El Rifeño — Restaurant in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

I booked a table with the manager/waiter before our tour. After a long and tiring day, we went to the restaurant and were seated by a waitress, but the manager/waiter completely ignored us. After waiting quite a while, I had to call the waiter over to take our order, with no help or attention offered beforehand.

The first dish we received was undercooked chicken, which had to be returned. It took another 15 minutes to get it replaced. In the meantime, we also ordered a potato dish, which was just okay, and a chicken tagine (Moroccan style). The tagine arrived late and was not served in a tagine dish as described on the menu. The taste was far from authentic and very disappointing. However, since we were extremely hungry after our long day, we ended up eating the food even though it was terrible.

The service was also very poor — I had to call the waiters every time we needed something, even for simple things like bread to go with the tagine (which they never recommended, even though it’s normally served together). After finishing, I had to go to the counter myself to pay because no one came to the table. The bill was incorrect and even included extra charges. When I asked for a corrected invoice, the manager, who was at the bar, made no apology.

It also seemed like they preferred serving local customers and didn’t care much about tourists.

Overall, it was a very disappointing experience. I would definitely stay away...

We just stumbled on this place when we were looking for something to eat, liked its vibe so we decided to sit down, have drinks and try their tapas, which was really good. The Arabic atmosphere was really nice and the waiter was very friendly, quick and reactive. Then after that we were still hungry so we decided to order a main course. I ordered the first item on their main course menu - a dish with black rice, baby squid and prawns. This was the weirdest dish I've ever had in my life and reminded me of a seafood risotto. The plate was filled with seafood flavored black rice, had two prawns on top of it and I didn't see any baby squid. I was really excited about this dish because I love squid and prawns, but they were not the star of the show - the rice was, and everything else in small proportions. It was not bad, I just expected a squid and prawn dish with black rice. However, our visit was very pleasant, the tapas was delicious, the atmosphere and service...

Worst experience ever!! DON'T EAT HERE WHEN YOU ARE A VEGETARIAN! We were not taken serious, we ordered a vegetarian starter but we got meat?! Really? The starter was replaced by a boring springroll with a curry sauce. And it came together with our maincourse, which was the most boring cous cous in the world. Nothing like you will eat in Morocco, just no taste at all, no herbs, no salt...and it was all warmed up in a microwave. I just can not believe it!! NO love for the moroccan cuisine here....everything tastes so bland. And if they charge you for the bread you didn't order, you just know they are just there to steal your money instead of bringing you the love for arabic cuisine. I will never go back here and hope this 'restaurant' will soon close its...