Carnaval — Restaurant in Xàbia / Jávea

Food is lovely but the service was hurried. We are on our first holiday with our first child and had taken him to this restaurant with us. As all baby's parents will have experienced, when going for a meal, you tend to be a bit slower as one is either holding the baby whilst the other eats or one of the parents eats one handed whilst juggling holding the infant. On this occasion my Wife was in the lead, having finished her starter before me. She then had her starter plate taken whilst I was finishing mine and then was given her main straight away. Feeling rushed I attempted to devour my starter as soon as possible and was further spurred on with the arrival of my main. Every time I stopped eating to have a sip of wine or water a waiter or waitress was present to steal my plate to which I responded that I still hadn't finished. When eventually I had finished my first course, no one appeared to grab my empty plates and I continued hurriedly on to my (now cold) main course, to try to catch up and eat some of my meal with my Wife. Whilst I can't gripe about the food nor can I complain about one of the waitresses, I must have a slight moan about the Manager. I mentioned to him about what had happened and his response was as expected - "apologies, it's the kitchen staff's fault as there is a certain time to which a main is brought after a starter is served" to which I replied that this meant that people were rushed. His reply was that the kitchen was used to a busier service to which I replied but the Restaurant is half empty tonight. In conclusion, the Manager did offer half interested apologies and a coffee or dessert but we declined as we just wanted to go somewhere else to enjoy a relaxed and better organised establishment. We did and would recommend to new parents that they try somewhere like Vida Fina or Posidonia, as the experiences there were...

After coming here for 10 years and mostly having very positive experiences at Carnaval, today has been the lowest of low. My girlfriend and I entered at 5 and were told that the kitchen was closed until 6, which was no problem for us as we wanted a drink first. After getting our drink they asked us what we wanted to order immediately and we told the server if she could give us a moment to decide. After this, all the servers kept walking around looking at all tables that needed service, except for ours. At 6, after waiting for more than 30 minutes and even getting our empty glasses taken, we had enough of it and asked for the check. After asking for the check we waited another 5 minutes, when a server put a reserved plate on our table without bringing the check. We asked for the check again and finally got it. We loved going to Carnaval before this, but after what we’ve experienced today we will gladly walk past it to other nice restaurants that actually do want to serve and treat their...

The food is good, as long as you stay with either sushi or Mexican. The Thai part of the menu can be ignored. The drinks are excellent, the cocktails (and mocktails) taste great. The service is pretty terrible. Even though there's plenty of staff around and they all speak multiple languages, it's a place that is focused on getting in-and-out as many customers as possible, so don't expect friendly conversations or much interest from the staff. As for the atmosphere, they're trying to be very trendy in creating a cocktail-bar feel, which is not for everyone. The music is quite loud, which makes customers raise their voice to understand each other. All in all I think they're trying to be a bar more than a restaurant. That's okay, but I'd change the concept if...