Restaurante El romántico — Restaurant in Arona

Unfortunately this was the worst mixed fish and seafood plate I ever had in Tenerife (or anywhere, even at home far from the sea), and I'm coming here for holidays since years. The starter, avocado with shrimps, was already a bad indicator. Neither avocado nor shrimps had any taste, there was no salt, no spices, no nothing, cold stale shrimp, cooked, not even fried. buying ready made shrimp sauce from the supermarket would've been the better alternative. The fish on the mixed seafood plate however was the biggest disappointment,as you pay quite a sum for it. The salmon was tasteless and overcooked, another fish completely without texture (watery if anything), the next completely overcooked and dry (unedible), all of them obviously frozen and poor quality. The gambas, which you can buy at any supermarket fresh and to a very low price, were also obviously not fresh at all but rather deepfrozen and old, texture was poor and taste even worse, also not cleaned. I've made some tapas with gambas/shrimps this holiday and I know how they look and taste when they're fresh. This was the third mixed fish plate this holiday, so after two really good ones this one was just awful. The only thing that tasted rather good were the 4 mussels and the canarian potatoes, unfortunately that cannot make up at all for this horrible experience. Staff tried to tell me it's because it might be a different fish than in other restaurants but seriously, that's just another no-go after I already told her I know what these fish are supposed to taste like if they're good quality. It's impossible to serve fresh fish only I'm sure, but if you don't serve fresh fish when you're located 30 metres next to the sea, at least chose a good quality frozen fish and hire a chef who can actually cook. I tried to eat it, I really did, but in the end I just couldn't bring myself to it. Both my boyfriend and I couldn't finish. Rather serve less fish than something like this. I feel Sorry for anybody who has to experience this disappointment, especially when you're trying to enjoy yourself and spoil yourself a little. Of course we had to pay the full price as well. Audacious, at best....

Awful. Simply awful. My wife and I went to this restaurant this evening. Staff friendly. We ordered onion soup, garlic bread with tomato, ribs with a cheese sauce and lasagna. The onion soup was very weak like it was out of a packet. In the middle was what could be described as a tiny spongy square that looked like something you would wash your pots with. No matter how I pushed it into the soup it bobbed back up. The garlic bread was 2 overdone pieces of bread toasted with tomato’s on top that just fell off the bread. The bread that came with the soup was fresh and warm. Very good. When the ribs came I thought it was a joke. I couldnt see them. They were covered in a cheese sauce. When I found them (both of them) they were tiny and so overcooked. I tried them but the tiny amount of meat was so over cooked. I didn’t eat them. When I told the waiter he was very apologetic and offered me a replacement. The manager again very apologetic told me he saw the dish when the chef put it out for service, thought it looked awful and yet still brought it out. The lasagne was very salty. My wife managed about half of it before admitting defeat. I asked for the cost of the ribs to be taken off the bill, which it was. So we had 1 still water, 1 sparkling water, 1 onion soup, 1 garlic bread and 1 lasagne. The total bill was €27. Nice staff but the food...

We stumbled upon this restaurant in a lane off the main promenade and were approached by Ali. Now I mostly find the front of house 'tempters' overbearing but not Ali. He was polite and respectful and did not push too much. We continued walking and decided to return as we liked the setting and what the menu offered.

Ali showed us to our table and offered just the right amount of attention. He is polite, knowledgeable and prompt. Service was excellent and we were presented with a super value house wine and two expertly (freshly) cooked steaks and seasonal vegetables.

Throughout the evening the atmosphere was lively and Ali and Amy(bartender) engaged in a well gauged banter keeping a pleasing respect for the customers whilst being friendly and amusing. It's difficult to not like Ali and Amy is adorable.

We liked it so much we returned two nights later when we were treated royaly and the food was of an identical high standard.

The bill for two was very reasonable given the food and great house wine and I had no qualm in recommending it to several passers-by who took my advice and dined there. Service was faultless and the overall experience was so much fun I will return next time I visit. Well done Ali, well done Amy.

You should visit...