La Tortuga — Restaurant in La Oliva

A Masterclass in How NOT to Run a Restaurant.

If you want to ruin your evening, this is the perfect place. • Wobbly, damaged tables with peeling veneer that scratch your hands — a great way to start your “dining experience.” • Ordered seafood pasta and white wine — pasta arrived after 1 hour and 10 minutes… without the wine. • Reminded them three times. Canceled the wine twice. They still forced it on us. • When I refused again, the waitress ignored me and started arguing with my partner instead — apparently, basic guest etiquette doesn’t exist here. • And when I politely mentioned respect and proper service, I was told I’m a “too dominant man.” Unbelievable.

The food? • “Bruschetta” = toast bread + chopped lettuce + 3 shrimps 🤦‍♂️ • Spaghetti tasted like it was made during someone’s first cooking lesson. • Later, I discovered there’s one young cook (maybe 19) and the same waitress runs between the kitchen and tables.

The bill? • A handwritten note with just the amount. • No receipt. • Laughed at when I asked for one. • Tax evasion at its finest.

We live on the island — and this was by far the worst experience on Fuerteventura. Bad service, terrible food, zero professionalism.

Do yourself a favor: avoid this place at all costs. There are plenty of great restaurants on the island — this is not one of them.

Seeing other reviews, its not rare experience here to get rude waitress and waiting ages for food.

They also need somebody who understand the google cos they categorized their restaurant as a hotel.

Amateurs in all fields.

EDIT: Instead of teaching your guests, teach your staff how to work, organize your business so people not wait ine hour for service. Your waitress didnt look like crying when she was shouting that we ordered the wine so we have to take it even it was served 5 after food. You have zero connection to „one of the best italian restaurants” and your rating will go down. Your rude proudness in answer to people comments and revoews even here, showing that you have also zero knowledge how to be a restaurant owner. Instead of pointing your guests in google, better move yourself and help your staff to be more efficient cos waiting 1 hour for spaghetti with prawns and toast bread named bruschetta, is … just funny when compare to your opinion about your business. Or maybe hire professionalists, not teenager on kitchen and girl with emotional issues as waitress.

Now sit and watch how your rating will go down...

We had dinner at La Tortuga. A small Italian restaurant. Our waiter was very rude and not service minded. We had to repeat our requests 4-5 times and he still didn't take any action. We ordered 1 glass of rosé wine and a bottle of Primitivo di manduria but he kept telling us that we ordered a bottle of rosé... He even argued with us about this and was very rude.

The rosé was warm and tasted bad and we said we would not be drinking it. We mentioned this but he didn't do anything. The glass sat there until the check arrived.

The primitvio was also warm and I had to ask for a cooling element. After that the wine was much better.

The pasta (they serve the famous Roman pastas) and pinsa was good though.

If we had a different waiter then our experience would be much better. Perhaps 4-5 stars.

The female owner/cook knows what she is doing in the kitchen.

When the check arrived the glass of rosé was still on it. We told him we weren't paying because we didn't drink it and that we've mentioned this. He started cussing and was rude again and said that we drank it. Which we didn't. Just took a sip. Then he stormed inside, talked to the owner, came back and said the price without the glass (€6 for a small glass is a bit too much). He also loudly yelled: 'this never happened before!!'

I don't care if it never happened before. If the rosé is warm it's not tasty. It can happen. Nothing is perfect. Just apologize, get a cold bottle and pour another glass. Don't make a big deal about it.

We paid and he took the machine abruptly from my hand and he left without saying anything.

Luckily the owner still waved goodbye to our family.

Tip: please train your waiter and teach him some manners because arguing with customers after just 5 minutes after they sat down is not a great customer service. We know what we ordered and what we wanted. Don't tell us that...

Firstly I would like to say if I could reply to mikolaj jaroszynski’s review I would! We were at 2 tables over from this couple, which I will say the lady seemed pretty happy from what I seen. However, Mr Mikolaj’s behaviour was absolutely atrocious.

I have to add that the restaurant is quite small, so the way he was acting ultimately affected the atmosphere of the whole place. He aggressively shouted at the waitress multiple times and brought her to tears.

Every other table checked on her except him, in fact he proceeded to shove his phone in her face when she was backed up against the till and then continued to take pictures of them all.

Please do not rely on his review as he completely ruined the atmosphere of an entire restaurant! Nothing is that deep that it a grown man should bring a young woman to tears. OUTRAGEOUS.

I pity his “business” and the people that work for him.

Anyway, our experience was amazing (once he had left, we clapped btw). To start we had the meat and cheese platter, cod and aioli and the octopus stew! I will say there was a little bit of a wait but it was absolutely worth every bite. For mains we ordered 2 pizzas, 2 vongole pasta and 2 carbonara, all unbelievably tasty especially the pizzas which we took home :)

There is a small wait between courses, however if you don’t mind waiting for freshly cooked authentic Italian meals I would absolutely recommend this place.

I would lastly like to send the staff all the love in the world! They were so friendly, super sweet and did not let this man stop their enthusiasm and passion for...