Amarena — Restaurant in Reus

Went there with my partner for a quick ice cream after lunch because it was nearby. Honestly, we left pretty disappointed.

The place didn’t look very clean. The floor felt sticky, and the counter had old stains and smudges that made us question the hygiene. Not exactly what you want to see when ordering food.

The man who served us – a bald guy, I think his name was Alessandro Juarez – was extremely unfriendly. He didn’t say hello, didn’t smile, and acted like he couldn’t be bothered to serve us. It made the whole experience really uncomfortable.

The ice cream itself wasn’t much better. The texture was icy and uneven, like it had melted and been refrozen. The vanilla tasted a bit off, and the berry flavor was overwhelmingly sweet – more like syrup than actual fruit.

And it wasn’t even cheap. We paid over €10 for two small cups, and neither of us could finish them.

Not coming back. There are much better spots nearby that actually care about their product and...

I have to admit, I am surprised that with such a high number of reviews, an average of 4.9 points is achieved. Our experience was not like expected.

Our pastries were dry and had a typical refrigerator taste, as if they had been in the fridge for days. The consistency also suggested that, as it was difficult to eat, and the poor choice of a wooden fork (when eating in the restaurant) made it even worse. Visually successful, the more important part of the culinary experience - the taste - was rather disappointing.

The prices are not cheap, the staff seemed a bit unmotivated to us, our waiter came across as very disinterested. The cherry on top: there was no coffee in a patisserie/ice cream shop. What a pity...

Maybe the ice cream is...

Probably the best Ice cream we've ever eaten. So good that the fact we got tipped off from a staff member in another eatery to come here for our ice cream rather than have theirs, I think says it all!

The owner was very friendly and accommodating, he ran though all the flavours with us as we don't read/recognise Spanish, and there were a lot of flavours, some we'd not heard of before too so we appreciated his time in doing so. He told us everything is made on site and all with locally bought ingredients where possible.

The highlight of our...