Chiringuito del Puerto — Restaurant in Orihuela

So took a stroll on the beach today at Campoamor with my wife. We came to this restaurant and ask if we could sit for a few drinks and lunch. First we stood for ages and had to ask a couple of times before being offered a seat. The staff seemed so oblivious to our presence. Once we sat I went to the bar to get some drinks and was told to sit as the waiter will come to us. We sat down and waited for about 20mins watching others that arrived after us being served/attended. We quietly got up and left after 30min. Very disappointing service in an area and country we are exploring as a permanent holiday destination. I know it's most like just this restaurant or occasion but doesn't fill you confidence at all. I still find it crazy when restaurants staff are so caught up they forget the main reason they are in business. We moved on to another restaurant called Restaurante Montepiedra Playa which was twice as busy but had excellent service. Such a shame and really feel sorry for...

Went with friends and their children - a group of 10. Location is obviously good, menu is good and it's frequented by Spanish people, generally a good sign. Food when it arrived was ok and certainly no more than that. The biggest issue was waiter and kitchen service performance. Our waiters English was ok and although we ordered in Spanish he made a number of order errors. Also the drinks and food arrival was staggered over a very long time making it unacceptably poor requiring us to chase, remind and reorder the missing items several times. Another waiter intervened and tried to rescue the situation but it was too late plus, there was no bill reduction to compensate for our ruined lunch. There was also a kitchen problem given the sequence of the order delivery - we simply wanted to eat together as a group. This wasn't possible, waiting 25 to 40mins for numerous items. We won't be going back until their waiter service demonstrably improves based...

Well, this is a gem indeed. We visited on a Friday by accident and decided to go back the next day for a full meal even though we were advised to reserve a table. A very friendly waitress found us a table despite being under stress from a buzzing , full restaurant. She continued to juggle her tables and worked extremely hard to include us. The food was excellent, but a word about the tapas : the best chorizo de vino I have ever tasted. The gambas cabelleros were great too. Recommend 100% and I will be visiting again very soon. Great value for money with fish meals from €15 and a decent house white wine at €10. Ps you have to have the brownie con bolas de helado - a pudding to share!!

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