Puerta del Mar — Restaurant in Valencia

It took me a sleepless night tonight to decide how I would write this review and think about what went wrong with our visit to this restaurant. I came here based on reviews and being able to book easily online. We had 3 close friends from the USA visiting us while we were staying in Valencia (we are from Switzerland) for the week! We arrived on time to the restaurant at 19:15. We were greeted by a beautiful friendly hostess then waited 10 minutes to be seated when there were 5 empty tables set in front of us. We were seated and told we would only be able to have the table until 21:15( 2 hours a thing that was started during covid that wasn’t a standard practice in restaurants here in Europe) we ordered our very simple drinks, 2 vodkas on the rocks, a bottle of still water and a bottle of white wine. This took 25-30 minutes to come to our table( we were seated opposite the bar) these came 1 item at a time. As the phone service wasn’t great in the restaurant, no one could download the menu & I finally went outside to get better service to download the menu( it was in English) For my older friends visiting here(as it seems all menus are like this now), it is very frustrating. Restaurants need to have some paper menus for their older guests as it’s also very hard to read on a small screen) My guests were very angry at this point and my nerves were boiling trying to settle them as service in the USA is not to this standard. We ordered 4 starters & a salad and 2 x paella’s (1 seafood & 1 traditional) When the food arrived, a starter at a time we were very pleased. After having 3 different paella’s in 3 different restaurants this one was superior in taste and cooked perfectly! If I was rating on food alone this restaurant is 5+ stars! After carefully thinking what the problem was it was either an incompetent bartender or an understaffed bar. at 21:05 the waiters started removing our paella’s and clearing the table while one of us was still eating, I of course halted them. At 21:10 the beautiful smiling hostess arrived at our table to ask if we wanted dessert because “remember you have to leave at 21:15” I told her 45 minutes of our 2 hours was stolen from us so it really wasn’t fair that you push us out and thankfully for them we decided we didn’t want dessert. Will we come back to this restaurant??, absolutely based only on a wonderful food experience prepared by a kitchen staff who knows what they are doing. The manager of the wait staff is not doing a great service to their employees. We hope this can he remedied so others don’t have to experience...

On our last night here in Valencia, I wanted to treat my partner to a wonderful dinner with the authentic traditional paella. I've read reviews online and on Google Map--thanks for the confusion Google reviewers. Since going to the top traditional paella restaurants were an hour bus ride, I decided on Puerta del Mar which was closer to our apartment and offered a traditional Valencian paella.

We arrived here around 19h00 (7pm). We thought it was closed but they were actually open. The waiter spoke English but I tried to speak Spanish as much as possible. The decor is clean and lovely. The menus were on wooden blocks. They offered tapas, starters, salads, main dishes, desserts, and a wine list.  To be honest, I wanted to try the patatas bravas since I've seen it on the menu during my internet research. My partner ordered the tuna tartar. He also picked out a very good bottle of wine. And naturally we ordered the paella valanciana.

In the meantime, they brought out an assortment of breads, tapas (olives & Spanish peanuts) as well as aioli and a salsa.  The tartar was exquisite. My partner and I shared the starters or appetizers. And I finally got my chance to try the patatas bravas.They were heavenly.  You must try them, if not here then somewhere else in Spain.

And finally the pièce de résistance: paella valenciana. Made with rabbit, chicken, and snails amongst a bed of rice, navy beans (?), and artichokes. They also offered little wooden skewers to pick out the snail meat as the whole snail was cooked in the paella, shell and all. That being said, be careful not to break the shell while you try to scoop out a spoon of paella because you may have a surprise when you go to take a bite.

I've read reviews that said the paella was salty, and yes, it's true. The paella is on the salty side but maybe that is the flavour that foreigners are not accustomed to. But give this traditonal dish a chance. It's a wonderful culinary experience.

The server then tempted us with desserts (postres). They wheeled out their dessert cart. If you made it this far, treat yourself to a delicious dessert. You will not regret it!  Along with dessert, they offered us two shots of mistrela to be sipped and enjoyed. It was surprisingly smooth, better than limoncello. (Italians please don't hate me).

This extraordinary Valencian dinner was around 85€. As the service was excellent, I had the waiter round up my bill to 96€ to...

When in Valencia, PAELLA. However, after an extensive Google, Yelp and Trip Advisor search I realized most restaurants close after lunch on Sundays. Without too many options to choose from, I found Puerta Del Mar was open on Sunday nights AND lots of good reviews. Scored a reservation for 800 and we were on our way. We were greeted by a very friendly, charming and funny young hostess whose name I missed and sat down right behind the fishing tank home to some poor lobsters awaiting their fate (I presume). Beatriz aka Bea was our server and she is really friendly and sweet! We started off dinner with the croquettes appetizer which brings 4 different kinds, among them, shrimp and pulpo, all of which were delicious and I think this was probably my favorite part of the meal. We also ordered the smoked artichoke and jamón serrano dish which was pretty good as well. Those were certainly the highlights of the meal. Now for the not so greats : the wine I ordered which I swear was only 1/4 full- I think I have the picture to price it. What gives? I mean she didn’t have to fill it to the rim but a nice glass- half way at least is what I expected - and what is the norm. We ordered the paella with seafood, already peeled which is called something like señorito and I have to say it was just okay. I’ve been eating paella all my life so I was anxious to try paella in Valencia and I was not impressed. Rice was rather bland and so was fish , definitely low on salt and overall taste. I had to ask for olive oil as it wasn’t offered… needless to say after so much anticipation, I was disappointed. Other cons : bread was brought and also charged without them telling us and the same goes for the water. I mean they should at least ask, bottled? Or tell you , there’s a surcharge for the bread instead of just asking - want bread? And just bringing it. As a matter of principle these things should be told straight up, otherwise it comes off as petty and tacky. The ambiance was nice - singer was a nice touch to set the mood. Would I come back? No. Would I...