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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Just come back from La Vina tapas on Wightman Road. A birthday celebration, one of those 'big' numbers.

The food was really good but what's happened to the service? Don't like to bad mouth places but considering it was a special birthday I thought the waitress might have smiled and wished me happy birthday. No.

We had to call her over to get more wine etc and not once were asked 'is everything ok, do you need anything else…'  I felt very disappointed. I've been there before on my birthday and had a nice liquor after the dinner and been wished happy birthday but tonight felt like we were just unwanted guests. No effort at all on a very special day. I won't be going back there in a hurry. 

Shame… 

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My Spanish-speaking friend and I had a very nice meal there about a year ago. I chose La Vina because I wanted her to feel at home but was disappointed to find that apparently nobody spoke Spanish. Very odd.

The rather miserable waitresses were Turkish I think? Not Spanish anyway. Perhaps they'd be happier working down the road somewhere else. 

There weren't many people in there last night. Given the unfriendly service I can imagine people being put off. 

I just wished they had at least smiled a bit and wished me happy birthday and made me and my friends welcome! 

Belated " Happy Birthday " Ruth. And you'll be pleased to know that, following a court decision, the song Happy Birthday to You  is out of copyright so your friends can sing/play it to you without fear of prosecution

Thanks John! Yes, glad to hear about the copyright issue! 

Ruth, always better go on Tuesday. They're glad enough to see anybody coming in, so they perk up a bit.

John, I find the same with the Latin American restaurants. Latin seems to have become a dead language there. (No, that eminently forgettable American V-P never did say what he's supposed to have said!) 

I take your point to some extent but I couldn't see the manager around. Just the two waitresses. Maybe that was the problem. I think they had plenty of chances to do better during the evening to be honest when we kept having to call them over to order things. 

The food is very good and generous helpings. I think if it hadn't of been a special birthday I would have said something on the spot. 

you are making a point I've hammered at for years, Jessica     the English (British?) do complain often enough but they complain to each other not to the person/company deserving of the criticism    the coming of Facebook etc has aggravated the situation and 'customer services' when approached are often useless but you should voice your dissatisfaction to give them a chance to put things right  

My husband and two friends had a really good meal there yesterday.  We had no problems with the service.  Everything went well.  We are regulars but my friends had never been there before.  They were impressed and said they planned to go again. 

You must have been there at the same time as us! Glad you enjoyed it. 

I don't think there's anything wrong with voicing your opinions about this restaurant here. Surely that's the whole point of forums like this. It's useful and no different to looking at Trip Advisor or Foursquare. Restaurants should expect this now and if they are good they should look at reviews online and then do something about it if there are problems. I think pre-social media, I ended up in a lot more bad restaurants than I would do now!
Plus arguing it out with the manager always ruins the evening

"Plus arguing it out with the manager always ruins the evening" unless you're American in which case it adds to it!

*apologies to Americans I know who are now as Anglicised as I am.

But it also gives people the opportunity to write positive things which is what I'm mostly looking for. If a restaurant (or any business) is genuinely good then the majority of their reviews online will also be good, so I don't think they have anything to worry about with the odd rant or bad experience posted online. If however, hundreds of random people are making the same complaints then I think the restaurant should take notice (for their own sake). 

The one off examples of blackmailing and trashing for no reason are obviously horrible but the majority of people using these sites are just normal people stating if they enjoyed their dinner or not. I find it helps to build up an overall picture of a place. 

Also, I wasn't referring to the chefs, it's up to the restaurant owner to check what their customers think, and in the modern age I think this means looking on the web as well as speaking to them individually. 

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