El Gallego — Restaurant in Pilar de la Horadada

My recent visit to El Gallego was highly disappointing and fell short of expectations on several fronts.

Upon arrival, the greeting process was unusual and inefficient. There was no host to welcome us, and we had to approach the bar ourselves. After a 10-minute wait, a waiter directed us to walk to the back, adding unnecessary delay to our seating process.

The service was notably poor. We experienced a significant lack of responsiveness and attention from the staff. It took 30 minutes for our order to be taken, and only after calling the waiter twice. Although the food arrived promptly once ordered, the overall service was subpar. Additionally, the staff neglected to clear tables from previous customers, leaving dirty plates and cutlery on the floor, creating an unappealing dining environment.

Regarding the food, while the quality was acceptable, it was far from exceptional. The presentation was satisfactory, but the high prices did not reflect the value received. The cost of the dishes was disproportionately high compared to their quality and portion sizes.

The billing process was frustrating and inaccurate. Despite requesting the bill three times, when it finally arrived, it included items we never ordered, such as an extra beer and a bottle of water. This carelessness further diminished our dining experience.

The atmosphere, intended to be high-class, was outdated and in need of renovation. The chairs, ceiling, and walls all showed signs of wear and could benefit from a refresh. While the tables were well-dressed and the glasses clean, the cutlery on our table was dirty. The state of the restroom was particularly concerning, as it was unclean and poorly maintained.

Overall, I cannot recommend El Gallego. The poor service, incorrect billing, outdated ambiance, and cleanliness issues overshadowed any positives. Improvements are necessary to align the restaurant's offerings with its intended...

Was looking forward to eating here as son many people said it was great. Not for us, it was the worst meal we have ever eaten. Service OK, but only one guy on a Friday night! We found a piece of foil in the ssauce we assumed was the cheese wrpper. When we highlighted this to the waiter he laughed. There's is no atmosphere with TV on showing local programs. We were led to believe this place was high end, well it isn't. The steaks we ordered were chewy and vert undercooked. One of our parties ordered his cooked medium while we asked for rare. Well, all the steaks were cold in the middle. The medium steak was cooked less than the rare! We asked to cook then some more, but they must have just warned the steaks up as they were not cooked anymore. We eat steak rare all the time, all over the world in some high-end establishments, but these were of poor quality and very undercooked, basically raw. It's such a shame as we were really looking forward to eating here as so many people had praised it. Also a massive shame as it was our friends birthday so we hoped it would be a special night, unfortunately we were all very disappointed and it was rather sad as it sort of...

Me and my family were so excited to eat here as it’s been great in the past but this time it was awful. The service was incredibly slow, the staff were not tentative (checking if food was okay or if we needed more drinks) the starters of prawn cocktail and soup of the day were not good. The steak mains and Turbot were not good either however the lamb, chicken and spaghetti bolognaise were decent. They tried to charge us for 5 rum and cokes that we did not order and they didn’t even come to ask if we wanted the bill, someone had to go and ask at the counter and then go and pay at the counter as they did not bring the card machine over. We didn’t bother ordering pudding as we’d probably have been there for another 2 hours waiting for someone to come and take our order. There was also a leak from the air-con that had dripped all over the floor and nobody mopped it up or even put a wet floor sign, there was also broken glass near the fish counter that was not cleaned up and with kids running around it wasn’t safe. It’s a real shame that this experience has put us off of going back but genuinely, it...