Restaurante L'Artista — Restaurant in Yaiza

We walked past this on our way back from a disappointing meal elsewhere and decided to pop in the next night. Sadly the next night they were shut and we forgot about it until our last night where we decided to see if they had a table.

The staff were lovely, but if you're quite straight-laced they might annoy you as they are really into joking around - for example when we turned up one of the staff was pretending to be a customer and told us the service sucked and we could do better. Had I not noticed his microphone I might have left.

The place is on 2 or 3 levels with about 50/50 indoor and outdoor.

I had a tomato soup and a Calzone and my wife had a prawn cocktail and a tomato farfalle dish. They do try and push the garlic pizza dough/bread and I had the non-garlic one with my soup. That's my only regret. Not that is was bad (it was really nice) but combining that with a Calzone was a really bad move and it made me a bit too full for the rest of the night (hardly their fault!).

My soup was lovely (one of the best tomato soups I've had in a while) and my wife enjoyed her starter. I then had a pretty decent Calzone but my wife didn't speak to me for a while as she was hoovering up the pasta dish then spent a while convincing me that although a similar dish of mine was just as good, but this was "different". I'd like to believe her, but when I cook that sort of pasta she doesn't eat it like that. It was certainly her favourite meal of the week despite essentially just being pasta, tomato and chese.

My soup starter was excellent and my main pretty decent (to be honest I've had a couple of better calzones). My wife's starter was good but I've never heard her praise a pasta dish so much in the last couple of decades, so it must've been good.

Next time we're in PB we will definitely...

If you're looking for a fantastic meal, this place is it. The pasta and pizzas are truly outstanding. Now.. the catch. If you're thinking of taking children here, particular under the age of 5. Please don't bother - here i'll explain why. Me, my partner and my 3 year old daughter entered the building as asked they had a free table. We were 'greeted' by a grunt and was looked up and down and were shown to a table by the bar. Ok.. we'll let that slide. Maybe a slight misunderstanding and we were desperate to eat here after having it recommended to us a few times. We came to realise this wasn't a misunderstanding. Three times I caught the same waiter scowling at us like we were a piece of dirt. I believe is issue was my daughter wouldnt sit still - what 3 year old does? Despite that we kept her under control and she was no trouble at all. This 'waiter' though had a serious problem. If we hadnt already ordered food having a drink - we would of walked out. I asked this waiter if he had problem with my daughter to which he was taken a back by and said no no no problem and smiled at me. This man should not be working in any hospitality environment. He looks like should be on a football terrace preparing to go to battle. I won't describe his personal appearance in detail but i'm sure you'll understand if you visit. The rest of the staff - absolutely lovely and polite. This man let's this restaurant down big time. After some thought, it was probably the most unwelcome i've ever felt in a restaurant, purely because this man doesn't like children. So yes.. fantastic food. Poor service,...

We usually visit other Italians in Playa Blanca that are favourites of ours. But decided for a change we would try L'Artista. The reviews looked great and upon arriving the restaurant was full- which is always a good sign. We waited around 5 minutes for a table to be sat on a table for 2. We were a family of 4 and it was very cramped! But we made do and weren't overly bothered until they tried to squeeze food and drinks on, which then became like Tetris. Awful. Don't bother to sit people for service if you don't have enough room, it felt they were prioritsing making more money over the comfort of the customers they already had in.

Food was nothing to write home about, the spaghetti Bolognese and Carbonara were standard spaghetti and definitely not fresh homemade pasta.

The side salad was tiny €8.50- scandalous.

Upon reviewing the bill, there were 2 fanta naranja's added on to it. This would go unnoticed to most people that don't bother check their bills properly I'm sure, luckily on this occasion I decided to point it out as none of us were even drinking that.

Service wasn't anything to write home about, they mentioned not having a lot of food in as they were closing for 3 weeks for a holiday that evening. I'm hoping that's the reason for such poor...