Restaurante Juan Abril — Restaurant in Altea

RUDE. ARROGANT. DESPICABLE. OVERPRICED. Basically a tourist con job. On an extremely hot day we went into this establishment (There is no menu to look at on the outside of the restaurant, so no idea of food served, prices, etc.) So myself and my partner ( Spanish residents) and my son visiting me from Australia were shown to a table and were asked for our drink order. After a few minutes the waiter brought us a tablet (the waiter told us that it was very slow to load the menu pages) on a stand which we had to scan through to look at the menu. This in itself is awkward to do with three people and only one tablet. We were not that hungry and really only wanted a snack each, which was not on the menu, so decided to just have one drink and go elsewhere, something that most establishments do not have a problem with, especially when the restaurant was mostly empty. When the drinks eventually arrived after around 15 minutes, the waiter put bread on the table and I then told him that we only wanted a drink. He walked away and then the manager/owner came to the table. “You cannot have just a drink, THIS is a restaurant!!” he barked at us. My partner asked him well in that case do you want to take the drinks away and we will leave? He stormed off. After this we were made to feel very uncomfortable, like I said, even though the place was almost empty. When the bill came he had charged us 2€ each for table service (as I saw in a earlier review, this is illegal here). From reading the reviews it seems that there is a policy of ‘if your face fits we will take care of you.’ We have never been treated this way anywhere else in Spain. For what this little man thinks is such a swish, posh restaurant, it is actually a disgrace to beautiful Altea.

RUDE. ARROGANT....

STAY AWAY!!! I was there today with my wife, our baby, and my mother. When we arrived, there were only 2 other tables who were already eating. We ordered our food and waited around an hour. A few tables filled up and all those people were served very quickly. We asked the waiter how much longer it would take, because my mother has to take medication with food at a specific hour. We were told "5 more minutes". We waited another 15 minutes and asked again. We were told "7 more minutes" about an hour and half had passed by and we had to keep asking for them to at least bring some food or bread for our baby and my mother to nibble on. Finally we spoke with the owner who kept blaming his staff and saying it would take 12 more minutes. Almost 20 minutes had gone by and we decided to leave because our baby had to go to sleep. We asked them to cancel the order and they did not offer to make up for the I convenience. Instead they charged us 50 euros for 2 beers, waters, French fries and 6 Euros for some bread. I tried to speak with the owner and he wouldn't come out of his office. Finally the staff asked him to come and he would not offer even a partial refund. He kept blaming his staff about losing our order ticket, and even used the excuse that "the fire was not hot enough, that is why it took long to cook" and then stating that this is the Spanish system. Very disappointed. ...

As with other reviewers, the food itself was ok, but what we did not like was the extra charges...

First they give you bread (there was 3 of us, so three little rolls), these were 2€ each, they don't tell you this when you sit down, it is just there. We asked if they have alioli and the very friendly waiter said yes we have alioli and tomato, so we agreed to get that, never was it mentioned these cost 2€50 each, we understood it was probably extra, but the way the waiter phrased it, it sounded like they came together.

As we were not overly hungry, we ordered a paella for two , we were told us as there were 3 of us, we needed to order a paella for 3. we explained our 6 year old doesn't eat a lot and we were happy to share our rice with him. After checking with the boss he agreed, but then told us there was a surcharge of 5€ or 7€ (I don't remember) for not ordering a starter. I can understand a paella takes a while to cook, so they don't want to lose money while people wait, but we would still be drinking their overly priced drinks.

Anyway, long story short, the paella was average for the area, the staff were excellent and very friendly. I would not go again because of their hidden charges, we would have happily paid more for the paella and probably left happy, but all these hidden extras leave a bad taste...