Olivia's La Cala — Restaurant in Mijas

When we arrived at 19:00, dressed appropriately for dinner in a fine dining restaurant, there was basically a party happening. They had an extremely loud singer and electric guitarist - who were very good - but absolutely blasting out and having a party with a load of people drinking and dancing all around our table. It was very odd.

We paid for the party balloon and cake package. When we arrived the balloons were on the table. What a joke - standard latex balloons with a silver foil balloon that someone had written 'Happy birthday' on in pen. The ribbons were not finished with a curl, they just looked really cheap and tacky; for €40. The table had a few sprinkles on from some packet of confetti stars too, along with the staples from the packet - nice.

We all made an effort to dress up, but there were people in swimwear still, very drunk, very loud prancing about the place. The restaurant was not as nice as we expected. The toilets were a mess, paper all over the floor. The toilet seats do not fit the toilets. There were restaurant chairs stacked up on the entrance to the toilets.

A woman who seemed to be leading the party came over to introduce herself. She was clearly having a good time with friends and came to say hi to the birthday girl. She was keen to tell us she was 65 and Elliott Wright's Mum. She asked us what we thought and I said that the 'balloons were a bit rubbish' and she said leave it with me. Instead of deducting the price of them, she got another balloon brought out. This time is said 'feliz cumpleaños'. She did also send over a bottle of Cava and made a fuss saying that was on her. I suppose she did something but we were drinking other fizz, you'd have thought she'd have brought what we were drinking.

There are loads of staff at this venue or massively mixed ages. No-one really paid that much attention to us and contrary to other reviews they served us really quickly - in fact too quickly - it was like they wanted us out. The staff were young kids jumping on each other, some joining in the party and one particularly miserable older man who slammed down plates and nearly knocked over my drink. Service was poor, no attention to detail for a place that charged so much. They kept removing plates from the table as one person had finished, no waiting for the group to finish the course.

Food was average - nothing wowed or was spectacular and was sooo expensive. I had the lobster wellington that was €50. Even the presentation was poor, it looked like a pie to be honest. We were told is was going to be medium rare, this was emphasised but the steak was 100% medium well. I also had a lot of lobster shell in my dish. I did tell the waiter but he offered me another dish when I'd eaten half of it.

There was a break from the party when the first live act finished to be later replaced with a very talented lady who sang and played a saxophone - but again at a deafening volume for dinner service. The table next to us actually complained and asked for the volume to be turned down. I don't think this place knows what it is - a nightclub? bar and dancing? A restaurant?

We had ordered the birthday cake package and after we'd eaten our mains, the birthday girl and another lady had gone to the bathroom when the music suddenly changed and out came the cake to Stevie Wonders 'Happy Birthday'. We were pretty much the only large group in the restaurant and clearly had 2 empty seats. So they had to withdraw with the sparklers and redo the entrance once the group was there. Again, lacking class and attention to our group.

Hugely overpriced a la carte menu, fine dining it is not! We would not recommend or ever return to this place. It's tacky and as another review said - riding on the name of Towie. A really disappointed end to a great weekend. Don't waste your money at this place, there are plenty of nicer choices that will cost you a lot less.

If I were the owners, I'd be embarrassed by these reviews - but then again, we're the mugs for going...

Literally just walked out of here and I’m writing this review on my way back to hotel. Awful experience tonight across the board. There is so many things i don’t know where to start. It’s true what they say, when the boss is away the staff will play. Chefs, waiters, bouncers, all couldn’t cope tonight. 1- as for arg singing he sang about 4 songs then left. So don’t be fooled into booking for him to headline. 2- after booking and paying you get sent set menus which isn’t a great selection of food if I’m honest, for €110 per head. Which they don’t tell you before you book. (This is because arg was performing special menu) 3- steak is the most vile repulsive excuse of steak I have ever ever had. As was my boyfriends so it wasn’t a one off. I read another review saying you’d get better in weatherspoons and they’re right you would. They call this fine dining I’ve seen better burgers from McDonald’s. See pictures attached for the fattest waste of inedible steak. 4- I have a nut allergy, which upon arriving I stated to staff, even tho I must say they don’t ask which I think is the most BASIC waiter skills there is. I ordered chocolate moose from the menu, doesn’t say come with nuts. I had 2 spoons and my throat lips and tongue started to swell. I called the waiter immediately and asked is there nuts in this as I am allergic. He ran to the kitchen with the moose to check and returned 7 minutes later with strawberries and cream. And said yeah whoops sorry there was nuts from the chef. In which time my throat was more swollen I asked for water. Which took another 5 minutes of me hardly swallowing. I then got charged for the water! Even tho I had a reaction which was their fault 5- they turn you away if you aren’t dressed suitably. Unless of course you are Elliott wrights sons mates. Who by the way are all underage and drinking in there. They allowed boys in in socks and sliders, yet if a man wanted to come in with a hat on, yep get it off!! Also you get asked to remove any ‘man bag/ body bags’ however Elliot’s son was walking round in a Louis Vuitton man bag alll night !!!! It was also full of drama and kick offs. The bouncers grabbed the arm of a man and then the hen party was crying and it was awful really smug bouncers who think they are better than anyone else.The staff then demanded they pay the bill when they had kicked them out the restaurant. Even James argent walked off down the road with the girls who were crying. Disgusting service across the board. I will not be returning. It could have so much potential and I’m sure Elliott is a lovely man, he was there last year when we came but he wasn’t this year and I think they over sold the event, not enough staff. It was a complete mess people in and out all the time not enough security checking for people bringing back in drugs, knifes god knows what. Was not a safe event. But you do pay for the name and who’s restaurant it is, this is not about good service and a love for food, it’s about making money which he’s good at clearly it was packed tonight. But don’t go wanting a nice edible meal as you won’t get it. Also my bit of advice would be make the female toilets bigger. No room to wash your hands and get in and out the doors. It’s worse than an easy jet plane toilet. Total bill was over €300 for...

I am never someone who leaves a bad review, as I know how hard it is to run a business but sadly our experience was uncalled for really, so I have to share. Since Olivia’s opened, we have been, year in year out and had the best time, food and evening parties! But this year was so disappointing. Firstly my partner and 8 of his family and friends including my dad who had always visited Olivia’s whilst in Spain year after year. So as you can imagine we all had high hopes, told people Joe amazing it was etc. So my partner was there a week before us, there was 9 of them all together. When they got seated they was told it was a set menu and they couldn’t order anything else. They was not happy as this was news to them and they didn’t like most of the food on the set menu (85pp). They then got to change this and order what they wanted from a normal menu. As the night went on there was zero entertainment and it was dead, so they left and went elsewhere. My and my girls was visiting a week after, and he told me not to bother as it’s not what it use to be. I ignored him, thinking it’s one of the best places and I love it! Plus me and my friends had paid a €600 deposit! So a week later me and the girls arrive at Olivia’s. We got seated at our table inside right next to the stage where the performance was going to be! It was my hendoo I was excited. As soon as we sat down 2 waiters started putting bowls of bread, olives, raw salmon etc on the table and we said oh we’ve not ordered yet, they said it’s a set menu. We said we don’t like this food we want to choose from a menu … we had no idea about a set menu? The lady apologised and said they forgot to share the set menu in the booking email with us, but they couldn’t do anything else it was set menu only at €85pp! We told them we didn’t want this, 2 people at the table couldn’t eat raw salmon due to allergies too! Time went on and it took us around 1 hour going back and forth arguing to get anywhere. The waitress told us we could have our €600 deposit back if we didn’t want the food as we couldn’t order from any other menu. So we said ok but then she said but you can’t sit here, you have to give you table back and then pay a €30 door fee pp just for being in here. Also whislt going back and forth about the menu we noted everyone else around us eating and ordering meals from a different menu!! So tables of 2-4 could eat and order whatever they liked!!! But a table of 6 had to have a set menu that was rubbish! We put our foot down and said we are keeping our table after paying €600 deposit and we want bowls of chops and we will stay here as we’ve had planned and booked this night since February 2025! We ain’t moving. We got our own way in the end but the service, the food and the was we was being treated was shocking! The entertainment was good, but he didn’t come back out to sing, I feel it was because the place emptied after a while, it was also strange to me as it was filled with kids, there was 3 year olds running around at 1am! And also as the night went on teenage kids gathered to the dance floor and was drinking! It felt like a school disco and not the stylish, famous, packed out place to be that I’ve always known it to be. Will not be going back next year...