Nuevo Hermanos Tomilleros — Restaurant in La Línea de la Concepción

.

Get there early.

Well, early by Spanish standards!

We arrived 1.40, it was almost full. By 2.15 not only were there few spaces left, the fish in the ice-filled display cabinet was severely depleted.

So for a good table, and a good choice of fish, get there by 1,30.

Great fish, very fresh. They sell everything every day, so each day it's freshly-caught seafood in front of you.

A whole turbot for 4 (rodaballo is what it's called) was a particular success. So were the shelled and fried prawns - gambas rebozadas. Choice of puds, all home made, wasn't great. We had a big dish with an example of each, to share among the 10-strong table. They all looked soggy, were covered in shaving-foam cream, and tasted much the same. Sickly sweet.

But the fish was superb, and less expensive than in Marbella or Algeciras.

As we were leaving, a regional politician much in the news lately was striding in. Obviously, as Spanish speakers and avid evening news watchers, we recognised him, as did most of the other customers. People nudged each other, but he and his companions sat down and got on with ordering without any hassle from anybody.

They knew that the important thing here is choosing your fish and then...

I had such high hopes for this restaurant given the excellent reviews, but my experience was unfortunately the opposite. The first thing that struck me was how noisy and crowded it was. While that can be managed, the problems with the food and service were hard to overlook. ​The prices were shocking. I paid €50 for a simple sea bream, which I found to be incredibly overpriced. What's more, the fried fish dish my companion ordered came with absolutely no sides, a detail the staff never mentioned. ​The service was slow and disorganized. We noticed that tables seated after us were served their meals well before we were. To make matters worse, when our food finally did arrive, it wasn't served to our table at the same time. There was a significant 10-minute delay between the first and last dish, forcing us to eat separately. ​For the price and the overall frustrating experience, I can't...

After asking around for a good fish restaurant in Lina, we went here. The restaurant is really a nice place, nothing for fancy dining, just focusing on the fish.

Unfortunately my spanish isn't that good and they don't have a menu at all. You can basically say what fish you want or like me, i went in the front, where the fresh fish is lying and pointed on what I'd like to eat. They differ between fried fish and grilled fish, and that's about it :) Some salad on the side and the fish was super awesome.

I got something similar to Dorade, grilled, cut in half and topped of with lots of garlic, which was really yummy.

Will defo go again and I heard there are other nice fish restaurants...