Restaurante Varadero Viejo Las Galletas — Restaurant in Arona

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY – A MASTERCLASS IN HOW NOT TO RUN A RESTAURANT

Booked a table for two for a late dinner at 8 PM, hoping for a pleasant evening. Unfortunately, being greeted and seated by the waiter was the only thing that went remotely right.

Let me break this disaster down clearly:

Menu Confusion

We saw cocktails on the menu — great. Except, the waiter informed us, "We don’t serve these; it’s from our other restaurant." Why is a completely unrelated menu being handed to paying guests?

Starters

Calamari – Overcooked, chewy, and completely tasteless. No seasoning. I had to ask for salt and pepper just to make it edible.

Boiled potatoes with local mojo sauces – The only halfway decent item… or so we thought (read to the end for the surprise).

Drinks

Asked for an orange juice – never arrived.

Ordered a large draught beer – received a small bottled 33cl instead.

Service (or lack thereof)

No checkbacks. No follow-up. Nobody noticed empty glasses. To add to the chaos, one of the waiters decided to put on a personal X-Factor audition, singing along loudly to the music and dancing between the tables. His hospitality skills matched his singing ability — poor.

Main Course Service

Mains arrived while starter plates were still on the table. Instead of clearing them, the waiter literally handed us our used starter cutlery to reuse for the main. Inexcusable.

Mains

Grilled Chicken Breast – Dry, overcooked, and utterly bland. It was pan-fried to oblivion, not grilled. Served with soggy potato wedges and a limp salad of aging leaves, onion, tomato, and cucumber — no dressing, no effort.

Beef Tenderloin – Ordered medium rare. Received medium to well. When I pointed this out, the waiter cluelessly responded: “So you wanted it red?” Dear staff: steak is not cooked by colour chart. It’s cooked by temperature and doneness, not red vs. green.

Eventually, a replacement steak arrived — this time rare, not medium rare as ordered. At that point, I was starving and accepted it, thankfully with a fresh set of cutlery and a steak knife (finally!).

Manager? No Show

We asked to speak with a manager. Of course — “not here tonight”. We shared our complaints with the waiter instead. The response? A generic, soulless “sorry.”

The Final Insult – The Bill

Despite the poor food, poor service, and multiple complaints, everything was charged in full. No goodwill gesture. No apologies in action.

Worse still — the final insult — we were charged an extra €1.80 for “Salsa sauces 2 pax” which came with the potatoes starter. The sauces were included in the starter description and were never ordered separately. When questioned, the waiter simply said, “Well, you ate them, right?”

It’s not about €1.80 — it’s about principle. You don’t charge for something a customer didn’t order and was included with another item.

Final Verdict:

Poor food quality

Utter lack of professionalism

Laughable service

Hidden charges

Zero accountability

We are never coming back. And we strongly advise others to stay away. There are plenty of far better places nearby that actually understand how to treat customers and serve food...

We stayed 2 weeks in Tenerife and our accommodation was near the restaurant. Needless to say it became our 'close to home' restaurant and we dined here almost every night. Everything was incredibly delicious and the fish soooooo fresh. We were lucky enough to be able to try almost all the menu - octopus (loved the grilled one the most, but don't miss the Galician one either), clams, shrimps, paella, tuna, zarzuella and so on, but the best of all was the fish baked in the oven... we had it 4 different times, with different fish of the day and it was INCREDIBLE!!! Pair it with the house white wine and you'll have an amazing meal. Absolutely recommend this restaurant, as the food is incredible and the staff is so friendly and very responsive to our questions and needs. 10/10, we'd love to come...

Every time I go there I'm fully satisfied with food quality and the stuff service. Food itself is really good both in quality and aspect on the plate. I appreciate that the restaurant itself use fresh materials and from the local port (seems obvious but not all places around Las Galletas use local fish). Stuff is friendly but also professional and precise. Everything was prepared and served quite quickly and at good pace from starter to dessert. Unfortunately I don't have all the photos to share of what was eaten, but I totally recommend the mixture of fish and seafood for 2, and the canarian dessert...