Los Gatos — Restaurant in Málaga

We went here last night after seeing a glowing review but honestly I am very confused by the positive reviews I have seen.

We arrived and asked to be seated outside, they couldn't confirm when we would have a table but accommodated us shortly after we arrived which was the only good thing about the visit.

As soon as we sat down we were approached by a gruff waiter pushing a special platter for two on us without showing us menu and without asking what we wanted to drink.

It took 3 requests for him to actually bring us a menu. We also had two other waiters with similar attitudes coming to the table and obviously not communicating with the others because they were asking us the same questions.

The menu was strange as we were told the section labelled 'main courses' were the starters.

They continued to try to insist we get this special platter for sharing and when we said we wanted something from the menu we were told the menu items weren't as good as the special.

The mains we wanted weren't available so in the end we ordered something else and the fish arrived just on it's own covered in garlic and parsley with a sad bit of salad tucked under one end. I felt this was not very honest of them as when I asked how it was presented he pointed to another table who had gotten the same plate but they had a large platter with salad and other items included.

We ordered some 'canapes' to start but these arrived after the main arrived. We got no bread, no olives - nothing to snack on while we waited as is common in most places here. The 'canapes' consisted of thick slices of French style bread so lightly toasted they didn't look toasted at all. Some of the toppings were grey or looked raw. We also received the wrong canapé.

We tasted some of the food but it was terrible. I felt quite upset we were duped and couldn't even stomach trying to eat any more as the service was so awful.

The waiters didn't check that we were happy with everything or if we needed anything else. When they brought items to the table they slapped them down hard on the table without any care. They didn't clean the dirty table before putting plates down. The cutlery was cheap and started to bend when I was trying to cut some of the rubbery fish. Only one drink arrived and they forgot mine, and it took another waiter to bring me my drink, which was watery flat beer.

We left most of the food there and I asked for the bill. The waiter didn't even ask if everything was fine even though he saw how much food we left uneaten.

Tourists beware - this is definitely not a place to eat in...

This restaurant now offers the worst service I've ever received.

To be honest, we live in Màlaga and we used to love this place, especially their tuna mini-burger. We used to bring all of our guests there and recommend it to friends and visitors.

However, the last visit was unheard of.

To begin with, the main waiter, who knows us as frequent clients, told us that the empty table was reserved, so we said we could wait for a table with no problem.

Then, another waiter came and said that the same table was available. When the main waiter saw this, he came and told us that we could sit only if we 'eat' (as if we came to dance.) We looked at him because we did not understand, and he pointed to a plate just coming out to another table, with a big chunk of meat, meaning he wanted us to order expansive dishes.

Not that it's any of his business, but I told him we don't eat meat and sat down.

He knew what we were going to order because we always ordered pretty much the same thing: different tapas. If you don't want your clients to order tapas - don't put them on the menu. And if you don't want your clients to order tapas - don't call yourself a tapas restaurant.

We ordered vegetarian croquetes and the mini tuna burgers. When the croquetes came out, and after I had taken a bite, my friend noticed it had ham inside. I was disgusted at the thought I had just eaten pork, but errors can happen, and we sent it back.

A 2nd batch of croquetes came out - again with ham, followed by a plate of normal burgers (with meat), instead of the tuna burgers we ordered.

All this when we expicitly noted we don't eat meat (and for all he knew, we could be allergic.)

We obviously left immediately, extremely disappointed.

I'm certain that there was no error and that these 3 plates containing meat were deliberately sent to us to make us leave - which we did.

That's a complete lack of professionalism, respect, and decency.

Let's even say it is ok for a waiter to prefer clients based on the price of the dishes they order. Ever since the first time we started coming to this restaurant, we were altogether the source of income of thousands of euros with all the many times we dined in the restaurant, all the many people we brought with us, and all the many people we had recommended it to. Now we stopped coming, we stopped bringing anyone, and we have been warning anyone we know to never set foot in this restaurant.

Was it really worth it for...

I read the reviews on Trip Advisor before going and i was aware that it was a hit or miss place, but my husband and i decided to give it a try anyways as it is a 2 minute walk from where we live. We recently moved to Malaga from Canada and know that the customer service standards are not the same. However being ripped off does not work with us and we were not afraid to stand up and say that we were treated wrong and charged extra!

We had to bring our own chairs next to a table, which was not set up (on a Wednesday night). First, we were served very flat beer. We decided to switch to wine - and had the house glass which was ok. We were then told that in order to be on the terrace we needed to order a minimum of 6 canapés in addition to our meal. We decided to go for it even though not that hungry because we wanted to enjoy different flavors. We have a strong accent in spanish and we spoke in french to eachother most of the time with the occasional english sentence as we are from Montreal.

Still, we heard the waiter that served us saying to one of his co-workers how he fooled us into ordering more and immediately noticed the table next to us - an elderly Spanish couple enjoying 2 canapes and 2 beers on the same terrace. At the end, we were charged an extra 3 euros on our bill and when confronted, the waiter just turned his back on us and left. The coworker who heard the joke about us came and fixed the bill and brought our change. The little nice evening we wished to have after a day of work cost us 30 euros and honestly, really not worth it - especially when you give this money to someone who treats you as you were stupid.

We had to argue and have all heads turned towards us - an unpleasant experience. Just because we spoke broken spanish. I think that there are many other nice tapas places where tourists don`t get ripped off and if this place only wants locals, then let them have locals only and go spend your money where you will not only have good food but also kind people...