Zumaque — Restaurant in Puerto de la Cruz

I cannot understand how this restaurant has got into Michelin guide twice!

I have to admit the food is very good, we enjoyed it a lot.

Now the bad: Waiters and hosts have no idea what service is. Level of their professionalism is hardly ok for a pub, but not for a Michelin guide restaurant. They are exceptionally unfriendly. they don’t bother to tell you about specialties of the restaurant. menu does not state all ingredients and/or allergenes we ordered tuna tartare and it had coriander in it. We said the menu does not list this ingredient and the waiter said “well, you had to warn us you have allergy when you ordered. We can make you a new one without coriander”. How am i supposed to know someone is adding coriander or anything else other than tuna and oil in a tuna tartare?? There are dozens of ingridients i don’t like, do they expect me to name the full list when i order? Why not apologize first and admit their mistake rather than blame the customer and make customer uncomfortable? Ridiculous! after we said there was an allergen in our food, they never even asked if we were okay! they are sitting customers at tables and only then clean these tables. In a Michelin guide restaurant?! they wanted to leave our forks and knives for the next dish instead of bringing new ones. In a Michelin guide restaurant?? no one asked us if we enjoyed our food and stay after we asked for the bill. bread and chips cost 5 euros. They don’t warn you. Well, that’s what they call coperto in Italy. I would be happy to leave solid tips for the great food, but with this level service — bread money is their tips. Very disappointing.

Verdict: i have no idea why they have a great cook and food, and have no idea what service should look like in a decent restaurant.

Try not to go here, there are much better...

after i tried the 3. time to get a table without a reservation i finaly got a table yesterday night arround 6.30 pm.the waiter, a young man gave me a table outside , and it was no problem when i mentioned my wife and my 3 year old son were joining me soon. i ordered several litle dishes and the waiters recomendation of a dry canarian white wine was good. when my wife and son arrived it was also no problem for the kitchen to cook a portion of pasta with parmesan for my little boy who was super happy about this.so after a little amuse geulle the food arrived in a good timeorder and it was delicious and very good presented.( ceviche / croquettas with kimchi/ dumplings in a kind of teriaki/ and a kind of pulled pork served i a big dumpling on a salad of seeweed)one dish better then the other with a great balance betwen sweetness/ acidity/ saltyness/ umami.for compainment i choose a great wine from the south of tenerife : Los LLoros. sofar was everything fine, so why i give only 2 stars? the reason was the other waiter who appeared out of the sudden and asked me by the end of dinner if i wanted to order cheeskake or a jägermeister...i thought he wanted to make a bad joke but in the end either he didn´t know it better or he wanted to make fun of me which is in both cases unacceptable. thats why i asked him why he wants to give me the feeling of beeing an idiot. so this is an example how to destroy a very good performance of the kitchen and the beginning service on the...

So let’s put some contest around the 2 stars.. The Zumaque is one of the most expensive places in Puerto de la Cruz and aims to place itself in a trendy/cool place to go.

We had the degustation menu: we got 6 courses + dessert for 55.- €. The price is cheap for the amount of dishes served and the presentation/colors used are very nice.

Now, on the things to improve: service: it’s absolutely the one that need the most improvement.. Probably the team did not get any proper training before reopening (restaurant opened 5 days ago), however wine serving was done without respecting lady’s first rule and the explanation of the dishes was in such a low level english that was nearly impossible understand what was served. I mean, we all know we are in Spain and we cannot expect service-, and foreign language perfection.. but for a location that want to be cool, and a reference in Puerto, then the English description of the dishes is the minimum to expect. atmosphere: loud techno music… yes.. for a dinner. food: incredibly nice presentation.. but far too salty! As said before, we all know we are in spain and some spices shall be expected, but out of 6 dishes, 3 were way too salty (ravioli, main meat dish and the dumplings).

I really hope the feedback will reach the local team. There are all the basics to have a nice place and food there and making Zumaque a reference restaurant in Puerto. However, currently it is not a place to have a...