El Rais — Restaurant in Maó

Disappointing. This restaurant had been highly recommended by a number of people and we were excited about our dinner. Truly great restaurants and chefs are not about when things are going well, it's about when things go wrong. Our night was a night of things going wrong. Our dinner started well with a lovely shared bread plate but quickly went down hill. The croquette was cold in the middle, the dumplings possibly out of the frozen aisle but we kept our faith. Then 45mins later a tray of hot and unappealing salty olives arrived. 10mins later our obviously embarrassed waiter appeared to let us know that the lobster rice had gone wrong. Fair enough, these things happen. But a full recovery was beyond this chef/manager. The next plate of rice to arrive was so obviously rushed, burnt the middle, the lobster dry and unappealing. No seasoning, no taste. We sent it back and instead of regrouping we got a lecture from the chef disagreeing with us via our embarrassed waiter. "?" we thought but waited for the lamb, hoping against hope that our final course would be okay. Ah, we placed too much faith in this chef. Raw lamb arrived bleeding all over the tasty, but now red, mash potatoes. The fat still white, having barely touched the grill. We sent it back and asked for the bill. Arrogant to the final, the manager/chef actually expected us to pay for the two courses we'd sent back. That says it all really. This sort of behaviour is the sign of not caring about your customers and that only ends one way - in customers departing. Be warned, you may have a good meal but if anything goes wrong, instead of trying to fix it they'll be blaming you, doing nothing, hiding in the kitchen or behind their waiters and expecting you...

A culinary oasis in a most unassuming place with impeccable service. Everything we ate at El Rais was realization of divinity. Everything was cooked to the perfection, not 10 seconds less not 10 seconds more; retaining juices, tenderness and the whole flavour. They didn’t ask how I preferred my meat; and I forgot. Then I realized they didn’t forget but they serve it as they believe it needs to be served. I ate my meat medium rare for the first time after a long time and loved every bite of it. We ordered starters in the middle to share with different oortion sizes to be shared between 4 people and different cooking times. Everything came arranged and in sequence! The service was like a pre-set banquet menu!

Folks, I cannot recommend this restaurant enough and I am only hoping they will neither drop their standards not increase their prices or covers they can serve comfortably. I am saying this because they have a lounge area which they can put more tables but this will strain kitchen operations. However they might change the lounge seating area and let more people enjoy unobstructed port view by moving tables at the back to that area, and lounge chairs to where those tables are at the back and/or upper section. Just...

Honestly, best food we had in Mahón so far. So food is 100% worth 5 stars.

However, the service in this place is a joke.

We had a table for 13 people and have been asked to order a set menu, which is more than fair.

All the plates were “sharing” plates, with no instruction on how many pieces / how the plate is to be shared between people. Obviously some of the plates got eaten by some of our guests and some guests didn’t even get a chance to try some dishes. When asked what to do, the response was “kitchen is closed we can’t do anything”

Okay. Next dish we have actually asked - how many people is this dish meant to be shared between? Just to work out ourselves. The answer we received was “you decide how to share yourselves”

Guys, you decide to force us into a set menu. Fine. You decide to make sharing plates. Fine. At least then explain and set the scene how many people the dish is meant to cover.

Waiters are moody and hardly talk unless you ask them a question.

Coffee orders forgotten.

Absolute joke of a service, which is sad as the food is...