Safari Restaurant — Restaurant in Mijas

No doorman to seat you at arrival - he is busy going around tables and doing kiss-hellos. If you seat yourself you'll get a stern talking to by the staff, so just wait at the entrance and stand there while the staff uncomfortably looks at you and keeps doing whatever they were doing. You'll get seated when they get to it. Place wasn't even very busy during our visit and yet staff seemed to be running around with their pants on fire.

Staff is quite inattentive - we had to try several times just to get someone to get menus and get drink orders in. When drinks finally arrived, they didn't pour our drinks into glasses like you'd expect from a 5 star resort. Asked our waiter questions about the meals before ordering and received a reply akin to "you will find out". We ordered a whole grilled fish which arrived reasonably quickly and tasted alright, but had all the fish bones left, that we then had to pick out ourselves. At around 30e for the dish, you would expect someone to pick out the bones before serving. Our waiter duly came by and asked how is the food; upon hearing our feedback about the bones, he said bones belong in a fish and it's how the fish stays together. It was a grilled fish, it doesn't need the bones anymore. Taste was good though and gets a bonus point just for the taste.

Paying was also a operation - not even waving hands directly at waiters got their attention. Took us about 10 minutes just to get someone to ask if we wanted more food. Then when we requested the bill instead, they said nothing back and just left. We were left wondering if we are getting the bill or not. Fortunately they did bring the bill after about 5 minutes. Then it took another 5 minutes to get them to come process us out. Paid with cash and got correct amount back, which didn't take very long fortunately. Actually the only thing that didn't take way too long.

Whole experience is akin to something you'd find at a tourist attraction, not at a five star resort. I feel like we inconvenienced the staff by eating here, and we left very disappointed. It's way overpriced for food that is just okay (theme of this resort). The AC is turned all the way down in degrees and blasts at max blow - bring a top if you get cold easily. There is live music, which sounded honestly very nice during our visit, but was pretty loud and it was hard to hear what my companion was saying. I don't want to be yelling in a restaurant. Atmosphere and decor is cool for kids - its very safari. Reservations were impossible to make because nobody picks up the phone when you try calling around 3-4pm. Evidently you should reserve through the customer service center, which is conveniently located next to the restaurant.

Best part of the experience was looking at all the other patrons and see them receiving the same cold shoulder from waiters. Same disappointed faces when the waiters walk right by you. Also had a fantastic time watching the entrance and seeing confused patrons waiting to be seated by a nonexistent door man - again, the man with the vest is busy doing something completely different than greeting guests and getting waiters to seat them. It's pretty frustrating to eat here, but gets kinda funny when you consider that all patrons are getting the same service.

If you're a guest of the resort, know that you can get much better food delivered directly to your door by using the food delivery apps. You usually get it faster than you get any service in this restaurant - we got a delivery tonight in less time than it took us to even get seated at the restaurant. On top of deliveries being faster and better quality, it's much cheaper even with delivery fees.

Only go if you're at the pool with kids and absolutely do not want to leave the immediate vicinity of the pool. Then be prepared to wait for everything. Absolutely disgraceful service level for a resort of this price range. I've gotten better service...

High prices, with indifferent and slow service. A frustrating experience, especially when it's the only option on an enormous resort that's too far out of town to walk to other alternatives. Live music most nights, which varies from 'really quite pleasant' to 'thoroughly mediocre'.

Update: Against our better judgement, we returned. The result was even worse! It took 45 minutes to get a single drinks order in, and then we were ignored until somebody came to take our menu away. We ordered another drink at that point, but the disdain with which our request was taken suggested that serving customers was the last thing on their mind. The Old Fashioned cocktail that finally arrived was, frankly, undrinkable and sent back. Utterly frustrating and...

As the resort itself is huge and not too many options for dining available, the Safari Restaurant was an amazing experience for our big family with the little children. The staff was above and beyond with any of our requests, serving the meals and drinks as fast as possible. We have dine for couple of days (half board option much recommended to the families), so could experience the service and have some comparison. Both breakfast and dinner are well organised. The food is on its highest level, beautifully cooked and presented on the table. The staff is so friendly and helpful, they made us feel comfortable and looked after. A big thank you to the manager José and his team. Highly...