El
Rincon De Rafa Manchester Tapas Restaurant - reader comments
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| "It
is like walking into Spain! I love it!"
- lorna, manchester 27/6/08 (visited on a thursday evening) |
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| "This
was the best restaurant I have ever been to food wise.
Even my husband was pleased and enjoyed the food and he's the world's
most fussiest eater, the wine is great too. Most of the staff
were friendly and welcoming even though they were extremely
busy. The only negative point is when coming to the restaurant
and asking for a table sometimes the wait is long
but to me that just tells me its a well sought after restaurant. The
atmosphere is relaxing and authentic. I would recommend
this restaurant to everyone 10/10"
- abbi, manchester 24/6/08 (visited on a saturday evening) |
|
| "El
Rincon is just a fab restaurant. We first went there
with our Spanish class at the end of term approx 3 years ago. We couldn't
believe that our Teacher had taken us to such a great place
to eat. We have visited on numerous occasions and every meal
has been great. The food is always very fresh, the
staff are really helpful and we found them to be
really friendly, we do try and speak a little Spanish
when we order our food too. What I really don't get is that lots of
people have complained about the dishes coming out at seperate times.
Hello!?! Have you people not eaten at tapas restaurants in spain?
That is the whole point of tapas, it they all came together then by
the time you'd eaten one dish the others would be cold. Honestly we
don't tend to eat in cheap restaurants and this one is probably the
cheapest that we do go to often but that is because of the quality
of the food, staff and everything else there, I love it and would
recommend it everyone"
- leonie moores, manchester 28/5/08 (visited on a sunday evening) |
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"Without
a shadow of a doubt, Manchester's best tapas venue, hands
down! After hearing whispers of its greatness by a few associates,
both English and Spanish alike, we had to pay a visit to this off
the beeaten track, hidden away gemstone, just off Deansgate. Upon
arrival, its very relaxed, friendly, rustic, and
basically, just what I'd personally want from a tapas restaurant.
We had to wait a little while for our table, but having a drink while
we waited wasn't a problem, and it was nice to soak up the atmosphere
before sitting down to eat. The only gripe on the service was that
another couple who arrived after us were seated first, and when we
mentioned this to a waiter, he asked which waiter greeted us, only
to openly criticise his colleague about his mistake to us. Anyway,
its not a Michelin starred place, nor does it try to be, so this wasn't
really an issue to be fair.
Upon being seated, we opted for the house red, after hearing that
its a good choice, and we weren't disappointed. It wasn't spectacular,
or anything to write home about, but fitted the bill well, especially
for the bargain price that it came with.
The decor is casual, very personal to the owner, and bursting
with rustic character. Theres nothing fancy, glam,
or modern about this place. It feels homely, casual,
and very much as if you're on holiday.
The main event of the Tapas was pretty much flawless in my
eyes. My partner used to live in Spain, so is well versed
with Spanish food, above and beyond La Tasca's 'British Tapas' offerings,
and she was equally impressed. Whether it be the prawns, chorizo,
steak, veg, or chicken, everything was bursting with flavour, plentiful
(for tapas!), and went down a treat, as did another bottle of the
house wine.
They didn't have the Churros desert which I ordered, but then it was
after 11pm at this point, so we had to go for the Cheesecake, which
wasnt anything special, and probably came from Iceland, but there
was nothing offensive about it.
On the whole a great local restaurant. Top
quality tapas, friendly, efficient service, reasonably priced yet
basic wine list, good atmosphere, and perfect as an everyday eatery,
for 2, 3, 4 10 or people!
Miles ahead of other trendy 'Spanish' places in town such as Grado,
which really do only play on being owned by Paul Heathcote, and whilst
the food is technically good, are realistically, about as Spanish
as Cumberland Sausage. Only Evuna can come close to El Rincon if you
want real Spanish food, but then all three restaurants are so different,
and dont compete."
- chris handley, manchester 20/5/08 (visited on a saturday evening) |
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| "Excellent
food and very friendly service!"
- kirsty stevenson, manchester 9/1/08 (visited on a saturday evening) |
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"I
have been trying to get a table at El Rincon for several months, but
they have always been fully booked. The restaurant came highly recommended
and I was looking forward to giving it a try. I finally got a table
early on Saturday evening and visited the restaurant with my wife
and two children after completing our Christmas shopping in town.
Sadly, we were all disappointed. The staff
were too keen to serve, having ordered our drinks, we were
asked twice more if we'd like to order drinks and when they arrived,
the order was wrong.
We were then mithered for our food order. The waitress could not answer
all our questions, spoke little English and did not
offer to go and find out. The Tapas came at lightening speed
and couldn't have been cooked from fresh. Two of
the dishes were lukewarm and the tomato sauce on one
dish was cold and another was almost burnt.
We had ordered 12 Tapas dishes, but we only got eleven.
The only saving grace was that we were only charged for 11.
On a positive note, the bill only came to £68.00 for one round
of drinks, 11 Tapas dishes and a bottle of wine. However, I was surprised
to have been charged for the basket of bread that automatically
arrived at our table.
I hate to be kept waiting in restauraunts as much as I hate to be
rushed. At El Rincon, we sat down at about 5.05pm and I paid the bill
at 5.52pm. So, if you want to be rused into ordering and eating mediocre
food, then El Rincon is for you, that's if you can get a
table in the first place. To be honest, there are better Spanish retaurants
in Manchester and I can't understand why this one is so popular!"
- richard newman, chinley 26/11/07 (visited on a sat evening) |
|
| "Poor
customer service, expected more attentive staff, requested
to pay bill and took 5 times of asking and 1/2 an hour to sort!"
- ian, stalybridge 24/10/07 (visited on a monday evening) |
|
| "Fantastic
restaurant, great food and a great
atmosphere. Go around once a month and with work too, would
highly recommend anyone to visit if you are looking for quality and
varied dishes with a good price. Ignore other comments about food
not coming all together, thats what tapas is all about, the dishes
come when they are ready and its great, as you get a different
dish appearing on your table every minute and have had all your dishes
within 10 minutes of ordering."
- phil cookson 5/9/07 (visited on a saturday evening) |
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| "We
have a house in Spain and El Rincon reflects the restaurants
over there. I love it!"
- annie crone 3/9/07 (visited on a sunday afternoon) |
|
| "El
Rincon has got to be one of my favourite places to eat. It maybe a
little rustic but I go there for one simple thing and thats
good food! Do I really want to go to a restaurant
where the waiters/waitresses are asking if ur meals ok when you have
a mouthful of food? No! Here you are left to eat in peace and if you
had any problems I'm sure they would be straight over. For me and
my kids, a meal usually costs around £25-30 for, say about,
2 tapas dishes each that we share. I would highly recommend this place
to everyone!"
- lynne harrison, warrington 27/8/07 (visited on a bank holiday monday
lunchtime) |
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| "I
really enjoyed my visit to El Rincon and taste the food, some people
have recommended me this place and I was looking forward to the visit.
I am Spanish but lived ten years in The UK and I missed the Spanish
food. The restaurant has the typical Spanish atmosphere
and all the staff Spanish and friendly I felt like
at home. The quality of the food was fantastic. I
have to say of all the Spanish restaurants in the UK is the
best food I had. It didnt bother me the paper tablecloths
that is what you really find in the Spanish restaurants, at least
we bother to put tablecloths, things that you dont find in many English
pubs, for instance. I highly recommend the visit"
- ana, stafford 6/7/07 (visited on a saturday evening) |
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"Amazing
- we go almost every Saturday lunchtime and although being packed
always get a table.
We always order fillet steak, new potatoes in oil, cumberland sausages
and alioli of the specials menu, and gambus pil pil, morrocan kebabs
and patatas bravas. Their house red is lovely and cheap.
Everything we eat is spot on, and I like
that you get each tapas with space in between. The staff
are typical of Spanish waitresses not over friendly
but if you order or try to order in Spanish they seem much more friendlier.
Do visit, you will not be dissopointed. See you there next Saturday
lunch"
- karen mcvay, partington 24/6/07 (visited on a saturday lunch) |
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"I've
been looking forward to visiting this place for such a long - I've
heard so many rave reviews and I've been turned away on many occassions
previously because they were so busy. On reading Nancy's review (below)
it prompted me to visit for lunch - the place was packed even though
it was around 3pm. Like all my previous unsuccessful visits, we had
to endure the 'invisible man' role, hanging around in the doorway
for ages waiting to be seated. Eventually we were shown to a table
and the service didn't get any better from there.
Our dishes all arrived at completely different times,
almost 5 mins between each other, OK if you're sharing as a group.
Less so, if like us, you were ordering one or two dishes each. The
food itself was very cheap, nothing special
but good value for money - the black pepper steak tapas is
highly recommended although my usual favourite, the octopus, less
so. Drinks are incredibly cheap and I'll definitely
be revisiting the bar if not the restaurant. The decor is
very traditional and ouzes character whilst the atmosphere
is buzzing. Sadly, the paper napkins and tablecloth distract
from this as do the shabby toilets. All in all, it's a great
place to catch a quick bite to eat at a great price - just
don't expect top class food or service."
- matthew, manchester 15/6/07 (visited on a friday afternoon) |
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"It
was a weird experience. When we arrived we were stood
around waiting for someone to come over and show us a table. Then
when the waitress took our order they forgot to bring us something.
All the different tapas arrived at different times.
The salad that came with the Morroccan kebab was not fresh
at all. And the waiters weren't that nice, they never
asked us if everything was alright or if we wanted more drinks etc.
One of the toilet doors was not working and the door
in the other toilet was really hard to close the door and to lock
it was even worse.... spend quite a while struggling to lock only
to find that there was no toilet paper!! Food was
ok - nothing special. Doubt that I'll be returning."
- nancy, manchester 15/6/07 (visited on a thursday lunch) |
|
| "Excellent
restaurant, dishes were slightly spaced out which was just
perfect, gave us chance to eat them without other
dishes going cold. Cant wait to come back"
- amanda warham, bolton 29/5/07 (visited on a tuesday lunch) |
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