Restaurant boss ejects diners in row over tapas Anger over dishes served at different times
AN angry Birmingham restaurant boss cleared customers’ plates and ordered them out in a tiff over tapas.
Marta Retenaga saw red in a row with two diners who complained after their dishes arrived at different times.
She said she immediately felt better after chucking the pair out of her Bennetts Hill-based Spanish restaurant, Amantia.
Reliving the row on her Facebook page, the Madrid-born businesswoman said she didn’t work 80-hour weeks to have customers be rude to her and her staff.
She wrote: “The pair were, think mother and daughter.
“They were not happy that their meat tapas had been served before the potatoes.
“The fact I pointed out our menu states tapas comes out at different times and said there was no need to get angry with my staff, seemed to infuriate them further.
“They kept shouting first to the manager, then over me and said we were not respecting them as customers and I was being offensive.
“I did say: ‘Look, I’m sorry if
IIcame across the wrong way’ and tried my best to resolve the situation positively, but they were having none of it.
“They carried on shouting at me and the last straw was when one of them said she had worked in the hospitality industry – as if they gave her the upper hand.
“By that point I had enough of them.
“I cleared away their unfinished plates and told them to get up and leave. I don’t work 70 or 80 hours a week for this.
“Just because they are customers doesn’t entitle them to behave this way. It’s not about money for me. It was about treating me and my staff with a bit of dignity.
“I told them I didn’t care if they wrote a bad review on TripAdvisor. I just wanted them out of my restaurant.”
The mum-of-two opened the restaurant with her husband, head chef Andrea Tragaj, in 2015.
She added: “At the time they were arguing I was thinking to myself : ‘Marta, it is nearly 5pm and you haven’t had breakfast, you haven’t seen your kids for two days now, you have another six or seven hours of service to go . “‘You don’t need this’.” A number of supportive Facebook comments were left on the post, including from fellow restaurant owner Emma-Louise Yufera, who owns El Borracho Del Oro in Edgbaston.
She posted: “That was not an easy decision to make but you are so totally right. WELL DONE.
“I am going to share this story with all my team as this is just so totally right.
“I’m proud of you and thank you for standing up for our industry.”
Amantia has an overall score of 4.5 on TripAdvisor and is ranked 94th best restaurant in the city.
It has 371 excellent reviews out of a total of 627.
The restaurant monthly Friday nights as well as dishes.
It’s not about money for me. It was about treating me and my staff with a bit of dignity Marta Retenaga
is known for its night flamenco authentic tapas