La Taberna del Gourmet — Restaurant in Alicante

I went with 2 friends to this restaurant and it looked very nice and promising, It turned out to be not such a nice night. The staff looked very stressed at all times, as if it was understaffed. But they weren't.. We ordered oysters and fried calamari as a starter. The oysters took 30 minutes..and had one bad one in there. The calamari were like rubber and the bread around it was way to thick so we didn't eat them. They also didn't charge us for those. And that was nice and normal. Then we ordered scallop carpaccio with artichokes. So blend and boring. Couldn't even taste the scallop. Had to put oil and pepper on to make it a bit more interesting. Also ordered salmon tartar which they didn't have so we went with tuna tartar and steak tartar. After seasoning it a lot it was nice. My friend ordered 5 big langoustines. We had to wait 45 min for them cause they were just going to be brought to them fresh. Well, they were not fresh, cause we know what that tastes like and they were also blend as hell. So its probably the chef. After all that we got the bill and they charged 95€ alone for the langoustines let alone the rest. By weight, and yes the math was right, but that was way to much for what that was and tasted like. Nevertheless we paid. By card. My friend put his pin code in the machine for his part of the bill. And pressed ok. Nothing happend and no receipt came out. So he asked for a receipt from the machine where it said that he didn't pay. That the transaction didn't go through. Cause he had had a bad experience with that before. Well, that was not possible. Why? We still don't really know. The staff blamed it on the internet We insisted, and we talked to the manager for a while and he could give us a receipt. When i was starting to get bad was when the manager suggested that we just didn't want to pay. That was totally not the case. I would have paid way less for that quality of food yes, but we were planning on paying the whole bill. In the end we were trying to leave our part of the cash and leave. Then they threatened to call the police and we said they could. After standing outside for a while waiting for the police to come (that never came) the manager came and talked to us. We finally settled and he gave us 80€ back on the bill. A very stressful night, with bad food and service...too bad cause the place looked great. If you want real good food, go to Teatro Bistro Terrace restaurant inside at the theatre around the corner. Now thats...

While on holiday in the region, we visited this restaurant at the end of the one day that we stayed in Alicante.

The restaurant had been recommended by my nephews fiance. And indeed: the food was excellent and the atmosphere was good.

However, the experience with this restaurant turned 180° after we had discovered what had really happened that evening. A few days after the visit to the restaurant, I discovered that money had been removed from my wallet which was in my bag during dinner, as well as a credit card that was not there anymore.

Upon contacting the bank, it appeared that the credit card had been used for several small amounts in several shops and small restaurants in Alicante around that time. Thinking back with all six people that were at the table that evening, we came to the conclusion that a chaotic moment that had been created by the waiting staff, had been the time during which they have taken my bag, which was standing on the floor next to my foot, to the back of the restaurant, took my wallet out to remove the money and the credit cards, to put it back in my bag and place my bag on the floor again where it was originally. As I wasn’t the one who paid that evening, I noticed it only a few days later when I tried to pay something at a market and I came to the discovery that my money had gone.

A big thank you to the restaurant to have ruined my holiday. Also thanks for all the hassle I had to go through to get the credit card blocked, to get a new one, to report the events to the police once I got back home, etc.

And last but not least: I have emailed the restaurant twice with this story requesting an explanation and possibly a compensation for my loss. They didn’t even bother responding.

This makes me conclude that the restaurant responsible person is part of this scam. Be aware of your personal stuff when visiting this restaurant. Keep your belongings on your body. Don’t lose track of your belongings for even one second. Don’t...

We went there following a recommendation, and based on reading the reviews, with high expectations but it was a lower average, very overpriced experience. For starters we had the so called "crystal bread with tomatoes and olive oil" 2,7 euros for 2 pieces of toasted baguette bottoms with tomatoes - nothing special at all. 4 (!) pieces of garlic prawns for 20€, I was not able to taste any spices at all, including no garlic taste, which is a pretty basic flavor. Small portion of mussels in white wine sauce for 9,70€, not expensive for the portion but still the most basic mussels with soup like texture of the sauce, which was still tasteless. Even my nephew would be disappointed in the size of one piece of 3,5€ ham croquette, with average taste and falling apart texture (due to cream cheese). Now to the main courses: Lamb chops tasting good but plain, the peppers were okay perhaps i could imagine more creative side dishes 24,50€ Bass filet skin was crispy and nice, the meat was soft and delicious with bit of veggie mix (of course no spices on the veggies) and bearnaise sauce what was olive oil tasting mayonnaise, without any signs of wild garlic-tarragon hollandese structure as it should be, but this dish would be good actually. Sadly, it was 26,95€. The service team was nice and professional, although they didn't top up our wine our asking about how is the food and they took time to realize we are done and might want to pay and leave. We had a bottle of Verdejo that was delicious and nice characteristics dry white wine for 24€. The espresso was delicious and the spoon was fancy. 2,2€

The place is very nice from inside but kind of a basement without windows.

122,45€ not well spend...