Marisqueria Freiduria San Francisco — Restaurant in Cádiz

We ate at their San Francisco establishment.

Note they have two listings for two premises in Cadiz, both with the same photos. I can only assume this is to soften the blow from poor reviews which will inevitably follow.

Something of note... we have eaten here several times before, off season, and the food has always been of a good standard.

But this is Cadiz in August.

We sat down and were greeted by a waitress who couldn't even take our drink order before launching into the most expensive options on their menu.

Eventually, after some quite forceful "debate", we settled on prawns for 2, paella and mussels.

The prawns were OK, the paella was trash. Tasteless, rubbery, void of any seafood and consisting of rice, dried out peas and a couple of prawns that most probably remember the sinking of the Titanic

As we've been partaking in alcoholic beverages all day, we had a simple tinto verano to wash it down with. This in itself was accompanied by her best efforts to sell it's authenticity. It wasn't, it's out of a bottle and I know that because we bought the same bottle from a local supermarket the night before.

When the bill came, it was almost €40.

€40 for some prawns, paella that would make a dog sick, and mussels so chewy you could reincarnate them as bubble gum if required.

Oooooh dear.

Once again.... I.AM.NOT.A.TOURIST.

Please do not treat me like one and, for that matter, don't even serve tourists with the tripe you produced tonight.

There's good and bad in Cadiz but, the good news is, if it's bad you pay - let them have their high season glory - and you don't return.

We won't.

Please don't bother eating here unless you're on the verge of a medically induced coma and need something, anything, to survive.

It isn't worth...

We ordered "un cuarto" of Cazón and "un cuarto" of calamari to take away. "Un cuarto" is 250grams. No restaurant in Cádiz would pretend otherwise. Unfortunately when we got home and opened our take away, we realised that one portion was much lighter than the other. The Cazón was 255 grams, great! The Calamari was just 117grams. Less than half the 250 grams we paid for. My husband is from Cadiz and I speak Spanish but clearly come across as British. I hope this wasn't just a case of "the foreigners won't notice or won't be back" because we do notice and we live here so I can tell you now that we won't be back!

It's a pity because both the Cazón and the Calami were very tasty for the price but I can't accept that cutting the portion of Calamari in half was a mistake.

It's quite common in a freiduría for a portion to be off by up to 20 grams or so simply because a piece of fried fish is not always going to perfectly weigh 250 grams. However, you're always issued with a receipt with the weight and the resulting price. They can then decide when to round it down or up, that's fine and honest but this was not honest. We got no receipt to check and certainly didn't expect to be charged for twice as much calamari as we got.

If Calamari is expensive and the price is for a smaller amount then fine, amend the menu or let us know when we order at least so we aren't surprised and left with a bad...

Very sad today. We have been to the branch at Plaza San Fransisco.this evening for some of this restaurants historically great seafood. Unfortunately, the waitress thought we were tourists that she could upsell to. We asked for a few prawns for 2 and paella, which to be fair we have had there several times before and really enjoyed. This time a big cone of prawns arrived.. far too many for 2 and some totally disgusting seafood paella. This not only was tasteless but had no seafood, just re heated rice, peas and a few prawns around the edge zero saffron.. . We asked for mussels also but told they had none 5 minutes later they had some . Asked for bread.. this never came.. overall the prawns were nice and mussels too, but when presented with the bill.. charged €37.. 1/2kg of prawns, a few mussels, inedible paella and 2 Tinto verano. I queried the amount and was told we were given prawns for 2... very odd as a few other locals around ordered prawns for 2 and not charged anything like this. VERY disappointing as we have previously recommended this place to our many guests... we certainly will not be doing...