La Bodega del Mar — Restaurant in Marbella

At La Bodega del Mar we just had one of our worst meal experiences ever.

It has fallen from grace. This was the 5th time we’ve had a meal there. Prior times we kinda enjoyed it. We were repeat guests, But today this happened:

Their tiramisu, is NOT a tiramisu. It was inedible. They served a glass of whipped cream with cookie crumbled on top. The free cookies that come with a hot drink. Their “tiramisu” had no mascarpone, egg flavour, no silky texture, and barely any lady finger. It lacked coffee flavour and no cocoa dusting (nor any alcohol, vanilla or lemon zest, which are optional).

Anyway, theirs is an insult to the tiramisu.

Because the dessert was basically a glass of whipped cream, it’s very sickly and thus inedible. So we asked to swap it for their creme brûlée.

Manager answers: “how come?” . I answer: “because it’s just whipped cream, there’s no tiramisu. We can’t eat it.” She says: “No. it’s good.” And storms off without taking the plate, without apologising. They then bring the creme brûlée, which was no better, as it was split. Ie cooked badly… resembled scrambled eggs. Anyway, we didn’t want to complain twice, and the creme was “edible”. We reluctantly had it.

They never apologised for the bad tiramisu. And put it on the bill and the creme brûlée too.

I asked the manager to remove the tiramisu off the bill (€5.50). She answers: “No. you had it. It’s good. It’s good.” I reply: “No, we couldn’t eat it. It’s just whipped cream, that’s why we needed it changed”, pointing to the dish we had 1 spoonful of.

She storms off. And Again no remorse or apology for trying to scam the guest. I was shocked.

They took it off the bill. No “thank you“ exchanged.

I rarely have to write bad reviews. But I am compelled to warn people.

Food 1/5:

BAD desserts: tiramisu is just tasteless whipped cream with no tiramisu flavours. Creme brûlée was sweet scrambled egg, it was split / curdled . Bland unseasoned aubergines. Microwaved, unevenly heated patatas bravas, with no crispiness.

Service 1/5:

unprofessional and rude manager. Bad guest relations. Knowingly trying to scam guests for charging for an inedible dish.

Value 1/5:

because the experience is so terrible. It’s not worth your time or money.

Overall, because of this tiramisu debacle and her unprofessionalism, this is now a place to FIRMLY AVOID.

No guest deserves to be insulted, and no owner/manager should try to pull a fast one. If something is wrong: apologise, rectify and compensate. The owner needs lessons in management, a change in attitude and her palate is simply not good enough (if she thinks whipped cream is a dish).

Having the audacity to try to charge for a glass of whipped cream is an outright insult.

So, It’s gone straight onto my list of “Places to avoid in Marbella”, along with the tourist traps. So my hundreds of guests per year will be told...

We ordered dinner here because saw a lot of people in the restaurant which usually indicates good food. Here it was different though.

Upon arrival we were asked if we have a reservation and when we said we didn't make oke he scoffed and left for two minutes not saying anything (mind you the restaurant was more than half empty).

As for the food- tapas: fried calamari is just too salty I felt like it was pouring salt into my mouth. Sadly the shrimp with mango sauce was way worse since it had no taste what so ever. Food was at least quick to come I cannot complain about that.

Main course: Came really quickly, basically right when we finished the tapas which was pretty nice. Beef stew was really good and the Caesar salad was great as well. Spaghetti Bolognese was extremely average but you can't expect to get a good one in a restaurant like this.

I myself couldn't finish my Caesar and the spaghetti portion was too big so we thought about taking it with us in case we get hungry a little later and they advertise takeaway so believed it was no problem. The PROBLEM: we were given 1/4 of the Caesar that I didn't eat and about 1/5 of the spaghetti. WHERE IS THE REST? I don't have an answer for that. Wish I checked before going back to the apartment because that is just ridiculous.

Trying to pay was also painful since we had to wait for a long time for anyone to notice that we want to leave.

Overall the food wasn't terrible but not worth the prices. There are much better alternatives so unless you really like the location or you've eaten here before and absolutely loved it I would rather eat...

We went to La Botega for dinner after reading many positive reviews. We are so glad we decided to visit. We didn’t have a booking and the restaurant was extremely busy but the staff went above and beyond to find us a table and to make us feel really welcome. They are a real credit - each person we dealt with was friendly, helpful and professional despite them having many tables to attend to. They made sure to chat to us and make sure we had everything we needed.The decor is really lovely with lots of nice touches such as the outdoor string lights and the pretty flowers displayed on the tables. It’s also right on the promenade so it’s in a perfect location and we even managed to see some street entertainers whilst waiting on our meal. We didn’t feel rushed in any way and we felt like we could have happily sat there all night - the surroundings are so nice. The menu is vast and we both chose the salmon with leek sauce and mashed potato. The food was served quickly and was very well cooked. It was really delicious and moreish and we could tell it was made fresh. We also shared a dessert which was just as lovely. We were given a honey and whisky shot when paying our bill which was a lovely added touch. The prices were very reasonable and we can definitely see why this place gets such great reviews - we can’t fault it in any way and we can’t visit again when next...