Restaurante La Marinera — Restaurant in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Me and my girlfriend were out in Gran Canaria for the very first time having a great evening celebrating our anniversary. We stumbled upon this restaurant after just looking over the lagoon of Las Canteras. This restaurant has a great view, no doubt about it. I'm sure however that the location is blessing and a curse for the owners regarding customer expectations and rent. We came in expecting a high class of service and were prepared to pay for our expectations. In a monetary way..not through harassment, insults and disappointment. To ensure to anyone reading of the validity of this review I will reveal a little bit about myself. I come from the island of Bali, since childhood I’ve eaten fresh fish, prawns and other creatures of the sea. I have even caught my own meal on some occasions. I’m by no means an expert on Spanish cuisine but I have spent some 3 odd months in the area of Andalu in Spain with local acquaintances. I know what and how gambas al ajillo should smell and taste like. What was served in this establishment was a poor imitation of the original. I will keep the description as short as possible but there are quite a few things to be addressed. We were greeted and appraised, immediately seated directly by the door. At least half a dozen other beautiful tables for two by the seaside were ‘reserved’ for people at 22 o’clock which never came. We greeted the first waiter as best we could in Spanish, asked politely if he could speak English. The answer was that he did but just a little but he will call his more fluent colleague. On his way out, in a denouncing tone came out of his mouth ‘en serio’. Polite at first, what he meant with his statement at the end is unclear but I assume it was along the lines of seriously…f**k this foreigner. I wonder if they assume that foreigners automatically don’t understand a word of Spanish. The second waiter was quite a bit more polite and spoke to us in very charming way in fluent English. He advised us on what to eat and our choice of wine, we also politely asked to be seated in a better place. We were moved two tables over, the food arrived quickly. We received Papas Aruggadas which were served without garnish. A Mojo Rojo was on the table for all customers and was the only redeeming food item I tasted. It went well with the potatoes. What was next was fried calamari, served with a half lemon. The calamari was soft but so was the breading. The next dish was the gambas al ajillo, it’s a tapas. Local olive oil, garlic, butter, some salt, fresh shrimp, a clay bowl and some heat. So simple, it begs the question how could you mess it up? The oil tasted like it was tasteless vegetable oil topped with margarine. The garlic was mostly burnt and the gambas had the flavor of shrimp fresh out of the freezer. It felt truly like a slap in the face to charge €12 for this dish. We are by the ocean and I’ve eaten better at the side of the street in Sevilla. My girlfriend had the Medallones, maybe I’m ignorant about this dish but the meat was cooked without a concern about my girlfriends preference in its doneness. We got a bill of €66 for two, we paid €70 to tip our second waiter as he was decent towards us. All I can say is, pretentious & overpriced. The caliber this restaurant aims at with its price is far from its reach. You won’t see prices on their online menu, you will see plenty of deceiving 5 star reviews, the restaurant is even in tour guides. If you value good authentic cuisine and don’t want to feel cheated after your meal then avoid this place. If you are still reading and you are the owner, the location is beautiful and whoever built this restaurant must have had passion and love for his or her craft. Don’t cheat yourself and others, make your menu smaller, use local produce.The restaurant isn’t worth the deceit, disregard and bad emotions caused to your customers and everyone else involved. PS: Nonetheless after the whole experience me and my girlfriend went out to enjoy a great anniversary and a person in need got a warm meal of wrapped calamari...

We were lied to that all tables were reserved. A drunken, shouting group of guests was tolerated for 2 hours. The clattering in the kitchen made normal conversation impossible. The food was tasteless and not very fresh. The waiter was unfriendly and not competent. I came on Friday evening 7/1/22 with two adult children. We are all fully vaccinated against Covid and even have a booster shot. The restaurant was recommended to us at the hotel. We wanted to sit in the front room and the room was almost empty. The waiters lied to us and said everything was reserved and that we can only sit right next to the kitchen in the second room. There was continuous terrible noise coming from the kitchen - someone was throwing cutlery into a metal box with rage. We could not have a normal conversation. Three tables away, a group of drunken guests screamed for 2 hours and even after our request, the waiter did not react. Our waiter was annoyed, unfriendly and dismissive of us. The tuna tartar was not fresh in taste and colour. The fried kidneys were hard and tasteless. The rest was average in taste and quality and extremely overpriced. After our meal, we requested o talk to the head waiter about what happened, and especially where we were seated. He told us that there were no reservations for the front room, but they did not want to serve the guests in that room so that the waiters would not have to walk far. That is the reason, they lied to us. There were 5 tables occupied throughout the restaurant between 18:00 and 20:00. After reading several negative comments with subsequent arrogant responses from the owner ("from what you write, we have serious doubts that you were in our restaurant" or "we do not agree with your statements and fortunately not with the thousands of tourists who visit us every year") I also decided to comment on this restaurant to warn more thousands...

Waste of money! Horrible food! First the service was awful! Rude waiter! The waiter lied to us that the fish was sea bream and then my husband got up to ask if it was for sure. Then the waiter said no, it's not. So why lying? Then they brought the fish with a kilo of garlic on it and tones of herbs! I can't eat garlic due to a health problem. They should have asked before they cooked it. We went to so many restaurants and everywhere they ask if you want your fish to be cooked with garlic. So we presumed that this one was going to be the same. We ordered just some salad and they brought a big salad with additional fish in it. Completely ruined the salad. And they had already put stuff on the salad like oil, vinegar and herbs. Who does that in a restaurant? Not everyone likes eating salad seasoned like that. Why not give your customers oil and vinegar and salt and pepper so everyone can put as much as they can and like eating. So we didn't even touch the salad. So low level! The peppers we had for starters were also bitter and old. The seeds inside were black. Definitely not fresh! Oh and when the waiter noticed that we weren't really eating, he came and asked if everything was ok. I said no, the fish is not ok. I can't eat it because of the amount of garlic. And he just shrugged his shoulders and was like "well that's your problem, not mine". Well done mister! And we paid so much money. By the way the fish doesn't even come with sides. So don't bother going there. There are so many other places around with amazing food...