Hostal Noria

The hostal is at one end of Placa de la Font, so great location. This was our go-to place for snacks at lunchtime - normally a filled roll. The food was actually very nice, especially considering the low price. We had hamburger and chips/ egg and chips one day too and they were fine. The service was odd. We arrived at 3pm on the first day and they were happy to make us rolls. Another day we sat 20 minutes before giving up. Another day our order was taken and then another waitress had to take it again as our waiter had disappeared. The staff didn't speak much English but were always friendly enough. So good for the food, less so for erratic (but not unfriendly) service.

This is specifically a review of the hostel restaurant—I was in Tarragona with a university program, and half of my group were staying at Hostal Noria, so I went to the restaurant a couple of times. The food was fine enough—simple, decently prepared, inexpensive, with a good amount of menu options. The service, however, was awful—not just slow, but outright hostile, and for no reason, especially given that I later learned that the restaurant doubles as the hotel's reception area and so the opposite should actually have reasonably been expected (that staff would be welcoming, especially of someone pulling a suitcase and so clearly a likely hostel guest). The first occasion I walked in, on my first day in Tarragona, the server behind the desk shot me such a cold glare that I thought she must have mistaken me for someone else—I didn't know her at all, and she was looking at me as though she despised me for simply walking in and asking if I could still order lunch. Eventually some minutes after I sat down another server came by and the rest of my dining experience was fine, until I went up to the counter to pay, and the first server again gave me that same angry attitude. The second time, I came in for a late breakfast, was the only guest in the restaurant, and the same initially hostile server was the only server in the restaurant. She did not come to my table for 20 minutes, despite there being no other guests to serve. At 10 minutes into my wait I peered over the counter to see if she was occupied with any cooking or kitchen prep, but she was just on her phone, playing a game I think. She eventually came over, seeming somewhat sheepish, as she took my order: at that point I believed the long waiting time had indeed been intended to run me off. I'm Black; the server was white. The only reason, in my experience, for anyone to be so demonstrably hostile toward me as soon as I enter a space has been racism. I know that Spain is in a period of great flux right now, meaning that many people—including this server perhaps—may identify people from visibly different backgrounds to them as being harbingers of negative changes in their lives. But this is a business in the hospitality sector. That behavior is unacceptable everywhere but especially at a place whose sole business purpose is hosting people, *regardless* of background. It was an unfortunate experience to have in an otherwise beautiful city. Please do better.

We waited 5 minutes for a person to come to us to ask for drinks. The waitress didn’t even speak english. We ordered drinks and they didnt come out until my mother went in and got them herself after 30 minutes of waiting. she then ordered our food that didnt arrive for another 20 minutes. We asked for my fathers meal on 3 occasions and they were still in the process of making them. They finally arrived after we asked again when the waitress was serving people outside aswell. The food was standard but it was a pity we couldnt eat it together as a family