A diner from Irvine, CA
Mar 15, 2008
Bland food, watch the ripoff and enjoy dining alone. Read on. My wife & I ate a La Paella for the first time on a Friday evening arriving about 6 pm. We told the waiter we are moving to Fresno from Irvine CA and we wanted to try the restaurant. The waiter said he is from MX City and has been with La Paella for 7 years. He said La Paella has been at its current location about 4 years. The waiter was friendly and pointed out to us that they had happy hour specials from 5-7 pm M-F. Sangria was $7 per glass, but only $20 for a pitcher with a free tapa during happy hour. Also any paella was only $10.99 during happy hour. The menu showed paella from about $14.99 to 20.99, so this seemed to be a deal. We ordered a pitcher of Sangria and a tapa of mushrooms, garlic and artichokes. Since we were ordering paella that takes longer to cook, we also placed our dinner order. The waiter was standing with us as we discussed ordering the $10.99 paella specials. I was going with the chicken paella and initially my wife was going to have the vegetable paella. We then changed our mind to make it easier and we both ordered the chicken paella. The Sangria, tapa and bread with a dipping sauce arrived promptly. The mushroom tapa and bread were excellent. We also received a small garden salad with oil & vinegar dressing that was VG. A large pan of chicken paella arrived and we both thought it was bland (unflavourful). This was the first disappointment. We shared a dessert of tres leches (cake, bananas & ice cream)which was VG. When our bill arrived I was shocked to see the bottom price of almost $74. I looked over the bill and saw I was charged $25 for the sangria and $17.99 each for the paella. We called the waiter over and he said there must have been a misunderstanding, because the $10.99 paella special is for a single serving, not the large pan. He said he would change the sangria to $20. This adjusted our bill only $5. We left about 7:30 pm and noticed that no other patrons had visited La Paella the entire 1.5 hours that we dined there. My advice, if you go be certain to stress that you are ordering from the happy hour menu. Maybe the locals have been ripped off once too much and know to avoid La Paella.
