La Taberna del Pintxo Larios — Restaurant in Málaga

I usually love this place but this visit was awful. It’s mainly self service for some food, and I think I managed this part, but the waiter service was shocking. I asked for a Victoria 0% alcohol beer to be told they don’t have it so I asked what 0% beer do they have, to be told they do a Caña (small glass from barrel and Victoria) which is what he should have told me at the time of asking vs assuming I meant a bottle?

At the time of asking for the bill I had to wait to get someone’s attention - once I did (same waiter as the beer) - he counted my pintxo sticks and wondered off. I had people waiting for my table so I got up to try and pay at the till. Found out he hadn’t asked for it so they did not know how much I had consumed. Another waiter took my word for it but I was waiting a while when I had given him cash. I am not kidding when I say 15mins or so had passed with me standing to await my change. When I asked the bar the barman aggressively said to wait at my table (I told him I no longer had the table and had been waiting for a while).

After waiting a little longer, I did not get any help or response so decided to leave - it was certainly not a deserved tip!! However you cannot leave your customers waiting that long - especially if they need to go promptly. I get it was busy ande y obviously had an inexperienced waiter so others had to carry him, but that is management responsibility. I won’t be going back. Whatever you do, pay with card...

The cold pintxos are acceptable, you can eat them. The hot ones are horrible, always some kind of unrecognizable vomit on top of a piece of bread or, worse, different strange frozen ingredients over a toast or pastry. Do not try the Spanish omelet unless you want to taste a brick of raw potatoes. The waiters are really kind but they tend to forget to take (or process) drinks orders, so they can be very diligent or you can wait forever to get your drink. You see them chatting on the bar while you have been waiting 20 minutes for a beer. Not very professional or not well managed. Tables are usually not clean, they do not always clean them after a customer leave. I attach a photo of something unrecognizable I had, it does not look too bad at a first glance, but it it was supposed to be spinach with cheese, I am still wondering what was it. It was a piece of no-tasty chewing cheese, a horrible unrecognizable extremely sweet marmalade, something green (no taste) and a base of whatever...

Horrible hygiene amid a pandemic. Cold pinchos are self serve, meaning everyone is touching the lids to the buffet counter and getting close to and breathing on food that's just sat there.

Waiters come round to each table with hot pinchos, passing incredibly close to other diners with an open plate. When they serve other diners they hold the food right in front of their faces, before taking the remaining pinchos to other tables, meaning the food you take off their platter could have easily passed under the noses of 10 other diners by the time it reaches you.

Plastic heart and sword-shaped pinchos sticks are tacky. Food was mediocre and expensive, tasted like it had been left out for ages and potentially reheated. Beer was 3.70. Two pinchos and two drinks came to 10.25. You're better off going to a 100 Montaditos.

I've been to other pinchos restaurants in Spain recently that have transferred everything to a menu that you choose from. Self-serve should not be an...