M.B Martin Berasategui — Restaurant in Guía de Isora

The food in this restaurant was so great it was such a shame about the sneaky tactics they used to eek more from patrons for what is already a high end price.

On arrival, they take you to a separate part of the restaurant and tell you that the 'aperitif' is part of 'the experience' of the degustation menu which we'd ordered. They bring the wine list, and then neglect to tell you that what is 'part of the experience' is only the food, and of course water! An actual aperitif, which to our mind the meaning was an alocholic drink, you have to pay for. This should be stated up front instead of deliberately creating the sense that it is included in the 210 euro degustation menu, which is often the case at other Michelin star restaurants where a welcome champagne or prosecco is offered along with an amuse-bouche

In case we were mistaken about this, the same thing happened at the end of the meal. We were invited to follow the hostess back to the separate, and charming, part of the restaurant, where we had our aperitif and were again told that the reason we were there was because it was part of 'the experience' of the degustation menu.

We were surprised to find when the bill arrived that the cups of tea and macchiato were 18 euros each. Had we known, we would have perhaps skipped this part. Again, what was 'part of the experience' were the petit fours served with the tea, but this was again, sneakily mentioned without saying that the actual tea itself wasn't included.

If you are wealthy and eat in these types of restaurants regularly, you probably won't care, but if, like us, it was a special occasion and spending 1000 euros on an evening meal isn't a regular occurrence, it will leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth after what was an exceptional meal.

Everything we had except the rack of lamb, which was a little ordinary, was really a superb culinary experience. The staff were extremely attentive - except they forgot, after having asked us for any special dietary requirements, that one very elderly guest asked for no meat but something soft instead. This soft meal had to be prepared while we ate our meat. Nevertheless, the service was friendly and lovely. The portion sizes were perfect and left us very satisfied but not over full.

The decor and atmosphere were beautiful and we couldn't speak highly enough about the food. The only other thing I'd say is that we found the talking distance of the very large table we were seated at was a little too far from each other to hear with the background music, so if you are four, ask for a smaller round table when you book rather than a long oval table, which is a bit too big for four and had us leaning inwards to hear for most of the meal.)

Very sadly, the thing I will remember about this restaurant, instead of the great food, will be instead the theatre involved in the arrival and departure ceremony designed to trick guests into unknowingly spending 15-25% more than they planned....

We were quite fortunate to be able to have reservations for 3 Michelin rated restaurants in Tenerife.

I’ve only eaten at 1 other 2 star Michelin restaurant and knew what to expect with such high accolades.

This place was a total let down.

From the staff, to the ambiance to the food ….all fell short.

We did the big tasting menu with wine pairing. Came to about 400pp.

Upon arrival, they bring you to a room with nothing to look at for a glass of champagne and some “apertivo”. Had to ask for a napkin for my lap after being handed a small 3x3 square of fabric. If it were just a cracker, it would have been fine but the chance of dropping some of what was a 2 bite apertivo with cream and caviar was pretty high.

After our bites and champagne, we were brought to a larger room. Think hospital surgery room combined with a wedding venue. WAY too bright and too sterile. Again nothing to look at. We were facing the kitchen doors.

Our server came over to explain what was next followed by the sommelier. My husband and I couldn’t understand the English of either one of them, so we asked for a list of what was to be served. We receive a menu with ink streaks all over it. Not a big deal.

We were served a pallet cleanser and were told to eat it asap. Unfortunately the shaved ice stuck to the inside of my bowl and I was unable to do so.

The sommelier served me 2 glasses of wine with cork floating in the glass (didn’t expect it when I had to fish it out of my mouth). I did see that she was using a Coravin so I’m not even sure how this happened.

At one point, one of the people serving plates went to the wrong table. Our server made clicking sounds with her mouth in order to get the guys attention and direct him to the correct table. These were the same clicking sounds you make when you say “giddy up” and start riding a horse. I found them to be so unprofessional.

The food. … meh. Some things were ok but for the most part, many missed the mark…. and although these were small bites, the food wasn’t good enough to finish each plate. The best thing was the calamari spaghetti.

The worst, the “marinated” shrimp with the fake olive. The shrimp tasted just like a raw shrimp.

Thank goodness this wasn’t a typical 3 hour tasting menu. When we were done, they whisked us off to that same room, looking at nothing, for dessert.

We were first served a slice of mango with some sort of stuff on it. It might have been the most awful thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.

In the end, it was many bells and whistles, props, bad service and bad food.

The best Michelin rated restaurant on the island is El Rincon De Juan Carlos...

My wife and I had a wonderful and memorable meal at this restaurant about five years ago and as we were staying at the Abama again a couple of weeks ago we decided to repeat the experience (or try to).

We decided to have the classic tasting menu and the wine pairing. The cost being 320Euros a head. Expensive certainly but based on our previous experience worth it.

Unfortunately on this occasion the evening was a disappointment. The first two courses were bland and unexceptional, the second course being no more than a light salad with two small poached prawns and a slightly dubious sauce. The red tuna tartare was delicious and full of flavour. This was followed by an organic egg yolk dish that was both tasteless and had a slightly unpleasant texture. Next was pasta dish which we opted to pay an extra 19Euro each for Black Truffle shavings - this proved to be a mistake as the shavings were far too plentiful and probably spoilt the flavour of the pasta dish. A fish course was again bland and unremarkable while the beef fillet was chewy and tough. The dessert, a warm apple tart was very good.

Meanwhile the wines were good (not great) and enjoyable with the sommelier explaining each fully and well.

Naturally the waiting staff enquired regularly as to how we were enjoying the dishes and we shared our views politely though we gained the impression that they thought we might not have been serious in our less positive comments.

The bill was 750Euros in total (including the bread which was not included in the menu price).

All these things are of course a matter of personal taste but actually we enjoyed the food more at the Verona restaurant in the hotel on another evening.

Safe to say we will not be enjoying another visit to MB's following this experience which is a shame. If we did visit again I think we would not have the...