Flamenco Experience at Tablao de Carmen with Dinner or Drink

Dear Maria. Above all thank you for you honest and strong opinion about our flamenco show. This (along with my reply) will hopefully help our readers to understand what choice to make. I am not sure how you ended up coming to the Tablao de Carmen, whether you chose to come after reading reviews on Viator, Tripadvisor, google or other websites or whether some friends recommended it or whether it was mere coincidence that you ended up her. The truth is that judging by your statements (“we joked and said that the reserve dancer team was on duty” and that you “have seen better Spanish dance shows in South Africa”), it looks like the selection criteria you have use to come to us is the wrong one. Flamenco is only one small part of the huge, rich and complex part of the universe of Spanish dances. I add that the essence of the real and authentic flamenco art (this includes rigorous singing and guitar playing) is a serious and profound matter. Tablao de Carmen specializes in this last bit, and not in offering a show where you will see other Spanish dances. I take your comment very personally since this place was founded by my mother, a local who loves flamenco and understands it well. She opened the Tablao de Carmen 30 years ago in order to display and share what she believes to be genuine flamenco and also in order to improve the market choice of that time (only two places displayed touristic Flamenco). We love and enjoy Flamenco and what we offer is not thought to adapt to the touristic standards but instead to fit in with what we believe is special, unique and legitimate of the flamenco character and expression. If my mother had opened this place to attract tourists maybe we should have taken your words into account and then change the show in order to have a perfect rehearsed show where artists will not laugh and chairs will be moved with exact precision. Or also we would have had to organize the duration of the show to last for more than an hour so clients would feel that their time watching is worth what they´ve paid. Instead, we choose not to choreograph neither make it longer than an hour ( including an interval). Our choice of flamenco show is overseen daily by my own eyes. Our experience guides us into maintaining this line versus the other flamenco places in Barcelona where you could probably find what you were looking for. I am sorry you have been so misguided when you came to Tablao de Carmen and we wish you good luck in your future attempts to find the sort of Flamenco you are looking for. Again, thank you for your time. Kind regards. Mimo Agüero

Hello. We appreciate your feedback. In an attempt to be constructive with your critical opinion, we would appreciate if you could let us know what sort of element you did not find as entertaining as other ones you have experienced. Any insight is always welcome and your comments are very helpful. About your first comment that “the restaurant is very small” we wonder whether you are confusing us with another flamenco place. Our restaurant can host 150 people, set in 3 different levels (one mezzanine with at least 70 seats and two balconies, one hosts up to 35/40 and another one up to 15) and although it looks intimate it is not a small restaurant. The sort of flamenco that we offer at Tablao de Carmen does not aim at being “entertaining” but rather “telling” of a live culture, and the expression of many different parts of a society that for many centuries has expressed through music and dance their character and ways of celebrating. Any insight is always welcome and your comments are very welcome. The Tablao de Carmen is a place with a real and plain flamenco atmosphere where you can have drinks and food while a group of good flamenco artists perform in a very genuine and traditional way. We are sorry that we have not match your expectations (if this is the place where you came and not another one).