Restaurante El Jardín 1887 — Restaurant in Málaga

The food was just okay. The meat was very tender, both for my husband’s bull tail stew and my pork tenderloin. I appreciated being able to get a half portion at a good price. However the food was incredibly salty and was also served with overly salty French fries.

We ordered the Mediterranean salad (the description on the menu was not detailed, plus our Spanish isn’t very good, so we figured we’d take our chances). We were served a green salad with iceberg lettuce, shredded egg, some fish and two olives, and also a serving of cheese on the side, which seemed fine to us. Once we had just served ourselves onto our plates, the head waiter announced that they had made an error and served us the wrong salad. He yanked the plates from us, including making my husband scrape his own plate back onto the serving dish.

He later came back with a slightly different green salad (also with shredded eggs and a different kind of fish). He seemed to blame us for not knowing they had made a mistake. It took at least 5 minutes after being served (and asking 3 times) for me to get a new plate and a fork since they’d taken mine away. My husband never got a clean plate and had to eat off his dirty one.

Because of the quality of the food, the rudeness of the head waiter, and honestly the cleanliness of the place (bathrooms are dirty and dirty dishes were stacked in the dining room), we left right after dinner not stopping for more drinks, coffee, or dessert.

When we got our bill, they had charged us for a cheese plate that came with our salad, but that we had never ordered. We didn’t know until the bill arrived that it didn’t come with the salad, so we had eaten it! We asked the waitress to remove it from the bill; while she was very apologetic, the head waiter /manager refused based on the fact that we ate it. I thought it was a terrible way to treat customers over 9 euros.

Do yourself a favor and keep walking rather than eat here. The food isn’t worth being...

We waited 45 minutes before our food arrived from the moment we placed the order. The waiter was rushing us to take the order and didn't give us much time to think properly. We were also told we couldn't get the daily menu but could only from the "à la carte" menu. On Google it says that the kitchen closes at 15:45 but we arrived at 14:25 and the order was placed with the waiter by 14:30. Then when ordering, we asked for a jar of tap water but we were told they didn't give any because the tap is warm (we're at the end of January and it's 18/20 degrees outside). We then said we didn't need any water. The waiter brought us some bottled water which we said no to as we didn't want to pay for water. He therefore took the bottle away, we haven't consumed it (unopened) but still got charged for it on the bill. After telling us they didn't give tap water, he brought us a jar of ice cold tap water.

In terms of food: The seafood paella was quite watery, the grilled sole was perfect and the vegetable paella was good.

Overall it was "okayish" but due to the location of the restaurant I guess it can get quite busy hence the rushing...

The café looks beautiful and traditional, but don’t be fooled, as the service and attitude here are quite shocking.

We only ordered 3 coffees (2 espressos & 1 americano) and were treated with rudeness from the start. The staff was dry and ignored us multiple times when we asked for the bill. It took 4 attempts before someone came over.

When we finally paid, they charged us €18 for 3 coffees without ever showing us a menu with coffee prices (the one we saw only listed food and other drinks). We had to call the waiter afterwards to ask about the prices, and only then did they admit it was a mistake (the correct price was 5€) They refunded €13 without apology or any gesture of goodwill.

This establishment’s online responses to negative reviews are just as rude and personal, instead of professional or respectful. That says everything about how they treat customers.

This is not an honest or welcoming establishment, it’s a tourist trap. There are many wonderful cafés in Málaga where you’ll be treated kindly and charged fairly. Unfortunately, this is not...