Puerta del Carmen — Restaurant in Granada

A small disclaimer: the service was nice. The review only relates to food. Unfortunately, after a long road trip in Andalusia, accompanied by wonderful food, from simple traditional tapas to modern and experimental cuisine, we made a poor choice visiting Puerta del Carmen. The medium sized cold plate (cold cuts and cheese) was more than enough for two people and it was the only decent (very far away from extraordinary) plate. For mains we got the red tuna and the scallops dish. The tuna was handled with cruelty. Overcooked, too oily together with some indifferent steamed vegetables. The biggest disappointment was the scallops; FROZEN scallops, FROZEN shrimps, canned, yes CANNED, mushrooms which instead of being in a meunière sauce, they were drenched in olive oil. On top of that, this mediocrity was of course overpriced (24€ and 21€ respectively). The unfortunate meal closed with burnt espresso. It's a pity for the location and the previous critics of the restaurant. Overall, unreasonably overpriced, attracting an older, upper class local audience in an effort to remember the previous glorious days of the place and misguided tourists (some sitting next to us) who are leaving equally...

So I wanted to have dinner here, this restaurant on the eye had everything you expect from Granada, great locations, beautiful decor, and a seemingly good menu. I ordered a glass of wine and the gave me a tiny gaspacho soup to wait for my main course. As I was waiting I couldnt help but notice that the bar where they serve and wine was disgustingly dirty. I’m talking about they probably have never clean that bar top, and I’m sitting right next to it. Be ware that this are covid times people! Needless to say restaurants need to be on point with their cleanliness. I brought the issue to the “manager” who so happened to be the server? He treated me like I was a sewing stuff that “are not real” and I have a problem; but immediately ordered someone to clean that bar top. SMH! Anyhow attached is a short and gross video of what the guy didn’t clean before I pulled my phone to capture it. 😅 this restaurant compared to the rest of the local spots was a bit more expensive. And even if it wasn’t this is totally unacceptable. Specially the chauvinism from the “manager” so not professional. My advice: take your money to el Diamante, great service amazing fresh food and...

Well, were do I start..?! The building is very interesting and the interior is very cool and we had high hopes, but...... Food we had was terrible! Badly made poorly presented and what we had was poor quality ingredients. Cheese so cold I would have been able to stick my tongue to it, and packet grated cheese strewn across the mango chalky cheese pile. This restaurant is the partner to Tinta Fina ( a much better option even though the toilets are a disgrace!) and that would be my choice. We sat outside... and was harassed by people wanting money, people trying to sell fake handbags and other rubbish, lottery ticket sellers, shoe shiners ( that's right, shoe shiners... and me with flip flops on) and then just to finish off the zoo like feeling we had a massive tour group with flags in hand come wandering past looking at us disapproving of the food. I first thought it maybe a warning flag to guide us away from the restaurant, but no luck. However, a fantastic wine list and the fizzy water was good! This is one 'Puerta' I will not be...