Marisquería El Ancla — Restaurant in Marbella

Absolute gorgeous place. Beautiful view of the ocean and the city. The appetizers were quite good: we had delicious anchovies, green salad, an ok tomato and tuna salad. The mains were fine too. The grilled salmon was perfectly cooked but it’s a sad dish: only a piece of salmon, 3 tiny potatoes, and 2 asparagus- all completely dry, no oil or spices at all - but well cooked. The shrimp linguine had one single shrimp - and the shell that came on the top was empty; probably the last one they had, as it was after 10pm (the kitchen closes at 11). Too pricey for a pasta dish (€45). The service, though, is very bad. They push you to make a decision - we understand it was late, but the kitchen was not closed. Then at the end we finished our meal/had plates taken away at 11:20, and not only until 11:50, after asking a girl that was preparing the tables for next day’s lunch, someone came to see us for the check. They asked if everything was ok and I mentioned the restaurant was beautiful, the food was good but the service not as much. The waiter said it was because it was too busy (we were 3 tables after 11). For the payment, someone else came - which I believe it was the manager - and asked the same thing. As I said the same thing, she said it was because they were changing staff at that time. But couldn’t care less in apologizing or anything. Only sad it was not like...

We came for the pool bar menu with our sunbeds, which online (and over the phone 3 days prior) promises sushi and fried fish, however on arrival we were informed they weren’t doing it, which leaves you very limited on choice for food by the pool.

So we went to the restaurant at 1:50pm, where we were told they were fully booked unless we took the back corner table by the kitchen. I do still think this could only be because we had a young child, since throughout our seating there were between 10 - 4+ better tables available even by the end of our meal.

It was very disappointing, particularly since front of house lady said something along the lines of “you should be grateful we’re seating you at all”, and the man she brought over as the “manager” spoke to me in English then later said to my husband he doesn’t speak English, and then said he wasn’t the manager...(man with sides shaved)

All in all, such a poor experience, except the food, which was great, and one waiter called Santi who was fabulous. Thank you to him!

Do not believe what is on the website. It’s not updated and frankly the staff (in general) don’t care.

They also have a kids pool, which is great, but I’m shocked they don’t have any cover over it?

It’s also a beach club but half the time the music isn’t even playing. We used to love it here,...

The service and quality are both very poor. We booked a Bali bed for 200€ , the bed was badly maintained and had pieces missing or broken like the shade. Same for most beds.

We were told we didn’t need to reserve for lunch and when we went to restaurant for lunch at 1:30 it was told it was booked until 4pm.

Found a table at the bar, service was awful. Could not get attention of the single person serving for 15mins to get a menu. Then waited another 15mins to get their attention to order while they took orders from new tables.

Waited 20mins to get drinks and the drinks were wrong. Same time tables arriving after us got food and drinks. We waited still no sign of food only to be told they have lost our food order and we needed to order again.

Finally food arrived one dish at a time not at the same time for all diners. The food was average at best, but for the price, poor.

Finally after still trying to get attention of only waiter the bill came no discount , no apology

Lunch 87€ for for basic dishes and soft drinks worth no more than 40€.

Bad service, bad quality no value for money we will not be returning and I recommend you spend your money at another beach club.

The whole club is in need of maintenance and better training for the staff who seem out...