Baja Restaurant Beach Club -Crete — Restaurant in Municipality of Rethymnon

My family of four came here on a weekday in August for a special occasion. We did not have a reservation but requested the best available seat upon arrival but were flexible knowing that we did not have a reservation. Upon arrival the place is absolutely beautiful, and the staff is nice and welcoming. We waited about ten minutes to be seated. We were seated at a daybed right in front of the baby pool in the family section. Initially I was put off by this since we don’t have young kids but the staff recommended since we have kids (age 11) that the family section would be best. We agreed and paid 70 euro for this daybed. We waited about 30 minutes and no server had come by, so I walked around to find a staff member to order food and coffee. They paged the server to come take our order, and after another 15 minutes he did not come so I kindly asked them to please just take our order and they agreed. That was frustrating. Food came rather quickly but the coffees were forgotten so we had to wait even longer for that. An hour after arriving we finally got our coffees! We stayed here for 7 hours and were hoping to eat lunch and dinner and do drinks here, but that never happened due to server not attending to our section by the baby pool. He came around once in 7 hours on his own, the other times we had to flag other servers down. However it was apparent that the lack of service was only in the family section as I observed the patrons on the other side of the pool getting prompt and frequent service. Ultimately we left here due to slow service to go have dinner and drinks at another beach bar close by. I would definitely come back but would make a reservation ahead of time NOT in the family section. I think we would have had an amazing experience and easily spent 5-6x more with better service by being seated elsewhere. Again the club is beautiful and amenities are great, the beach was one of my favorites that we went to (small pebbles, clear water, calm). We will try...

On arrival we were greeted nicely. I wouldn’t say it was super friendly or a warm welcome but we were acknowledged and questions about how it worked answered. I almost felt like we weren’t quite pretentious enough for the ‘occasion’ which is unfortunate as it is a gorgeous setting.

We had 7 of us and booked an umbrella and 2 chair setting between each couple 20€ which was definitely worth it for the day. Once again beautiful setting right on the beach. Note, If you only had one person you still have to pay the 20€ for the set (1 umbrella- 2 chairs).

Self service was required food/drink wise or you could order through scanning the QR code online. If you use their wifi it was very glitchy and kept dropping out. I was very underwhelmed by the menu and the prices! And decided to just oder off the snack menu. A toasted chicken club sandwich (served with wedges) 13.50€. The club sandwich was hot but the chicken smelt and tasted a bit tainted, maybe it was smoked but anyway, it was nothing special especially for the price! The wedges were luke warm. We have eaten at so many wonderful and great priced tavernas/restaurants over the last week that this was a complete flop food & service wise in comparison! I wouldn’t waste my money again on the food, take your own snacks!

The beach was lovely, however we did pick up a bit of rubbish (plastic cups) from the ocean so I do hope for the price we pay, that staff do their bit too with the beautiful setting/ocean environment. On departing there were two staff chatting at reception. I said thank you (efcharisto) as we were leaving. They didn’t even turn to acknowledge us (7 of us). I felt it was very rude. I would think twice about going back and if I did I would be much more prepared.

Expensive, underwhelming and inhospitable service, in my opinion. Usually Cretans are wonderfully great at this.

Setting/atmosphere 4/5 Service 2/5 Food 2/5

It could be...

I have been visiting Baja every summer for 10 years and have always enjoyed the place. Unfortunately, this time I had a very negative experience due to the attitude of a waitress.

At reception, we were told the sunbed set costs 25€, that it cannot be taken individually (as a sunbed alone but rather as a set of two), and that students are entitled to one free set. Since my friend is a student, we were given one set free of charge.

After sitting comfortably for more than 3.5 hours and already ordering drinks, a waitress suddenly came, dragged a sunbed near us without asking, and told us to either pay 25€ or leave and that the student free of charge is only for one sunbed -note that in the reception they made clear to us they don’t give sunbeds alone but always sets of two and that a student has for free a set of 25€- So not only was this the opposite of what reception had explained (so I don’t see how this was our fault) , but her tone and behavior were unnecessarily RUDE. She didn’t even let me speak — simply said “either give me 25€ or leave" without even looking at me.

For me, 25€ is nothing and I would have paid it upfront without hesitation, but the way she came with that attitude made me not want to give her even 1€

I would strongly suggest that the service and hosting team first communicate properly with each other before confronting guests. If there was indeed a mistake at reception, it could have been clarified politely and immediately and I would have paid (if approached politely) , not hours later and certainly not...