Restaurant Le Krystal — Restaurant in San Bartolomé de Tirajana

This restaurant only offers dining for residents of the RIU Palace with two seating:1800&2000.

Reservations was for the 2000 seating. Located at the front entrance of the other half of the RIU Palace Maspalomas with view of the walk way down to the dunes. The restaurant has a stylish interior with art decor, featuring art deco lighting and glass place mats that add a nice touch. There are 13 tables in total: 4 tables for four and 9 tables for two.

There was a bit of an 8 pm rush,a queue that had already formed but there was a lack of honouring those who were there earliest as the line formed haphazardly !

The complimentary cava on arrival was a nice touch. We started with food and wine orders being taken whilst the amouse bouche of noodles topped with caviar—a single, balanced bite that was pleasantly salty yet neutral. The foie gras was less impressive, resembling a pâté with top a harder surface which was rich.

The bread was disappointing; it tasted like a supermarket roll that had simply been warmed. Thankfully, they provided an amuse-bouche and the bread held us over until the first course, which finally arrived at 8:40 pm.

First Course @8.40pm. The crab velouté was intense and full of rich, shell-infused flavor. However, the shrimp timbale was overpowered by the potato base and the strong velouté, making it hard to distinguish its flavors.

The duck dish came wrapped in filo pastry, split into two halves, with the cheese layered toward the bottom. It was served alongside a pleasant salad with pear and beetroot, topped with a rich sauce. Overall, it was a hearty and satisfying plate.

Main Courses (served at 9:05 pm) The steak was excellent—perfectly cooked to medium-rare on a bed of dark lentils, peppers, spinach (frozen, unfortunately), and oyster mushrooms.

The surf and turf was decent, with a rich oxtail base, though the seabass was quite small and flat piece which tasted neutral . Surprisingly, the onions were the highlight of this dish. We also noticed the pork being served to other diners; it came presented in a smoked dome and looked stunning.

Atmosphere By 9:33 pm, the air conditioning was switched off, and there was no background music, which was a bit awkward for the ambiance.

Desserts The smoked cheesecake was a miss—the smoked cheese as the base with crumble on top simply didn’t work. Thankfully, the manager kindly replaced it. The lemon tart wasn’t much better; it felt more like a lemon blob with desiccated coconut and biscuit crumble. However, the chocolate and hazelnut dessert was outstanding—a rich, hazelnut parfait with just the right amount of crunch from the nuts.

By 9:45 pm, staff had started cleaning up and clearing tables,taking the table clothes off and the glass table mats, even though a couple of tables, including ours, were still seated and enjoying wine.

Service Adrian, our waiter, and the manager, Ediary, both provided friendly, accommodating service throughout the evening.

In summary, while the restaurant had some lovely high points and highlight recommended as much better dining experience than the Dunes restaurant with their below average food. The highlight include the the crab velouté, steak, and chocolate hazelnut dessert—there were also some significant downsides, like the huge time gap between amouse bouche and starters, taste profile of the bread, foie grae amouse and the...

Booked this restaurant with a note made on the booking form that my Wife is a vegetarian . We sat down and got a drink and ordered our food, also confirming they knew my wife was a vegetarian. The waiter said I know. The first course arrived and my wife’s meal had caviar on it , we asked if her meal was vegetarian and the waiter said the kitchen have made a mistake, just give it your husband. The second course arrived and my wife’s risotto had pieces of bacon on top. We asked if this was bacon and the waiter said he forgot to tell the kitchen my wife was vegetarian, although we’d told him 3 or 4 times. At this point we told him this was not acceptable and we left. We saw the manager as we walked out , told him but he just apologised and didn’t offer anything like drinks to compensate us. Not good , don’t go if you have any dietary requirements as you might end up...

This is one of the à la Carte restaurants at the Riu Palace Maspalomas which requires reservation via the reception or Riu app. Service was impeccable, food was delicious. You can choose between four to six starters, main courses and desserts each. Since there are only little more than a dozen or so tables, you usually need do book some...