La Almadraba del Puerto — Restaurant in Marbella

Visited during off-peak season in December ‘23 as we were recommended by our hotel concierge. It’s a nice large venue in the centre of old town. English speaking waitress was very helpful in making a selection, we went for the fritura variada (mixed fried seafood platter (pictured)) most of all which tasted ok however the calamari had a really strong smell to it which was off putting, I did ask what was in the batter as possibly it was a local herb or spice they used but was told they use a mixture of two flour types and salt and pepper and the other fried fish and baby squid didn’t have this smell which made me question the smell even more so we couldn’t eat any of it. We ordered salad which came as a selection of salad ingredients, we are used to having these ingredients mixed and dressed but maybe that’s how they do salad here so we cut up, mixed and dressed the salad ourselves. There was a white hair in the salad, this could happen anywhere but was unfortunate it found us after we were already put off by the calamari. I did like how they have the fresh fish on display in a glass ice box where you choose your own fish which they take out and show you before taking to the kitchen. The main fish we chose was a snapper, which came with seasoned potato’s and vegetables which was nice. Service - We are used to having the table cleaned between courses, they just placed the plates on bits of food that had fallen off from the starter platter. It was difficult to find a service member when needed even though we were one of four tables out of dozens so the place were empty but all the staff was at the back end. The prices seemed decent for a fish restaurant. The fritura veriada platter was just under €20 which seemed good value as it was a loaded portion even though we didn’t end up eating it. We personally wouldn’t...

Stay well clear. Hostile, misogynistic, unprofessional and downright abusive experience

Avoid this place at all costs. What we endured was far worse than bad service. It was aggressive, disrespectful and completely unacceptable.

It began when a waiter spilled oysters and other food all over my brand new expensive clothes and designer handbag. When I calmly raised the issue, instead of an apology or any responsibility, the bill suddenly increased from €81 to €88, then finally to €94.

Then the head chef stormed over, reeking of aggression and misogyny, got in my face and threw the screwed up original bill at us. Completely unprofessional and threatening.

At this point my partner stood up. He is not someone to shy away from confrontation and was ready to act on the disrespect shown. Staff then surrounded him at the table, escalating the situation even further. They threatened to call the police, which we welcomed without hesitation.

While the police were trying to deescalate things, one staff member who had changed out of uniform and assumed I did not understand Spanish began shouting slurs at me in Spanish. Truly appalling.

What they did not realise is that I have lived in Marbella for years and do understand Spanish. It was clear they assumed we were tourists and tried to take advantage of that. This kind of behaviour is not just dishonest but predatory, and completely unacceptable.

They offered to dry clean my clothes, which were brand new and cost over €200, as if that would make up for the damage and humiliation. Not a single genuine apology was given throughout.

This experience was aggressive, misogynistic, discriminatory and frankly disturbing. Avoid this...

I would give 0 stars if I could. Bad food and terrible service. We (politely) complained about the food being bland and the staff did not handle it well at all, they were very rude, told us the food was fine and insisted we paid for food that we clearly couldn’t eat. I wouldn’t go there again for free and definitely would not recommend it.

The food we were returning the two guys had one or two bites each (separate mains) and returned it right away.

They gave us the receipt still including the food that was returned and we explained we did not want to pay for those two items for the reasons shared, and they said if we didn’t want to pay for those items they would call the police, which we agreed was fine… strange , however, as you would think they would handle it better and explain why they wanted the payment rather than resorting to the police straight away!

The police came and told the manager to deduct it from our bill, as the customer was right on this occasion.

A few hours later, one of the members of my group is now in the toilet with food poisoning from the seafood.

**Edit I can see that the manager has now left a comment about us being tired of eating… how would he know that?? A liar and a bad manager. And to be clear we were happy to pay for everything else. Instead of lying on reviews how about you learn customer service and...