Taverna Valentino — Restaurant in Benalmádena

We were looking forward to a great meal at this restaurant with a rating of 4,8. However, unfortunately nothing could ever justify this rating. I seldom write one star reviews but it is simply unfair towards other, lower-rated, hard working restaurants when a mediocre restaurant rides the wave of a disproportionally high rating. We were deeply disappointed by the service and the food of Taverna Valentino.

We asked to receive a simple starter of bruschetta simultaneously as our mains. This did not happen. Our bruschetta came in first - all by itself. While the tomato, garlic and herb blend was good, the base was a thin pizza dough. That is simply not a bruschetta, I am sorry. When we had finished the bruschetta, the waitress came back empty-handed, only removing one plate; leaving the rest of the plates on the table. After us carefully asking where our food was (late arriving guests had already received theirs and we realized other orders had also been forgotten around us), we received our main dish a solid 30 minutes after ordering. We had tried to order chicken fillet with sallad and fries but were informed the kitchen can only handle chicken fillet with sallad OR fries. We decided to order one of the fillets with sallad and the other with fries not to complicate anything further for the kitchen - the complexity of this dish already being very high. We received a small portion of bland, completely unseasoned pan-fried chicken breast fillet. The french fries accompanying the chicken were average at best and the raw, undressed sallad mix had been taken straight out of a plastic bag and topped with tomatos layered with too many thick slices of red onion. I could have easily thrown that together in five minutes and it would have tasted heavenly in comparison. Sad..

Maybe a great place for take-away pizza but this was among the lamest restaurant 'experiences' I have ever had. Do yourself a favour and go elsewhere for a...

What a disappointment this restaurant is. Maybe there is a new chef, but he is not doing a good job. Instead of focusing on serving good food, he is drinking and shouting. We wanted to order food, but pasta was no longer possible, 'that kitchen' was closed, only pizzas. I asked for an estimate of how long it would take, the waitress said 15 minutes, this became 40! The pizzas (diavola and 5 quesos) were literally dripping with grease, limp watery base, every real Italian chef would be ashamed. The service staff was nice, but the organization was not there, but perhaps that also had to do with the chef. I feel sorry for the staff, but this chef and therefore this restaurant will not get...

I ordered a chicken schnitzel. The salad on the side was delicious, the fries were great, but unfortunately, the meat was far from what should be called a "schnitzel." A schnitzel is a crispy dish with a thick breadcrumb coating; it shouldn't be watery with soft, unclear mush in some parts. This was something, but definitely not a schnitzel! I also tried the homemade ice cream. Well, you can't really call it homemade when it comes out of a package. It tasted like a mass-produced product, and homemade ice cream in Italian cuisine is usually different. But these are just our experiences. Good luck to the guys, there's room for improvement! The staff is friendly,...