Restaurante Mesón Don Fernando — Restaurant in Arcos de la Frontera

I am pretty sure you can find somewhere better to eat in Arcos than this place. We were really disappointed. First of all, if you’re in a hurry or with a tight schedule than you can look for somewhere else to eat. Waiters are always in a rush yet the plates are not coming out of the kitchen at the same pace and you can’t blame slowness on the complexity of the dishes. Secondly, the today’s special have a very interesting price 12€ for an appetizer + a main course + a dessert + a drink, but you can’t say that you’re getting something for your money. We had to send back our plates because the chicken was literally raw. The fries were cold and soaked in salad water. As for the desserts, well we never got to taste them, the waiter took our order and never came back with them. We decided to leave, the waiter justified himself to the manager by saying they never took our order. And finally, you better have some cash to pay as they do not accept cards (I do not remember seeing it written somewhere prior to asking for the bill). The neighboring tables weren’t really satisfied by what they’ve ordered. I can’t say anything about the tapas on the menu, we did...

My husband and I visited this place twice, and we were very happy with everything. The setup of the restaurant is authentic, as are the people and the food. We ordered a wide variety of foods here, and they were all wonderfully prepared.

The service was excellent, the staff is very patient/friendly to let me practice some Spanish speaking skills (I am far from proficient but I enjoy trying). My husband forgot his backpack here once, the staff kept it safe until we picked it up an hour later. Prices are more than fair, especially for how wonderful the food is and how large the portion sizes are. Having a warm/filling lunch, together with two non-alcoholic beers and two coffees for under €30 is an absolute steal (I don’t think this is possible in the Netherlands anymore, so my husband and I were very pleasantly surprised).

Payment by cash is preferred, and the restaurant is located uphill. But if you ask me, this is to be expected in an old city like arcos. These are just normal things you should prepare for as a visitor, most one star reviews come from unprepared people that enjoy complaining, even I as a Dutch person am...

We went to this place for lunch as we thought we had been here 3 years ago and liked THAT RESTAURANT AND SERVICE very much. It was a very different situation today . The staff were pushy , unfriendly and even cheeky as they even brought out a meal we did not order. ( We had to change our order as although the signs said you could have a lot of different tapas , only the half or full sizes and this meal was not on the agreed version. My partner is a gentleman and never complains, do he had about 1/3 of it instead of sending it back ) This way we paid at least double the price as we usually pay at a similar place for a light lunch. Besides that the fried eggplant was awful: with very thick and oily coat and very thin eggplant slices. The spinach croquettes didn’t taste good at all and had almost no spinach in them. We will definitely not go there any more when visiting Andalusia and Arcos de la Fronte and would not recommend this...