Lounge Bar Plaza — Restaurant in Málaga

Chose this restaurant from the line on portside as it looked good.. white table cloth/smart and wanted a quiet special lunch prior to return home after a lovely break in Malaga. However... Main course fish dishes, esp. swordfish but also to some extent the monkfish, overcooked to extent of tasting dry and tasteless. Potatoes and veg accompaniments on both these plates were cold, overcooked and completely tasteless. However, the worst aspect was service and ignoring customer legitimate protest. We were 1 of only 4 occupied tables at earlyish lunch. 4 waiters not busy at all. Ordered anchovies starter to share first and then the above fish mains to follow. Waiter understood and sharing dish duly arrived and placed between us along with smaller individual plates plus bread, and 2 glasses of rose... and we were enjoying. About 3 mins later while still most of the sharing plate left, our main dishes (overcooked etc as described above) also arrived. 2 waiters proceeded to push our plates and wine glasses etc etc around on small table to try to fit new arrivals (2 large dinner plates) on there...while we protested and said we were clearly not ready for our second course. It was like they were only used to serving tapas style. Both ignored us apart from repeatedly saying 'is OK, do not worry' and then quickly left us with severely overcrowded table (my large plate half off edge nearly spilling on lap!). WE took remains of anchovy dish and put them on our mains (lucky all was fish) and piled up other empty dishes to make room. Waiters stood at distance with no other serving going on and watched this but still the pile of used dishes stayed on our table till they came to clear at end. Despite most of the swordfish and my pots/veg remaining on plates there was none of the usual enquiry re how we had found the food. I presume it was obvious. We asked for the bill clearly unhappy. BUT undeterred one waiter returned with a bottle of pink Fizzy liquid and said ' a present for you' and poured out 2 glasses. I took a sip..sherbet. I asked again for the bill. Again no enquiry re our opinion with now also 2 undrinkable 'presents' left on table. We paid what was asked and left quite upset and completely taken aback by the attitude and standards shown...completely at odds with most of what we experienced elsewhere in the city. Do not be fooled by the white table cloths and smiling reception by lady at front. Ps 1 non- busy Waiter had passed a couple of minutes polishing plates at side and picking off some things with his...

Another reviewer has already commented that they wished they had read the reviews first. I feel exactly the same in hindsight, but when you are on holiday surrounded by a pleasant environment, you tend to go with the flow of things more and the restaurant presentation / appearance seemed good, so you often assume the food will be the same. To be fair we were a party of four and three of the meals were mostly ok, hence while this review reflects my experience of the poor food I was served I wanted to share within it some of the experience the rest of my party had too in the rating I have given (hence not being 1 star). So, at first I must admit I laughed, as all the other meals had come out and looked a reasonable size, but I had ordered the lasagne and it came out in an approximately sized 15cm in diameter brown bowl / dish. The piece of lasagne was cut into a square approximately 8cm x 8cm and 1cm in depth, with nothing else. When I say nothing else, I mean nothing else, so while people reading this review may think that means no salad, but it came with chips / fries or vice versa, I must highlight I do genuinely mean nothing else whatsoever, which is where the giggles kicked in 😂🤣😂🤣. At €16 (usually a good price for lasagne) I shouldn't be laughing but the party I was with sincerely at first, questioned if it was a mistake and I had ordered a child's size portion, but then said it didn't look big enough for a child size portion still, hence the hilarity. As a customer should do, I calmly asked if what I had been served was correct and if it should come with something else. I got brought a plate of fries and it turned out that most of them were hard too 😂🤣😂🤣. Again, you can imagine how terrible but funny it was at the same time. I started to think it must be that this lasagne will just taste that good, so I cut into it and saw there was barely any meat inside too 😂🤣😂🤣. The pasta sheets were perfectly nice (and the little bit of meat I tasted seemed ok as well 😆). I have taken some photos but I'm not sure it does it justice as to just how small (and in turn how funny), the food ended up being. While we left in good spirits as we saw the funny side of it and just simply won't return or recommend, I would like to think the owner will see this and correct for future customers who do...

PLEASE do yourself a favour and choose one of the many other restaurants by the marina.

On first impressions you’d be forgiven for thinking’this looks pretty decent.’ Smartly dressed staff, lovely location, fresh fish in the tank. But once you sit down, that’s where the actual dining experience begins.

It’s actually easier for me to simply list what I was disappointing with out meal. So here goes:

We had to wait (and ask) for plates and cutlery (15 minutes).

We had to get someone’s attention to order drinks after being seated (10 minutes, no one came over).

The waitress who served our drinks did not look comfortable doing it and the wine was just left for us to serve ourselves.

The starters to be fair were very good, but the wait for the main was really disappointing. And when I finally called someone over to ask (the maitre de I think) she said just one moment and walked away, and that was it. No further update and 10 minutes later it finally arrived.

The paella was average at best, the monkfish didn’t arrive with the potatoes as on the menu, and when we ordered a glass of wine with the main it never arrived.

Shame as we had high hopes when we stood outside and booked a table. Hopefully there’s a table for...