Nou Arcos — Restaurant in Elx / Elche

What can I say about this place. To be truthful, the food was excellent HOWEVER To be honest, very overpriced, for what it was the paella, which we had asked the chef to give us his own recommendation and choose for us, which we regularly do. Was just a bit of rice with four prawns on top and two muscles That in itself was not a problem as they will of course, try to tell us this is traditional. However, it was in my opinion oversalted. The main problem with this place is that it is incredibly unwelcoming! The owner blatantly blanked us because we spoke in English, I corroborated this view that I had formed by asking him on paying the bill. If he liked the English or not, he replied, not very much. He warmed to us slightly when I switch to my mother tongue, which is French (my wife and I only conversing English as a tool for us to communicate between ourselves). This gives the impression to people listening that we are English, which we are not , I speak fluent French and my wife speaks fluent Lithuanian. As I said previously we only use English as a tool to converse between ourselves. We noticed the owner of Juan was very attentive to the table next to us, simply because the French guy on that table, and he was French, spoke fluent, Spanish, I speak, Spanish only broken, so therefore I switch between English and French. Just for the record, I am Irish and not English and I state again, I only use English as a tool to conversed with people who don’t understand me when I speak in my native French. We were treated as secondary citizens, that is how they made us feel simply because we spoke in English. Therefore, I would say to all of my English friends, give this place a swerve as they will overcharge you, and will treat you as a second class citizen if they suspect you are English. I will state once more. The food was excellent. The first waiter was a really cheerful guy, but the owner in my opinion was an unpleasant and unwelcome in person, and by his own admission, dislikes, the English to the point where he will overcharge and deliberately blank his own customers. It was an unpleasant and to a fantastic week here in los Arenales. If I could give this place, no stars, because of the owner, I would, if you are happy to come here and just eat good food then good luck to you the food was...

I don’t even know how to start. The staff constantly clowning around makes the experience more like a circus than a dinner. Our waitress’ non-stop banging on each dish was rather annoying. While we were eating a waiter came up to us unprompted and said (not offered, but blatantly stated) that he will ‚help’ us clean our fish. He was standing there, ‚helping’ for around 10mins, while we were picking at our plates - all three of us silent. Rather awkward. Moreover, his unwanted help resulted in putting all the pieces of cut-up fish in the oven dish full of oil it was served in (at first, when we were cleaning it alone the oil hadn’t soaked through the big pieces, making it somewhat edible. After the waiter’s intervention very single piece was drenched - may I add it wa surely not good quality olive oil 🙃.) We didn’t want to argue or complain, so without finishing our dish we just wanted to pay and leave as fast as possible. To save the already tragic situation the staff decided it would be an amazing idea to offer us (me - who was drinking wine and my non-drinking partner who did not have any alcohol even though she was offered it multiple times) a shot of limoncello. My partner declined, and they said no problem - we have non alcoholic liquor. We declined politely as we didn’t want it at all. Their reaction to us repeatedly saying no to the alcohol free shot was to repeat ‚YES YES NO ALCOHOL’ and pouring half the unwanted shot - there was not enough in the bottle, another person a minute later came up and poured the rest, even though we kept saying we didn’t want it. And of course at the end when I could finally pay I saw they charged us for bread 5€ even though we declined it because - watch out for this - it’s written in tiny letters on the menu tht they charge and bring you the bread unless you say no. Fortunately she changed the bill after I brought it to her attention. The experience overall ruined our evening, which we were excited for based on the reviews. Nothing screams ‚tourist trap’ like this...

Una experiencia para no volver. 20 de abril 2025. Hora y media, esperando que nos sirvieran el arroz, parece ser que se les cayó la comanda y se olvidaron de nosotros. Cuando reclamé. Llegó Fernando, un mal educado y poco profesional, llevando el arroz para servir, nos preguntó por tres veces si nos servía o no, a las que contestamos que sí, la tercera vez en tono alto, por si era sordo. Y nos dijo, ahora no les sirvo y no nos sirvió y nos echo diciendo que nos fuéramos a un McDonald, en ningún momento se le falto el respeto, él a nosotros sí. Deplorable comportamiento. Había testigos que vieron su aptitud.

Le voy a contestar en esta misma reseña a su respuesta. Como ya he dicho en ningún momento se insultó a ninguna persona, ni a Fernando ni a ningún camarero. Se lo dije en persona delante de su padre y el señor que está detrás de la barra y se lo repito, nunca insultamos a nadie. Sí, vimos hostilidad a la hora de irnos a servir y si no, el porque de repetir tres veces, si nos servía o no. De la llamada telefónica no soy responsable, tampoco hubo amenazas. Sí querer aclarar las cosas. Y que se disculpase. No he contando el final, pero ahora lo voy hacer. Como pedí la hoja de reclamaciones, que tanto el dueño como el señor de la barra, me preguntaron que había pasado yo se lo conté y Fernando seguía diciendo que le habíamos tratado como basura, e insultado, yo tranquilamente le dice que estaba mintiendo y el lo sabía, nunca había hecho eso. Me pidieron que llamase a mi marido para resolver todo amistosamente y que nos servirian la comida. Volvimos y aceptamos las disculpas ya eran las 16,30. Al preguntar yo, donde podíamos sentarnos, apenas había gente en el local.Ya estaban recogiendo. Se oyó de nuevo a Fernando, " yo no les sirvo" vociferando. Yo le dije, no importa, nos puede atender otro camarero. A lo que el padre, (nos enteramos entonces que era el padre) nos dijo No sé sienten, que no les vamos a atender. Es mi hijo y no quiero tener un disgusto con él. Mi marido le dijo, lo comprendo. Cuanto le debemos por lo que habíamos consumido. No, nos quiso cobrar, aunque mi marido insistió en pagar. Nos fuimos con un disgusto mayor, habíamos accedido a resolver el asunto como personas educadas y civilizadas. (cuando se abrió este local en Arenales, fuimos en varias ocasiones con amigos y familiares, sin ningún problema) Al salir nos volvió a repetir por segunda vez (Fernando) Vayanse a un McDonald. En un tono muy agresivo. Esto es lo que realmente pasó, nos preguntamos porqué?? Siento mucho todo esto, me supuso un ataque de ansiedad y un derrame en el ojo derecho. Era el cumpleaños de mi marido 76 años, y lo quisimos celebrar en ese restaurante. Y nos siguen diciendo que nosotros les insultamos, como ya dije hubo clientes que vieron todo y con los que hablé y vieron tal y como ocurrió, dándonos la razón. Lo vieron directamente, se fueron decepcionados por el trato que nos había dado repito, Fernando, ningún otro camarero, el resto fueron correctos y educados. Nunca, nunca nos había pasado esto. Es muy lamentable que se consienta este comportamientocon los clientes, por muy hijo del...