El Pescador Ermitaño — Restaurant in Peníscola / Peñíscola

The restaurant is top rated on Google and Tripadvisor. I think we’ve had some bad luck. We’ve ordered Paella Valenciana which was really good. We also ordered Paella de Bogavante which is described in the menu containing fish, shellfish and lobster. We only got rice and lobster. The waiter said it is fish and shellfish broth. He also said he would do something about the price because he understood our point of view (that if there is fish and shellfish on the menu that you expect it) but at the end we paid the full price without a discount. This might seem as a small issue because the price for four was just a little more than 100euro but it was a bit a disappointment because the most expensive paella was boring. To little variation in taste, just rice and lobster. (And no tools to get the meat out of the shell.) If you order Valenciana, or De Marisco, you’re much better of. We were also greeted with less friendly faces when we asked for a table with less wind (everything was blowing away and we could not understand each other due to wind noise, really ) when the restaurant was almost empty. The taste was really good for the Valenciana. I don’t know we were less treated because we are tourists and could not speak Spanish or something else. If they treated us a bit better I would have certainly recommended it. Last point of criticism: we could only reserve at table at 16hours, later I noticed the restaurant closes at 17hours. From 16h30 staff was leaving, at 17 everyone was cleaning tables and floor around us and spraying cleaning agent on the tables. I understand it all but please inform as when we come to reserve a table. Just bad luck I suppose 🤷🏼‍♂️. I bet many people have a different...

Reservations are necessary in summer! The place was packed for lunch. Since we had a reservation, we were seated right away. The food and drinks came out in a timely manner. The restaurant was very organized and professional. The chef even invites guests to see how paella is made in their kitchen, if you are curious to see. The Sangria was excellent. It wasn't watery or cheap like in other places. It had a delicious flavor and is now my 3rd favorite place for Sangria. The chipirones were also delicious and perfectly cooked and breaded. The only dish we were disappointed about was the paella itself. The paella valenciana was too broth flavored for us. It tasted completely like chicken broth. In the future, I wouldn't come here for paella, probably we would just stop here for tapas and drinks. The rest of the food was excellent, even the cremeat coffee...

Deplorable service, we had to serve the paella ourselves, when we asked for the ingredients in the desserts (because of severe allergies) the waitress didn't know and just answered " I didn't make it, if I made it I would know", we asked for separate checks and they made us calculate our shares ourselves. My friend ordered a beef fillet and it was almost raw when he asked for it rare, it was accompanied by a minuscule portion of fries, we had to ask for ketchup and there were no vegetables or salad, very little bang for your buck for a 20€ dish. The food overall was okay, but the service made the...