Restaurante Benítez — Restaurant in Nerja

We were actually the people that Matthew Tabram (a recent reviewer) was referring to. The worst dining experience of our lives, at the end of a wonderful week in Nerja. Unfortunately a bad choice of restaurant for our last night. Should have left before we ordered anything, the warning signs were there from the start. Staff were rude and disrespectful. We have never experienced such awful treatment, anywhere, much less in a restaurant. We were so disappointed to end our week in such an awfully bad way. This could have been avoided if we had been warned, or read reviews. So if you're reading this, take heed and stay away from the place. Our whole night was so uncomfortable. Total disrespect for the diners. Throwing plates down, grabbing cutlery and throwing them back on the table, to be used for the next course (which we didn't get to!), making everything seem like a chore, like we were inconveniencing them by being there. Well we didn't inconvenience them any longer than our starters. When our starters were finished we ordered the bill (as I said before, not before time). We paid for what we had and left to a tirade of shouting and abuse, ridiculous behaviour, the likes of which we've never experienced before. The manager told us that if she was mentioned in a review she would call the police. I kid you not. You couldn't make it up! Another thing, small but annoying, which we didn't even question as all hell would have broken loose, - on the bill bread and butter were itemised separately. None were ordered, they just appeared on the table at the start of the show. €2 for bread and wait for it, €2 for a little sealed thing of butter. Nothing major, but just thought I'd mention it. However if you heed the warning, you won't have to worry about any bill. Needless to say we won't darken their doorstep again. By the way, the starters we had were only average at best. Thank God the wine was alright, but they had nothing to do with that, apart from open it, which was probably the only thing the waitress did with any dignity. Heed the warning and stay clear...

DO NOT EAT HERE!! We had an absolutely vile experience last night where we were scammed by the restaurant.

My wife, our two adult children, and I visited Restaurante Benítez in Nerja to celebrate my 60th birthday. We reviewed the menu, where the fish dishes (sea bream and sea bass) were priced between €20 and €22 per person. The manager of the restaurant recommended the “catch of the day” (red snapper), claiming it was fresher and locally caught. We accepted without asking the price, naively assuming it would be similarly priced to the other items on the menu.

We were shocked to find that we were charged €45 per person for the fish (a total of €180 just for that dish), without any prior notice - this price was not listed on the menu, displayed anywhere in the restaurant, nor communicated to us verbally. We believe this practice to be deceptive and abusive.

When we challenged the bill, the manager refused to discuss the matter, became hostile, and called the police after we offered to pay a reduced total of €140, which we considered fair. She even physically blocked our exit(!!), preventing us from leaving the restaurant (false imprisonment). When the police arrived, we explained our point of view. To avoid further complications, we ultimately paid the full amount of €230 by card but were advised by the police to take the matter to the municipal consumer information office, which we did this morning.

The staff there were aware of the scam that had been practised on us and the manager in question, but the process for receiving any recompense was unrealistic and arduous, so they recommended leaving reviews on sites like Tripadvisor to warn others.

At the time, we should have been given a complaints form, which she did not do, and the police didn’t do anything about that.

We felt scammed, mistreated, and intimidated. The experience was extremely upsetting and ruined what should have been a special family...

Do not go to this place - very underwhelming and empty which should have been a warning!! One of the worst experiences I’ve every had ⚠️⚠️

It was our last night of our holiday in Nerja and we wanted to go for a nice last dinner however ended up with a fraud and ruin of the evening.

For a start, we were offered bread, butter and alioli which we accepted as they are usually pretty cheap however when the bill came we were charged €1 each for a small 10g pack of butter and as there was 10 of us it was €10 for 100g of butter (scam!!!), the bread was fine and fairly priced but with the alioli we got charged for 10 instead of the 6 pots we received - we didn’t dispute this but was a scam too.

We got offered water and asked for 2 bottles as we didn’t need a lot but unfortunately they gave us 4 bottles and when we were done they remained untouched and then the poured them into our glasses which meant they were unnecessary and they scammed us with too many, €10 for water we didn’t even drink.

The waitresses had an attitude on them which was not very pleasant - very sour faces and quite off putting, made it seem like a hassle to ask for forks which they had forgotten to give us.

The actual food was fine but basic and I would say very overpriced for what it was, some of the family had potatoes and veg and they looked like they had come from a frozen bag, can’t really comment on anything else but not what was expected.

We were sat outside and the wind was horrific, made me extremely tired and then was so exhausted afterwards, would have rather been inside.

In the end would have definitely rather stayed in my villa and had a nice €6.50 pizza from the place down the road and enjoyed my night which was what we did when we arrived instead of the cold and unappealing dinner we had to have.

Don’t go there if you want a nice meal and...