Restaurante Jardín del Sol — Restaurant in Santiago del Teide

Having read good things about this restaurant my wife and I booked an outside table for 2 for dinner with a young waiter the day before we wished to dine there. On arrival the next evening the same waiter directed us to an inside table at which point I pointed out we had booked an outside one. He said he would do us a favour a give us a table outside that "someone else" had booked. Once seated we were given menus which we perused for about 20 minutes before another waiter approached us and asked for our drinks order. Unfortunately the first 2 wines we asked for were "unavailable" but the waiter recommended an albariño from Galicia, which was delicious. About 15 minutes later we received the wine but no wine cooler. After another 15 minutes a waiter came with a wine cooler and took our food order. We ordered vegetable paella and as this would take 30-40 minutes to prepare we ordered some garlic mushrooms that the waiter recommended as a starter. They were delicious. When the paella eventually arrived it was a large enough potion but was very bland tasting, the nearest thing I can compare it to is "golden savoury rice" from a packet! The vegetables appeared to be overcooked courgettes and boiled cauliflower, both pretty tasteless. We left over half of it uneaten which seemed to surprise the waiters(who were all very pleasant) so much that they failed to offer us the dessert menu or a coffee to complete our meal. Nice surroundings, pity about the speed of service...

This was our fourth time here in the past 4 years and we always loved it however I don’t know what has happened this year I booked the restaurant for 9 of us at 7pm but for some reason thought it was at 7:30pm it was for my mums 88th birthday and as a special occasion I thought the staff would really look after us but as we arrived 1/2 hour late we were told our service would be slow however they were very willing to supply us with drinks we waited nearly 2 hours before our order was taken and we challenged the waiter and he said it was because we were late again we asked were we being penalised because of this and were told yes I have never been treated like this in a restaurant before our starters arrived which were fine and then our mains which were very disappointing one was actually raw and we sent it back I had told the waiters this was a special occasion and they just didn’t care they actually argued with us about being late then the waiter was removing the glasses and let them fall sending broken glass onto my mums plate of food she said I can’t eat that now and he said but you were finished your meal!! Which she wasn’t no apology no complimentary drink for her and they still charged us for the meals that were sent back and ruined we were horrified by their attitude and didn’t pay for one of the meals and no tips it was so disappointing as I wanted it to be a special night for my mum and...

Personally walked in to the place on the 24th September, made it totally clear that we wanted a particular table - ie. Took the waiter to the table and showed it to him. Could not have been clearer. Had to book for the 4th October, as, either fully booked, or closed. He wrote all this in the diary and I watched him do it. Returned on the night of the 4th October for our meal, we were 15 mins early. The waiter showed us to a table which we could have had at any time. Someone was sat at the table we booked. We explained that we booked a particular table and he was the one who took the booking, - he walked to the diary and came back and said "ah, my friend, he changeded the booking" He then said (all in the same breath) "No good bye bye." This was absolutely a lie. Just before we went to the restaurant that night - we were sat having a cocktail 20 yards away and watched a 'walk in' take our chosen table. Then just brushed away when we went to our booking. The service couldn't be described as surly, that would have provoked a different response from myself... the waiter was just rubbish and ignorant. We went 10 yards to a different restaurant, had our 3 courses, drinks etc. and had a perfect night elsewhere. The waiter in the other restaurant even corrected the way my plate was laid on my table for me. Yet at the Jardin Restaurant, a day to a page diary had them...