Restaurante El Cabra ( Ovidio playa ) — Restaurant in Málaga

I write here my first review as usually I’m more empathetic of the waiters and restaurants with 20 years experience working in hospitality I fully understand the stress but yesterday was not a nice experience and reduced me to tears.

I was recommended this place by a Spanish friend and saw it was busy (which is usually a good sign) so was excited to try out and get some good fish.

My first approach with the waiter was asking about wines I asked for his advice and told him what I liked in my best Spanish possible in the end he bring me nothing what I had asked for but it was ok the wine was fine and I just assumed it was a misunderstanding. When he came to take my order for food I asked him his recommendations this is when I realised that it was not misunderstanding the waiter was quite clear on showing he had no interests in serving me with me let alone even look at me I pointed to some dishes and asked him what he thought but I received nothing back from him he couldn’t even make eye contact or smile( he looked like he don’t want to be there and very rude) In the end i felt rushed and that he was getting very impatient so I went with one dish that was practically potatoes with some eggs mixed through 1 fried egg and 2 small shrimps costing 24 euros and the portion was tiny absolutely shocking it was also pretty bland the dish nothing exciting about it at all, I then asked the waiter to order something else as I knew I would still be hungry after this dish and I was asking about dishes that were on tables beside me and he was telling me other dishes and I was asking I want the fried calamari she tried to take my dish away from me that was not even finished and began to get really rude with me to the point when he made me feel so unwelcome and that I was being treated bad because I am tourist and it made me quite upset. The situation was calmed with another lovely waiter I think his name is Christian he made me feel very welcome after all that and gave very good service how it should be.

When I asked for the bill it took ages to receive everyone was continuing to ignore me and do other things in the end the first waiter who was rude bring the bill to only find the bread and olives were charged when I was not asked if I wanted them so I assumed they were for free. They did in the end take the charge of the bill so fair enough but this place is mega over priced bland food and terrible service. I do not recommend this place at all.

But I will say thank you Christian as you were the only person who showed empathy and were so kind and treated me like a human and not just a tourist (even though we should not be judged where...

Dreadful from start to finish. Went in with high hopes due to the clean appearance of the restaurant. Service appeared friendly but inattentive. Ordered beef paella. They brought us bread and olives which we assumed were complementary but were then added to the bill. When the paella arrived it was visually impressive, but both myself and my partner found it completely inedible due to being incredibly salty. When we raised this with the server they offered to change to another item on the menu. I chose monkfish, my partner octopus. The price was for the fish alone. There were no sides listed on the menu but the server advised us it would be an additional 6 euros each for vegetables and potatoes. When our replacement meals arrived they were edible but still over-salted. We were charged the full amount of our meal and an additional charge was given for the olives and bread that we had not asked for. The server was not helpful when we pointed out that the hidden costs of sides and "complementary olives" ought to be on the menu.

Very poor experience, I would not recommend this restaurant in...

We came to El Cabra looking to taste the famous Malaga sardines. The sardines were just ok, and probably not at the fault of the chef, I am sure, but because they were just plain sardines. You are supposed to eat them whole- just chop off the little head. I found the grilled sardines to be somewhat gross; as I chewed - I heard myself crushing tiny bones of the fish, all while mixed with whatever the grilled guts there were inside. - again can’t fault the chef. Overall quality and tastiness of food - of what we have ordered there - was average. We went looking for authentic Andalusian food and found the menu listing all the Americans Desserts instead of Andalusian pastries: carrot cake, cheese cake, apple pie, chocolate cake, etc. Service was excellent, though. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes - this is how fast the food was brought in and cleaned out from the table. For those complaining about slow service - we were served super fast. Imagine to be done with three course meal under 30...