MO Cosy Restaurant — Restaurant in Fuengirola

Refreshingly exciting and eclectic fusion menu, if a little confusing in it's presentation - some work needed to make it more accessible and user-friendly.

Fancy table settings and food presentation (the latter somewhat impractical) and plush interior, albeit impossible to navigate if, like my Mum, (who lives locally), you have a walker, and like a fellow struggler, you have a pushchair - the place is like an obstacle course!

The Asian starters and main - prawn gyozas, spring rolls, Thai rice with chicken and prawns - were very good but the quality was no better than Wagamama UK, where the service is a whole lot better and quite a bit cheaper and without an over-reliance on soy sauce.

The Mediterranean main (baby squid with couscous, nuts and herbs, although there were no nuts in evidence but there were sultanas), whilst moreishly subtle and sweet in flavour, was a bit dry.

The Crème Brûlée with passion fruit was nice but nothing special, and it was more like Crema Catalana, not Crème Brûlée, as the crunchy top was missing and the 'Crème' had that distinct Spanish flavour and texture, which is not as good as a proper Crème Brûlée, in my opinion. My Café Picotea was very nice but blink and you missed it - hardly worth the 30+ minute waiting time.

The drinks were well served but all in all, it didn't warrant the price: around €108 for 2 courses each, 1 dessert, 1 posh coffee, 0.5l still water (that we only had half of but weren't allowed to take away because it was served in a posh bottle they keep in house!), 1 glass of wine, 1 0.0% gin and tonic and 2 cover charges at €2,80 a piece for extras we didn't ask for - an unpopular and outmoded practice these days.

I think the appeal of this place's food offer lies largely in the context of the general food offer in Fuengirola. If this place was in a European town or city more renowned for its cuisine, such as in UK cities renowned for their Asian cuisine, it would not stand out as anything special.

Perhaps we might have looked on things more favourably, had the service been up to scratch. However, my Mum and I were made to feel quite insignificant here yesterday. It seemed that the 5 or so occupied tables outside were more than the 2 front of house staff could manage. At times, they spent more time talking to one another than paying attention to the fact that we were trying to get served, and they knew very well that we wanted to be served.

It took an age to order food, to get served the starters and mains, and to order dessert. When my Mum's dessert finally came (after a further 20 minute wait!) they had forgotten my Café Picotea, ordered at the same time, so we had to wait a further 5-10 minutes for that, my Mum taking only small mouthfuls of her dessert in the meantime out of respect for me. We were offered no apology, not even the faintest glimmer of a notion that not serving two people a course at the same time constitutes bad service.

More people were arriving inside as we left - good luck to them, we thought - front of house would need to up their game dramatically, but maybe more staff arrive for the Sunday evening service? Let's hope so!

The food waiter made it very clear throughout our meal that things would have to be done at his pace. It reminded me of the kind of arrogant waiters I used to encounter years ago when I lived in Brussels - the "I'm busy and important and I'll deal with you in my own time" kind of attitude. It might have felt like we had to put up with that in the 90s but there is absolutely no place for it in the 2020s where there is plenty of choice in the hospitality sector.

The other waiter was friendly but he was strictly drinks only and wasn't going to help up the pace or apologise, so the friendliness ultimately felt a little less than genuine.

Good service is when everything comes at the right time - neither too slow nor too fast - without having to try and grab waiters' attention, sitting there for ages just to suit them, not you.

Ultimately, this restaurant felt like style...

In short: Do not recommend. Mediocre food and very poor service. Disappointing experience.

Long story: I’m not angry I’m disappointed 🙃 Cozy place and overall nice vibes. We booked a table for 2 outside to celebrate a birthday. We were also curious to order the tasting menu that they advertise on their website. When we arrived we got seated to wait at the bar, ordered 2 glasses of wine and water, waited and started to look at the menu. No tasting menu on it but ok. Doesn’t really matter. Let’s just get something else. 10 minutes past, no wine or water and we eventually got seated inside the dining hall. That was also ok, AC was good 😅 Then the waitress helped us to order four dishes and made some recommendation. Since the wine didn’t arrived we ordered 2 glasses of wine and water again. The first two dishes arrived quickly and looked nice. Also a third one that we didn’t order but that eventually found its owner. But still no wine or water. We waited a couple of minutes more and we finally got our drinks after asking again. The first two dishes looked visually ok but didn’t really taste that much. We waited for the next dishes and refill of the wine and started to joke about what would and wouldn’t show up cause of the earlier mishaps. It was apparent that the staff was generally stressed, confused and it kinda felt like they didn’t care. Which was weird because there were are lot of staff and not overcrowded.

But then we got going again. The long awaited croquetas showed up (a small but telling detail is that the garnished shrimps fell from to the table as we got served. We all looked at it and then the waiter walked away) Another waiter m showed up and we asked for more wine. It took a while but we got a fill up and digged in. Again, a bit tasteless unfortunately. The last dish, a deep fried Camembert with tomatoe compote looked and tasted exactly liked it would if you’d done it at home and the we asked for the bill. Not really knowing what it would say when everybody felt so confused. It turned out ok but way to steep for the experience.

4 small dishes, 4 glasses of wine, 1 water, complementary bread = €70.

I’ve changed my mind. I’m kind of angry. But also happy that we didn’t pay the €120 tasting...

Rarely, if ever, have I come across a restaurant with such poor service as Picoteo in Fuengirola. Not only was it slow but the treatment from the staff was incredibly rude. My girlfriend and I ordered two starters and a main each. The starters arrived after about 30 minutes and when we had finished them the waiter eventually showed up to take the plates away. That's when he told us that one of the two mains were out. Apparently they had used up all the fish we had ordered. This we're told more than 30 minutes after ordering. The waiter simply adds that my girlfriend will have to pick a new dish if she wants and then walks away. He never returned to take that order. Instead a different waiter shows up 15 minutes later with my main course. I then stated that we'd rather take the check since my girlfriend was without a meal. That kind of defeats the purpose of going out to eat together. The original waiter was then called over and he starts verbally attacking us, claiming that he did tell us the ordered meal was out. The fact that he told us about 30 minutes after we had ordered it mattered less it seemed. When I stated I don't intend to eat my dinner alone with my girlfriend watching he then shouted at us that he had told us the we could order something new. That he never came and actually took that order was apparently also our fault. We should have called him over he said because he can't be expected to wait on people when he, as he claimed, is the only waiter.

Mistakes can be made and working in the service industry can be incredibly stressful but what prompted me to write this review is the accusatory and straight out rude behaviour from the waiter. Instead of apologising for the delay he started attacking us. This even brought my girlfriend to tears. That is completely unacceptable and I can't give this place any other rating than 1...