Villa Serena — Restaurant in Baja California Sur

We REALLY wanted to like Villa Serena... given the outstanding reviews, mixed in with many mediocre reviews, and some just plain bad reviews. We went with an open mind, hoping for the best! Decent ambiance, with the swimming pool in the middle of the restaurant, from its prior life as the diner for a trailer park community...

Karen was our server, she did a decent job, but after waiting an hour for our entrees, she approached the table saying there was some miscomm... not sure if it was the iPad ordering device, or she just blew it, after 20 minutes she should have inquired of the kitchen. We were only one of 5-7 tables in the entire restaurant, so it wasn't like it was packed or she was busy. I get the whole "slow paced" meal concept, but this was neglect, not slow paced.

Just want to offer an observation about the cats... there are lots of them there. We not "cat people" but cats are OK... but when they are pawing at your legs and arms while you're trying to eat, that's a bit much. Cats = turn off x10.

We started the meal with a margarita and the chips, salsa, pico de gallo and guacamole... all were very good! The chips were small, perfect for dipping into the condiments. We also ordered a bottled water, which set us back almost $3 USD... it was CostCo bottled water... what a mark up! Very disappointed in what was supposed to be one of the "gems of Cabo." Looking back, we should have stopped the meal here, it may have been 4 stars!

For entrees we ordered the seafood combination and the "Sunday special" paella... the seafood combo was overly fishy, old seafood the most likely culprit. Too much garlic, which did not put a dent in the fishy taste. The paella was an interesting combination of everything in the kitchen, some seafood, chicken, short ribs (we think) and other ingredients we could not identify. The shrimp in the paella was dry and powdery, not sure how you cook shrimp to get that consistency, but it was not good. Overall, the flavor of both dishes was very disappointing!

The finale was a slice of key lime pie, and "birthday treat" for which we were charged $7 USD... it wasn't so much the charge that was bothersome, it just didn't taste good. A very sub-par ending to a sub-par meal. For all the hype, we won't be going back. The prices are reasonable, but the quality is simply lacking. Cannot recommend...

We had been coming here a lot over the past 30 years. We received the old tourist restaurant shuffle on Monday night. Wouldn't split bill between three couples, asked for "regular" Margaritas, told to tip at 25%. Lol. Message to the owner: You over sold us by serving your high end Cadilac Margaritas for $25 a piece. Then, when we aked to split the bill three-ways between us, waiter said he couldn't do it. After we insisted, once the bill arrived because we noticed numerical errors in your favor, he did it. At that point, he told us that they required that we tip at 20%, which we did not do. Your dinner waiter on Monday night might be your big ticket writer, but you could have gotten a lot more business out of us and our local resident friends if he had treating us with more respect. We've seen this before in other busy tourist restaurants where they shake down every customer that walks in the door just because they can. They never expect see any of them again. Well, if that's your business model, then sadly you accomplished that with us. Will not be going back. Will, however, bring this experience up with our friends when talking about local...

DISH DETERGENT IN THE FOOD!

I have been going here for years with my family when I come to visit them in Cabo San Jose. Our experience was horrible. First the coffee mugs had leftover lipstick and were not clean. We order our food and it’s wrong. I had asked for chilaquiles verdes and they gave me the wrong salsa. I had asked for a side order of peppers and they had forgotten. When we ordered extra salsa - there was dried dish detergent stuck along the side and inside the salsa! I almost lost it at that moment. That was more than three strikes. I talked to our waiter, Jorge, and he offered a round of free drinks. Only thing was it was happy hour 2x1 during 1-5pm. So the drinks we received were already included. I called him out on it and that’s when he brought another round. But my patience was wearing thin. You would think they’d offer a discount when our bill arrived but no. I had to go up to the manager and explain the situation to get 10% off. Even with that- I will never be returning. The lack of service and cleanliness had disgusted...