Pizzeria La Cancela — Restaurant in La Oliva

We regularly stay in El Cotillo and always make the effort to visit La Cancela in Larajas as have always enjoyed their food - their policy of not taking reservations has often meant several trips over the course of a holiday to get a table, which you would expect at a busy restaurant. This holiday we decided to try a little earlier in the evening on the way back from a day out in Puerto, hoping they wouldn’t be too busy - we walked in (past the usual sign on the door in English stating “you will be served in order of arrival”) and saw empty tables so thinking we were in luck asked the older male (presume owner) if we could have a table for 3. He asked if we had a reservation(?????) and when we looked puzzled and replied that we did not he laughed at us and said impossible, fully booked and continued to shout at us in his own language making us feel like idiots for asking - the others diners all looked and we left stunned by his attitude. We were so astonished by this my friend returned a little later and asked one of the waitresses if it was now bookings only as everyone always used to wait - she just snapped “too busy” and walked off, the pizza chef (the only member of staff that doesn’t appear to have an attitude problem) said that the business has changed - it’s the same owners so he must have meant they take reservations now, though from this experience i assume it means that the service has changed for the worse. We are polite people, two of us work in hospitality so are in no way demanding so this experience truly shocked us - after many years eating here we are saddened that La Cancela will not be on our go to list anymore as we don’t feel the need to deal with such...

Absolutely incredible restaurant. WOW!!! Located in a beautiful little building with a very nice atmosphere inside. Great service from the moment we walked in despite being busy and us looking scruffy straight off the beach with messy salty hair and sandy comfy clothing. Once the order was taken drinks arrived promptly and our meal was served not longer than max 15 minutes later. Both pasta and pizza were delicious and waiting staff was polite but also very friendly. The glass of red I orders (I presume it was just house wine) was very nice too and my husband enjoyed his beer. All was reasonably priced and we will definitely come back. We were hoping to eat a lot of seafood and tapas, but it seems Italian food is superb...

Let me start off by saying the food is incredible here! I took my mum out here for mother day and when we got there it was quite busy yet we managed to get seated within five mins the food took a while to arrive but its expcted when the place was this packed and let me tell you, it was well worth the wait. My favorite part of the meal was the aubergines in palm honey. If you have a sweet tooth you need to try this. The main course we're incredible the ingredients were fresh and to top it all of we got the entire meal for a quality price. I would definitely be visiting here again and recommend to anyone...