El Mesón de La Costa — Restaurant in Torrevieja

I will write about my whole experience. If you wanna read quickly then just read conclusion in the end.

Due to corona I am careful of place I select due to lately I see people coughing and sneezing in restaurant hence I called to check if place full or not. Luckily it was not and I confirmed of their rules. They stated they check corona pass and wear mask. When I got there they were wearing mask but however did not check our COVID pass. We were placed to another group of people who was coughing continuously so we switched our seats which worked hassle free and no questions asked. We were a group of four people: 2 adults 1 teenager and 1 baby.

Place: marvelous, beautiful looking and been told there is a wine cellar which one goes through when eating desert due to being fully booked from other reviews. I was not taken or even suggested to go to wine cellar.

Waiter: spoke good English and was kind.

Wine: I am a fan of Rioja and Ribera del Duero such as alon, mugo, Aalto, protos, pingus, único etc. I was about to get Aalto but waiter insisted we try Chafandin which he said was great and Aalto one can try and buy in Sweden too which was true. We were told vintage is 2015-2016 but the bottle came of 2018 instead while Aalto was 2018 which was not best time to drink hence I did not take Aalto either. This reason seemed to be useless as chafandin was not 2016 even. The wine did not taste that great to be honest and we were a bit suprised of his recommendation while he was suprised that we did not like it. Waiter said we could choose anything else we like and he will not recommend this time. We took a time to think through and wanted to decant this wine and hope for it to taste better with meat but to our dismay it did improve but not something I will recommend at all. I should have switched to Aalto when I had a chance but now we know atleast.

Food: we took recommendation by waiter and decided to trust him plus in the menu they were recommended as well. We wanted the best of the best hence we did not care about the price.

Dry aged meat (Carne De buey a La), i had this meat. I am a meat lover and love bbqing and buying proper meat such as snake River farm, Australian wagyu, Kobe, Kagoshima and as well as local Sweden farms. Dry age is my favorite as it intensifies the flavor but sadly this meat ran short of my expectation. I actually don’t believe my meat was even dry aged to be honest. The presentation was great which you can see in picture and I used hot plate to heat it up to my internal temperature which was hard to control as I think the plate had different temperature when I got it. I received it three times from them. It could have been me too. Hard to judge. 35 euro on this feels like a robbery to me.

Tuna, my wife took and she said it was good but not amazing. I tried hers and it was much better than mine sadly. Even though I love red meat, I thought the tuna tastes better and is it better quality. Sadly my wife couldn’t explain in detail but she couldn’t give it full points but 3,5/5.

Steak with bernaise, teenager had it and he ofcourse eats the same meat as me was also saddened by the experience. He did not enjoy it either and I didn’t even want to try his. Sadly the whole meat was covered with bernaise. I recommend next time to put the sauce on the side so one can take it accordingly. If the meat is amazing then you want a little bernaise with it and not covered with it unless you have something to hide.

Conclusion: great atmosphere with meat hanging on the wall, open fridge to see meat and their fresh ingredients. -good English and kind waiter there to assist food presentation was top notch giving it a fancy feeling -food quality sadly not high quality considering red meat at least. Tuna was better. -sad not to have different vintage of wines while having a wine cellar seems a waste. I was hoping for a good wine but recommended wine was lackluster. -told one thing but got wrong vintage of wine and stated another on receipt. -overprice for mediocre quality. Try Alicante for...

We booked this restaurant as a special treat for my wife’s birthday on last night of our trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed the food but the service left a lot to be desired.

Firstly the waiter refused to let us order what we wanted, ribeye steak, suggesting 1.5kg wasn’t enough for our group of 6. But we also planned to have many tapas dishes so it was plenty. Anyway mr grumpy (the waiter) convinced us to take sirloin instead.

This is when the drama started, a few of our guests had left the table to have a cigarette between courses. The waiters came with the theatre cooking setup for the sirloin but got so mad that people had stepped away. They started shouting and hollering and in the aggressive mayhem they smashed a wine glass from our table. This nearly caused Mr Grumpy to erupt like Mt. Vesuvius.

After cleaning the shattered glass and nursing his bruised pride the waiter returned. the party was ready for the main course. The waiter started cooking it table-side but was bashing the hot plate aggressively like a steel drum player all while huffing and puffing like a petulant child. Halfway through cooking he rudely launched his cooking tongs onto one of our guests plates and left without as much as a smile.

Finally the waiters went full on crazy again when our birthday girl had left the table to nurse her 6 month old baby when the waiters decided to come out early with a cake singing happy birthday. We said “not yet guys she’s with the baby” they cursed and sneered as veins started popping out of the waiters head. They should have asked when to come instead of getting into a knickertwist over things. I recommend mindfulness coaching for the staff, it will reduce blood pressure and prolong life.

Food was fantastic but the service was among the worst ever...

The staff exhibited a lack of professionalism during our visit.

Last Saturday, we attempted to dine at the restaurant but, unfortunately, did not have a reservation. The staff responded with sarcasm, stating, “Who comes in on a Saturday night expecting to get a table?” Was it too difficult for the waiter to simply inform us that the restaurant was fully booked and that walk-ins were welcome? If the staff is feeling miserable, that is not our concern.

Despite the unpleasant experience on Saturday, we decided to give the restaurant another chance today. Initially, we waited for 10 minutes at the reception, during which we were ignored by the staff. Once our reservation was confirmed, we were seated at a table that had not been properly set up. We then waited an additional 10 minutes just to receive our menus. Furthermore, our order for calamari was forgotten, and they also neglected to provide cutlery.

2.Following the unfortunate experience, we waited approximately 25 minutes for the ribeye, which arrived in a raw state. The delay of 25 minutes raises questions about the preparation process. Upon its arrival, a pan was placed on the table to cook the meat; however, the pan was inadequately heated, leaving me to ponder the reason for this oversight. When I attempted to seek assistance, it was perplexing to observe that the staff were all facing away and ignoring me for a considerable duration of six minutes.

Furthermore, the desserts that were intended to be served cold were instead at room temperature. The total bill amounted to €175, and given the circumstances, I did not anticipate such a level of service and lack of...