Restaurante Pizza Mare Torremolinos — Restaurant in Torremolinos

I was really dissapointed here. But let me tell you a short story first.

As tourists (7 of us) we were walking by this place where a nice smiling lady caught us to take a look at their menu. As we were really hungry and want to eat ASAP, we decided to go here and try this touristy looking restaurant.

As we got inside we were given a nice big table and menus. After the menus we were immediately also given nice hot bread buns with olive oil (we were surprised because we did not ask for them). Yep, we ate them all really quick.

Then we choose some food like fish, pastas and only one pizza.

The one pizza and baked potatoes as a side dish to the fish took forever to be made. We asked the waiter how long should we wait. Answer: few minutes and it is ready. Few minutes were few long minutes, so we asked again as we did want to eat without our really hungry friends (because we got the other meals a lot sooner). We chose to be hungry together. As we were waiting, our food was getting cold because those two things.

*Even if we did not choose to wait, there was that one friend with the fish without side potatoes, so he would still end up with cold meal.

When the pizza came, I thought it was a joke. Imagine the menu, you are looking at neapoli style pizza and you are imagining yourself biting into that fluffy crust. Reality? A tortilla looking thing with some ingredients on top.

My friend told me, that it is nearly impossible to make a bad 4-cheese style pizza. Words cannot describe it, but when it comes to numbers -4/10.

It is a total dishonest that this place has a word pizza in their name.

On the other hand, I had to say, that my food (seafood pasta) was nice and tasty 8/10.

Also the general manager was a sweet lady working to make everything perfect (did not happen).

After this not so good experience, I was expecting a “basic restaurant sorry move” in a form of a small dessert for those two waiting. And you know what? Nothing. Just the bill and the other waitress pressuring us to be faster with paying as they have a reservation for that table. It would be nice if she said that earlier, but maybe we were a nice looking $$$ at the beginning.

Cherry on top? Maybe my expectations got me something like “expectations karma” because not only they did not get that free dessert, but we also had to pay for those mentioned buns from the beginning.

Make your own decision. In short, food like seafood pasta nice, do not choose the expensive bad pizza and do not, I repeat, DO NOT TRY TO EAT THOSE BREAD BUNS BECAUSE IT IS NOT A NICE GESTURE BUT A BUN FOR ALMOST 2€ A PIECE that we did not ask for and was not informed about it.

Never ever...

What a parody. Worthy of an episode of Ramsey's kitchen nightmares! Hidden surcharges and 'taxes', sloppy dismal offerings. The waiter even told us that if they put the true price on menu, people would not come in. Well, that is so very true!

First up they charge a cover charge which is unheard of in a non tourist restaurant in the area,...And that's for stale dull white bread you don't actually want to eat. The norm for the region we have found, having lived here for over a year is that when you buy a drink you get a small dish, for example some olives, potato salad, nuts or similar for free. That's right, for free with each drink you order.

And then they trick you with an additional VAT on top of the menu price, something extremely rare in normal decent Spanish restaurants. The waiter explained that the tourist tax charge is written on the menu, so we looked. We saw some blurred/smudged tiny writing in a super small front size that was impossible to read even with my glasses on. I'm not joking, the small smudged text was illegible. Clever! This apparently says they will charge you the extra tourist trap tax. The waiter continued to explain it's not illegal, that there are other restaurants with the same dodgy practices and that if they put the true price on the menu people wouldn't come in. Haha. So true, the final value considering the poor quality dishes they serve is appalling!

I honestly doubt the owner and managers could care less, it's not in an area where a restaurant survives on repeat customers.

How was the food? Very disappointing and that's the kindest thing I can say about it. I don't understand the comments about generous portions or quality and flavour. This place is so far below the average expectation I have for Spain having lived here for a year and a half and eating out several times a week on average...

My skant oddly flavoured foie ravioli tasted like they'd been in a deep freezer for months, and sourced from a cut cost supermarket, over boiled and drowned in sour cream... What actuallly filled the volume of the dish was a messy handful of rocket and a squirt of balsamic vinegar, neither of which were on the menu description.

I left feeling conned and ripped off... and hungery. What a parody...

Either the people who wrote the 5* reviews below are fictitious (unlikely), the ownership has changed hands in the last week or they usually eat somewhere really, really bad in comparison I'm not sure but this is our take ...

The view is great, on the beach, however that is where the loveliness ends.

The food served was not very nice at all. I was expecting an Italian fare at least in keeping with Italian tradition. The pictures on both the menu at the entrance and their tripadvisor posting show, for example, a lovely example of a stone baked pizza; all the surroundings with that lovely pizza bubbliness.

The reality, however, is somewhat different. The pizzas my children received were essentially (what appeared to be) pre-packaged bases that you can get from shops - really awful.

What was truly despicable though was my aubergine parmesan. I really wish I could have taken a photo since it was truly comical. It came on a bed of spaghetti, was an aubergine, and had a square cheese slice place on top, you could tell because it (a) it was competely sqaure and (b) it had that "just put under the grill" burnt tinge in places. I thought it must be a mistaken order or I was being stupid. Upon tasting it I realised I was correct - not dairylea standard but cheese square nonetheless.

To be fair the waiter did offer to redo it, however one gets an instant insight into what may come next and, with the pizzas being what they were, I kindly declined.

If you eat here, I truly hope you have better experience with other dishes. For us the "mare" (in the English slang sense) in the restaurant name...