El Trompo Restaurante - Paella House - — Restaurant in Valencia

Seeing the queues and with prices at the top end, we had some level of expectation so booked a celebration here as a family. When we arrived, they had lost the reservation I had made a week previously. And when we sat, one of the plates was dirty and the waiter replaced it with another dirty plate. He then tried to convince my wife that the dirty plate was clean.

We ordered four Menus del Dia. The three of the four starters came and the two salads were fresh and well balanced. The chipirones were also fresh and well cooked. The sepia was forgotten and didn't arrive until we asked what had happened to them - once the other starters had been eaten. They looked thrown on the plate and were luke warm and tough.

We ordered two types of paellas - the black rice and rice abanda. The black rice was incredibly salty, almost inedible. The abanda was bland with very little seafood, just a few of those small cheap frozen prawns. I ended up kind of mixing them together because the saltiness of the black rice was making me feel sick after a while. We lost the will to eat a paella and a half in.

With the deserts, the tiramisu was small, factory made and lacking any coffee taste. The cheesecake was standard factory fair set with gelatine with the associated texture you get from that. The two chocolate cakes were standard stodge, with big dollops of squirty cream next to them.

It was an expensive meal and when we were asked how it had been we raised our concerns and the waiter did have enough interest to tell the main guy there who showed no interest at all.

Being lucky enough to have been integrated into a Spanish family with excellent home cooking, I've been a little spoilt. But I experienced none of the potential of Paella at this restaurant, quite the opposite. We left frustrated and a little annoyed having enjoyed only two of the starters over our entire meal. What makes it worse is the complete disinterest and lack of pride at...

A very dissapointing lunch for four of us today. Three folks ordered fish, ( Halibut in Orange sauce) while I ordered the Rib steak w Peppercorn sauce. It was a busy restaurant and so we weren't surprised that our initial visit from the waitress to take our drinks order was a little slow. Meals arrived in reasonable time. The Halibut eaters described the fish as OK, but somewhat overcooked, making the dish much less appealing than it might have been. My steak arrived looking pretty dismal, as there was as much gristle and fat as there was meat. Upon cutting into it I discovered my Medium Rare request had been delivered as Well Done, making the cheap cut of steak even tougher than it needed to be. The waitress agreed it was overdone, and returned it to the kitchen. Next time around it was delivered Medium Rare, with the same original potatoes now cold as could be, and the "steak" just as tough, grisselly and unappealing as the first effort had been. We suspect the restaurant must be good at Paella, as it was very busy, but our experience is that the fish and steak meals were poorly done. It was our worst meal in Spain during our month of travel. The Men's washroom was a mess, with water flooded across the floor and the toilet...

This review is long overdue because it was the highlight of my trip to Valencia back in February. For tapas I had a taste of both the anchovies in vinegar and the squid. The anchovies were lovely and salty with perfect acidity from the vinegar. The squid was huge and came both with regular squid rings and what could be described as crispy squid tentacles. Then I shared the paella de marisco. This is the best food Valencia has to offer. Comes with whole prawns and languistines, and the rice was done perfectly, as you would expect from a paella. Then for dessert I had some natillas and tiramisu. Gifts from the gods, perfectly light desserts to finish the meal. But the highlight of eating here was actually the waiter we had. He spoke no English but was so happy to communicate with us with the Spanish we had. Many other restaurants were so quick to offer English menus or get other waiters who speak English. He also made sure my Dad got lots of beer! Hopefully his presence is appreciated by the other staff as we did. Between him and the outstanding food we had I have no doubt that this was among the best meals I have ever had. Absolutely recommend to anyone...