José Cruz Restaurant — Restaurant in Nerja

We were foolish to have not looked at the reviews of this place before deciding to eat here, the 2.7 on google is extremely generous. We had rented sun-beds right beside this place so decided to pop in for lunch. Had to wait in line for a bit as it was busy (which is fine, it’s peak time). When we got to the top, the waiter asked how many and then beckoned us to follow, but when we walked in he then stopped us abruptly and said they’re full, so already we were like ‘ok, odd’. When he came back a little bit later , we finally went in and were given a table. The waiter was quite abrasive and asked us what we wanted to drink before we had even sat in the chairs or looked at the menu, so I panic ordered a coke and my partner got a beer.

On a positive note the drinks came rather quickly, but there was nothing good after that. We were basically abandoned at the table. 40 minutes had gone by, drinks were finished and we were still holding menus in our hands waiting to order food. Waiters were whizzing past bringing food to other tables, but we were totally ignored. About 20 mins into this, a waiter had motioned to me that he would be over in a minute, but he never came back. After some time he finally did come to the table, but at this point we did not want to order any food and just asked for the bill. No acknowledgment or apology, he just grabbed the menus from the table and walked off and another person arrived shortly after with the bill to pay.

Absolutely appalling experience, probably the worst restaurant I’ve been to in a long time. Avoid...

Probably the worst dining experience I've ever had. I even had very low expectations based on our welcome on walking in. There were six in our party and ordered four different meals between us. Every meal was terrible and basically either dry or the previous days leftovers in a sandwich. My chicken sandwich consisted of two slices of dry bread with some dry chicken, processed cheese, egg and slimy asparagus. Not a natural combination! Oh and served on a napkin which stuck and ripped to the sandwich. Genius. Actually the napkin was probably the only part of the meal that had any flavour. I also tried the children's pizza which they didn't like. I was annoyed until I tasted it. Suspect my labrador wouldn't even finish it. Rant over. Definitely would...

We had lunch here after a couple of hours on the beach. We didn't want anything to heavy before our walk back up the steps home, so we opted for two dishes from the starter menu. Melon with Iberico Ham and langostin Pil-Pil and bread. My langostines were fresh and meaty, served cooking in oil infused with garlic, chilli and tomato. They were absolutely delicious and I enjoyed soaking up the remaining oil in the fresh bread we'd ordered. The melon was served thinly sliced and its cool sweetness contrasted beautifully with the saltiness of the cured ham. The service was quick and friendly and the views of the beach uninterrupted. I would happily reccomend eating...