San Ginés Disaster 🇪🇸🍿🇦🇷

I preface my review by saying that I was thrilled San Ginés was opening their first location in Austin. I’m a Spanish citizen and have been to many San Ginés locations in Madrid. I love the brand, concept, and food! The opportunity to add another (authentic) Spanish place to El Raval and Kalimotxo in Austin was exciting.

Now for the review… even though I rooted hard for this restaurant, I went there today for an early evening bite and the place was a complete dumpster fire. It was a chaotic and terrible first experience.

First the place: it seemed nice upon entering and even had a somewhat Spanish feel, but it was hard to navigate your way inside and outside the restaurant. The only way to order food was at two food trucks outside and you couldn’t tell which truck served what, or even where to place your order. The patio itself was nice, but was cluttered and the layout impeded the flow of traffic. I expected much more from the restaurant.

Second: the drinks and food. We arrived at 6pm and the first thing we heard once we entered was a rude woman screaming “we’re not selling any more coffee, hot chocolate or drinks…” — at a Chocolatería 🫠🫠🫠 — like what? And at a prime time hour. We also ordered churros and papas bravas. The churros were terrible. They were stale, oily, and had no flavor. The accompanying cup of chocolate was skimpy and not great either. Additionally, the papas bravas didn’t come out for 30+ minutes, and we just left. Utter disappointment. All of this said, you’d be better going to Starbucks, ordering a basic hot chocolate and dipping a butter croissant in it. Seriously.

Third: the service. The woman screaming was a very bad first impression. Add to this that the two food trucks weren’t labeled (Tapas and Churros like they should have been) and the way the servers would deliver orders was super chaotic. There were at least 10 servers running around at all times using their phone flashlights to check customer orders. It was a fully chaotic and stressful experience.

Fourth: the parking. I parked my car in the San Ginés lot and the way the lot is designed led me and others who parked in legitimate spaces to get blocked in. Markings and parking blocks were misleading and inappropriately placed, leading to confusion and guests leaving cars in places that were not in fact parking spaces. Because of that, myself and others were parked in and we had to wait 10 minutes to leave. The manager himself had to come out of the restaurant and ask people to rearrange their cars. He did not apologize and was arrogant, insisting that the issue was a lack of common sense among his clientele and not the obviously poor lot planning. Terrible, terrible customer experience. Incompetence from the design and management of San Ginés. They couldn’t plan ahead and see that parking was going to be an issue?

I really hope that the San Ginés team reads this review (as well as others) and improves the experience. A complete rethink in strategy needs to take place!