ILILI Restaurant — Restaurant in Arona

This place was absolutely the best value place to eat in Las Americas, Tenerife.

Full Lebanese Menu to choose from all reasonably priced, but I had a budget for eating daily so we decided to eat from the Set Menu priced at €12.95 for 3 course's.

The food was excellent, amazing for the price paid per person, the quality, freshness of the food and portion sizes. You did not feel you was eating from a chapear set menu.

I highly recommend this place and the best compliment was all clean plates, after each course from all of us. We also returned the very next day for another evening meal trying something different for our mains, on our last night.

I wanted to apologise to the owner (which I did 3 times, once was in a private part of the bar) for dismissing her when she tried talking to me when I walked past her resturant. All she wanted do was talk to me, and try and explain her menu and entice/invite me to eat at her resturant. The reason I walked past this restaurant was I assumed it was a seafood restaurant (I don't like or eat seafood personally). My other family members called me back, we chatted with the owner (a lady) who was a magnificent and excellent host, and all her staff was so friendly and helpful.Nd a credit to the restaurant creating and excentlwnt culernery experience, and a great night out. We had local produced beer and my daughter's had soft drinks. They do offer spirits and cocktails.

We got talking to several people/couples and families who like myself, were looking for a place to eat, looking at the restaurant menu outside . I got 3/4 groups to eat at the restaurant over the 2 nights.

This review is based on my 2x consecutive visit's to the restaurant and we ate in 8-9 different places over a week for breakfast/lunch and dinner. In my opinion the food was so fresh, tasty and looked excellent. If I return to Tenerife again for the 4th time I will be returning to this place again.to eat.

PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION: Make sure you ask to try the Lebanese Rice (it sounds boring, but it was so light, tasty, and looked absolutely mouth watering when it came with my main meal on both nights, and it ABSOLUTELY WAS MY FAVOURITE THING I ATE IN TENERIFE, see the pictures included in my review).

I personally rate this place 5/5 eating, atmosphere and customer service.

PS: Put this place on your...

Absolutely horrible place, just because of service. Honestly, expected more from something that names as "restaurant". Went to them specifically to get their national dishes and nice arabic service. But, unfortunately for me, I didn't get what I've expected. First of all, the food itself was relatively nice, though can't say it was great, and surely prices are high as heck just because of crowded area and touristic Tenerife itself. But what is appalling, is that the portion are small for this price, overall everything is small and expensive because of their greed and westerners small brain that buys everything without looking at price. Next, I will describe all what I've got from this place: The menu's prices and the final price on receipt is notably different, every dish has 2-4€ on top without telling you. Told the waitress about it, she just said "uuh, we need to update that". Yeeeah, sure. Drinks were served immediately, and with enormous pieces of ice cubes. You are expecting about ~380ml of drink out of 500ml glass, are you? Nuh-huh, you're getting less than a half of it. Plus, as I said before, the price was 3€ in menu, but in the receipt it is 5,50€. Wow, cool. Asked for some tissues, because there was just one tiny. Got another one, just ONE, by waitress grabbing it from another table. I want to remind that in Europe no one regrets on giving away a lot of tissues, and the Arab people are also just like this. But not in this greedy case. While checking the receipt (something that drunk tourists won't do), I noticed a 5% "service charge"(?) marked in the receipt. An unwanted surprise. After this I still decided to pay, didn't want to cause a drama, because I was with my family there. Paid it in cash, was waiting her to get me the rest. She just started cleaning everything rapidly and pretend to be busy. She lurked straight up to my eyes while we were waiting, said nothing and continued to be busy with table. Excellent. Would leave a tip, but it seems that she decided to take it by herself. What a shame. This place is a disgrace to Lebanon cuisine and and their culture, absolutely appalling experience.

I just hope this review may help other people to be not scammed by this disgusting greedy...

We visited this restaurant after reading many glowing reviews about their gluten-free options. My boyfriend is a diagnosed celiac, so we are extremely careful when dining out. We double-checked everything with the waiter using Google Translate, repeatedly explaining that he is very allergic to gluten. We were told the shawarma would be safe if served without the bread.

When the food arrived, the rice appeared to be mixed with something that looked like pasta. Concerned, we asked the waiters what it was - both confidently told us it was rice noodles. Halfway through the meal, one of the waiters returned to say they had just checked with the kitchen, and actually, today’s recipe included gluten-containing pasta. We were horrified.

My boyfriend immediately ran to the toilet to try and make himself sick. The waitstaff explained that other gluten-free diners sometimes bring their own bread and are “usually fine” because the recipe “changes sometimes” - but surely, if you know the recipe changes, the first thing you do is check if today’s version is safe.

We only received an apology after my boyfriend had spent 45 minutes vomiting in the toilet. They waived the cost of the meal which was kind, but the overall attitude felt alarmingly casual - as if this was an innocent mistake rather than a serious health risk. One of the waiters even tried to reassure us by saying that some gluten-free people don’t react - we had to explain that celiac disease isn’t a lifestyle choice. It’s not like being vegan; you can’t just “choose” to tolerate gluten.

This was a terrifying experience, and while accidents happen, the lack of urgency, training, and seriousness was unacceptable. If you have allergies or celiac disease, I’d think twice before dining here. This was also a shame as the food was...