Oliva Iberoteca Restaurante Estepona — Restaurant in Estepona

I've lived here in Estepona a little over four months now and I've tried several restaurants. A fine meal is something I truly value in life. I take myself out about twice a week and try a different place almost every time. After 4 months that's a big number of local restaurants. As far as these places geared for tourists in the center, overall, I have not been impressed. They look fancy & their prices are outrageous but then the food is mediocre and the service is terrible. I've only found two places so far with true, quality food where the price matched the meal and this is one of them. I love a good pork knuckle (codillo de cerdo). I developed my love of it while living in Bratislava. It's a very common dish in that region of Europe. I pass this restaurant every morning while walking my dog and have seen it on the menu. I have put much thought into whether I wanted to try it or not. If it was great then yay! I have a place to love! But if it was mediocre like most of the restaurants here...well...I didn't want to spend that money on something that would only leave me disappointed. I'm getting so tired of having that experience here over and over again. And how I love a good pork knuckle! I gave them a chance the other night. There was a funny coincidence too because the bar across the street from my apartment was having a staff party upstairs in the restaurant so all the people I see several times a day were there. The pork knuckle was delicious. I'd go with top 3 of my life, and I've had some really good pork knuckle in my life. The service wasn't exactly perfect. He forgot to take my drink order. When he remembered and came back I clearly asked for just a glass of water but what he brought me was an expensive bottle of water. I'm not being cheap. I'll spend money on a meal. I have strong environmental and ethical reasons for not drinking bottled water when I live in a country with perfectly safe drinking water, I drink it. I lived in countries for years where the water from the tap made you sick and you MUST drink bottled water or boil anything before you can drink it. If I can drink the water from the tap I'm going to. And bottled water only creates more waste. I teach IB Environmental Systems & Societies. I take this stuff seriously. We should be creating less waste not more. I'll go back. Probably often. One of my top two meals in Estepona. (For these high end geared toward tourist places- I have a completely different list for my favorite local bars and cafes). It was mostly a positive experience. I would have expected to have been asked if I wanted anything to drink first and I would have expected to receive the drink I ordered, other than that everything was awesome. We all make mistakes....

AVOID AVOID AVOID Worst place I have ever been for food. They were busy and the service was incredibly slow- we ended up just having a couple of bottles of water and beer as we couldnt get their attention and they weren’t interested . My 9 year old had chicken fingers and said they tasted weir, when I cut one it was totally raw. We eventually showed the waiter and they were shocked took the plate and showed it to the other waiters On the way in. We were told they would get another but she was put off by it so we said can we just have chips as she wouldn’t eat it now. About 40 mins later the chips came out. With my main course pictured! Disgusting. This is roasted goats cheese with apple sauce- no idea what the red stuff was . They told me this is how it’s meant to be. It was terrible. My husband had pork and chops- pork was fatty and grisly, no sauce and the salad that accompanies it came after he had finished the few bits of meat he found. We ordered a cheese cake which actually did look amazing but my daughter started to feel ill- presumably the thought of having eaten raw chicken. We tried to get hold of the waiters to cancel it very soon after but they just ignored us. After the chicken getting sent back they wouldn’t come over and Rolled their eyes if we asked for anything, the cheesecake came over and we said can’t eat any thing she’s not well and we had tried to cancel it. They took it away The bill came- the bread and chorizo they put on the table without you ordering is all charged for so be careful. The raw chicken and chips were on the bill! And the cheesecake we sent back They refused to take any of it off- we refused to pay for any of that. We should have refused to pay for more but we didn’t. There was no apology for anything which really...

Una de las mayores decepciones de este verano y cuento por qué. Éramos 6, tres adultos y tres niños, y preguntamos si podíamos sentarnos a tomar algo a las 23:15. Nos dijeron que sí y nos sentamos. Queríamos solo unas bebidas, algún montadito y quizás algunas raciones. Cuando empezaron a montarnos la mesa les dije que no hacía falta, pero el camarero nos respondió que si no ponía el mantel “se la cargaba”. Bueno, admitiendo que al ser un restaurante ponen el mantel -aunque no quisiéramos- lo siguiente que hacen es poner los cubiertos. Como dije al principio, fuimos con tres niños y dos eran niñas de entre 3 y 10 años que ya habían cenado, y aunque les dije que no les pusieran cubiertos lo hicieron igualmente. Pedimos las bebidas y con ellas nos trajeron 6 pedacitos de pan, con un poco de aceite -claramente insuficiente para todos, yo ni lo probé- y 6 finas rodajitas de chorizo picante. Cuando le dije al camarero que no habíamos pedido eso nos contestó que era un “aperitivo de la casa”, aperitivo que luego cobran en concepto de cubierto, a 1,50€ por persona. Normalmente no me importa que me cobren el pan si lo elabora el propio local, algo que sin duda allí no ocurre, pero además nos quisieron cobrar los 6 cubiertos cuando les habíamos advertido que las niñas ya habían cenado y que, por tanto, no le pusieran cubiertos. A continuación quisimos pedir la comida, pero al parecer allí había “rangos” y solo una de las camareras -entiendo que la dueña- cogía comandas. Como era tarde finalmente nos tomó nota otro camarero. Pedimos tres montaditos, una ración de pimientos de Padrón, media de ensaladilla rusa, y media de croquetas de bacalao. Tardaron 40 minutos en traernos los platos. Los montaditos, pese a tener un precio bastante elevado, no eran más que dos pedazos pequeños de pan con su relleno, y en mi caso -que había pedido un montadito Oliva (en carta decía presa ibérica, jamón ibérico de bellota y queso de oveja)- me trajeron en su lugar una pobre versión del Catalán (una loncha de jamón, aceite y dos rodajas de tomate) aunque me cobraron como uno de presa ibérica. No sé cómo estaban los otros dos porque de tan mínimos tampoco se podían compartir, pero por lo que vi tampoco parecían nada del otro mundo. La ensaladilla rusa, sin estar mal de sabor, llevaba por encima una especie de tartar de atún, y de los pimientos de Padrón -ya se sabe, unos pican y otros no- no picaba ninguno, ni en nuestra mesa ni en la de al lado, algo que me preguntó la camarera que cómo sabía, a lo que le contesté que está claro que si comes un pimiento picante cualquiera que esté observando lo nota enseguida. Lo que realmente más me molestó y me incomodó no fue el hecho de que la calidad y cantidad de comida fuera regular, llegara tarde, y se olvidaran de traernos uno de los platos que luego sí aparecía en factura -las croquetas de bacalao-, ni tampoco que tuviéramos la “mala suerte” de no encontrar ni un pimiento picante, ni la equivocación y la ridiculez de los montaditos, ni tan siquiera el hecho de que nos cobraran el aperitivo de la casa camuflado bajo el concepto de cubierto (algo que ya en pocos sitios te cobran, al menos como “cubierto”); ni que la ensaladilla viniera con el tartar de atún por encima sin advertirlo en carta, ya que a dos de nosotros no les gustaba; ni que nos echara en cara que nos habían dado de comer a esa hora (llegamos a las 11:15 y preguntamos antes de sentarnos); lo que me pareció intolerable es que la dueña se pusiera a discutir conmigo delante del resto de comensales y con un tono de voz desafiante, algo que resultó bastante desagradable para todos. Yo incluso llegué a disculparme por si había subido mi tono de voz, pero la soberbia de la camarera-dueña llegó a tal punto que me exasperó. Lamento mucho haber escrito una opinión como esta -no suelo hacerlo de modo tan detallado- pero es que realmente me sentí...