Casa Carmen Restaurant — Restaurant in Málaga

We can't recommend this restaurant even though we actually quite enjoyed the food.

The service, on the other hand, made the visit a poor experience. It seems there is a girl seating customers, then a food waiter and then a drinks waiter. And they don't seem to communicate that well.

After our meal we ordered coffee - one with alternative milk on the side for my wife, the other decaffeinated for me. Unfortunately the food waiter's English was very basic and wouldn't be a problem if your order was basic and straight from the menu. We could see he just didn't clock the request for decaf coffee, he just smiled vaguely. As for the milk, we tried in different ways to ask for it but again it was a vague smile. Coffees came out after some 5 minutes but no milk, so I asked the drinks waiter who promised us 'of course'. I'd say I was given a normal caffeinated coffee but I was unaffected by it later in the day, fortunately.

It took another 10 mins of waiting before I collared the girl about the milk (had to approach her as she wasn't scanning tables for signs of service needed). The drinks waiter passed us serving someone else (no milk) and glanced at me as he returned - then passed again soon after following up on another table. Still no milk. Some minutes later the drinks waiter came to us. With milk. He tried to take away my coffee at the same time but I still hadn't finished it. The milk was dairy, too. At that moment the food waiter shows up, also with milk (dairy too)!

Off my wife goes to the bathroom and passes a fridge adjacent to it. With oat, coconut and soya milk. For real?

Terrible service. Even if the food waiter was unsure and checked with a colleague who would then take our order it would have been fine. The girl seemed to have a good grasp, for example. We appreciate service in English, however, staff ought to support it adequately if that is offered. I can only put the experience down to...

Malaga port is beautiful and a great place to visit, but eating there is a huge gamble. Most places are overpriced, with mediocre food, and service can be hit-and-miss. As a result, we tend to visit the port, but always eat either on the beach or in Malaga Centre.

This time we decided to eat there as Spanish Air Force display was scheduled over La Malagueta beach, so going back to the centre was not on the card, and the beach restaurants were packed.

So we decided to take a chance and picked Casa Carmen.

Service was excellent. The head waiter took careful notes of my wife's dietary requirements (no she is not fussy, she has chronic disease hence on a strict diet).

He recommended the Chicken dish and made a note of everything my wife was not allowed to eat. After a few minutes he came back and went through every ingredient with my wife, to make sure she was okay. Even said if it was salty when it arrived, he would change the dish at no cost to us! (WOW).

He was on a safe bet, as the food arrived exactly as ordered, and as requested with no salt. The last time my wife was so sympathetically treated was in Montreal (Canada) in October 2022!

The food was very good, and excellent value. Specially surprising for Malaga port restaurants, as they are typically overpriced, with so-so food.

Yes we would go there again, and recommend it if you want to have excellent service and good food, without having to take...

Casa Carmen sits under the looming shadow of Walmart Ya Yacht—those grotesquely sleek billionaire bath toys parked in the marina. The kind of boats where the crew looks better dressed than you do on your wedding day. For a fleeting second, you almost trick yourself into thinking you belong among the 1%… until you realize the only helicopter pad in your life is the pizza box on your kitchen counter. The tuna tataki? Perfect. Still felt like it had frequent flyer miles left on it. It arrived draped over an avocado puree so smooth it could moonlight as a spa treatment. Meanwhile, my buddy asked for “the fish” and got fried sardines—because in Spain, that is the fish. The waiter didn’t even blink. Lesson: never get cute with the menu here. The beer? Ice cold, crisp, like a refreshing slap from someone who really cares about you. The shots? A Russian roulette of regret. Order two by accident and you’ll wake up in a tequila crime scene with only blurry Polaroids of yourself attempting karaoke in three different languages. And the staff? Legends. We communicated exclusively through Google Translate, hand gestures, and the universal language of “bring me another.” Turns out you don’t need words when you’ve got raw tuna, cold beer, and tequila strong enough to make you believe you’re qualified to buy one of those...