Backgammon restaurant & sports bar — Restaurant in es Mercadal

This is a bar, so it's not easy to 'rate'. We stay in Arenal/Punta Grossa regularly but rarely visit the coves noves area. We wandered up to let the kids let off some steam at the attractions one evening. We ordered two cocktails whilst the kids played. A bar has one real purpose. To serve drinks. The drinks here were awful. I'm no cocktail connoisseur, but they really were shocking. We had to leave both drinks as they were undrinkable. We have no idea what was in them, or how they were made. But it didn't work. A strawberry daiquiri and a caiperinha. The positive was the live sax player was good. Short story: Good live music. Good atmosphere....

The staff was great here and if you order drinks and are a friendly bunch they bring you a free tapas which is great for me because they brought us calamari and no one else would try it and it was great it tastes like cod so I smashed the lot but every day they would bring you I different one so there were things I would never order but when it's been delivered to your table for free and you would never usaly try it but because it's there and you do and you find out it's the best thing you've ever tasted "just like the meat ball and the chicken wings I would never have ordered but after trying them I could not stop ordering them so a...

Great spot for watching the football and enjoying a drink — the beer was good, and the kids' play area is a real bonus for families.

Unfortunately, the food was a big letdown. We ordered four mains and, sadly, none of them were up to scratch. The chicken looked grey and tasted bland, the fish and chips seemed like something straight from the freezer aisle, and the chicken curry was more like a watery soup with low-quality meat.

We’d definitely return for drinks, but wouldn’t...