that anywhere nor do they give you the choice. Second, they took away our food without asking if we were done eating while we took pictures. Third, they charged $50 to cut a cake which they ended up keeping. Fourth, as mentioned earlier, we were hungry after paying $700. This man gives Spaniards a bad name; he is an embarassment to our country. No where in Spain would you ever be tricked like this. I will never, ever go there again. Much better places n the Bay Area. I can cook better Spanish food with a blind fold on!

As far as good tapas go, this one is nowhere near good tapas you find in Aregentina or Spain. But if you must and since it is the only one you can find in Menlo Park, it will do.

Iberia is an upscale Spanish restaurant with two sections: the main dining area and the bar area. The main dining area has a full dinner menu, including various paellas and fish and meat dishes. The bar area has a really wide arrangement of tapas, my favorite being the pulpo a la gallega and the pan amb tomat (bread with prosciutto and a tomato sauce). I love the ambiance of this place. It has a loot of wood and leather seats and sort of feels like being in a cozy cabin in the Pyrenees. The place also has a wide variety of drinks, including an ample wine list, various cognacs and ports, as well as a number of beers on tap. Despite my five star review, the restaurant certainly has some kinks. For one, they never seem to have anything. I tend to arrive on the late side (typically after 9pm) and generally they don't have any tortilla left - very strange for a Spanish place... a few times they didn't even have bread!! All in all, I love the place and would totally recommend it because it is one of those places that gets better the more you go to it.

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I just want to add that last week (10/1/06) Kiwi, my favorite waitress left. This is very sad for me. Where are you Kiwi??? And where is my Bass??? will miss you!

PROS: great ambiance, good food
CONS: they are always out of things!