Maritimo — Restaurant in Plymouth

Wanted to take my partner to a tapas place for the very first time, so we find this place. 2 week days in a row we try to book, but it is full. Third time lucky, we get a table on a Thursday evening. Obviously, we are excited to see what this place has to offer, after just about managing to get a table. Location is beatiful, with great views, but it's a shame many places tend to rely only on that. We got at the location at 19:30 and were sat at the table with all 5 sliding doors open, noticing everybody in the dining room kept their jackets on in a very windy and cold evening. Asked the waitress about it, she said she wished she had a coat herself. Couple of hours later, after everyone complained, they slid the doors shut. Service wise, it was slow and painful. We were left with the menus for about 20 mins, 2 other tables that got sat after us had their order took before us. Anyway, after 30 mins in total, we managed to ask someone to take our food order. Ordered 8 items off the menu (tapas), and the first 2 came after 45 mins (bread and oil / bread and olives). I understand busy, but for a bowl of olives, ramekin of oil and some slices of bread that is a bit long. After 35 more minutes we got the food. Server brought us chicken skewers instead of honey chorizo, told him about it, he said he'll look into it. Never seen him after. Calamari and jamon croquettes were OK, the rest was bad unfortunately. No seasoning at all in the tortilla, skewers were dry and cold and the albondingas were rock hard (maybe too long in the microwave) and the sauce they came with was very bland. Dry meatballs in sauce, that's not easy to achieve. But the star was paella of the day. Overcooked rice, haven't seen or tasted any veg in the base (onion, garlic, peppers, anything?), literally rice, 2 bits of chorizo, 2 prawns, and dry spices that were not cooked off at all, so the dish tasted really dusty. And turmeric. A lot of turmeric. Had some paellas before, where they use saffron to infuse the stock in order to achieve that characteristic golden colour, but never had a turmeric one. Maybe I should go India soon, this was probably a fusion (like a tikka paella or something?). All in all, such a shame. Hope it...

My Friend Andy Facy who lives on Plymouth Hoe said he would take us to Maritimo Spanish tapas restaurant as it was his favourite, and just a five minute walk from home. Situated on the sea front it has a prime location. He went there for his birthday and said e was deeply disappointed as the service and food was awful, nothing like it had been. He mentioned this to the manager and he apologised saying he would make sure it was better next time and would put a good bottle of red wine on the table. On 22nd July Andy took both my wife and I to Maritimo as we had lived in Spain for 9 years and knew what good tapas was like. He had pre=booked a table for 1900 and when we arrived asked if we could have a prime table on the lower section to which the waitress replied its fully booked. Mistake number one for someone you want to encourage back to your restaurant. We were seated in the upper section and were served by a delightful Spanish lady, who was both polite and efficient in her service and I was pleased to be able to practice my Spanish with her. We ordered 12 dishes in all and they were delicious, my only criticism was with a few dishes there were only two portions and there were three of us at the table. The bottle of complementary wine provided was the cheapest on the menu and was just OK, so I ordered a more expensive Rioja Reserve at £25. Did we enjoy our meal, well yes and it was greatly helped by the lovely Spanish waitress. I would go there again but would hope things were tightened up on food and service and...

Hard to tell it's there from the road side except for the Spanish flag flying but when you go around the back of the ice cream coffee hut & down the stairs you find a nice little place across 2 floors with excellent views across the bay.

We turned up on spec around 8pm on Saturday night and got the last 2 places so booking may be advisable at weekends.

The staff are friendly and attentive, the wine list is reasonable and they have a couple of decent looking draft beers.

The food was really very good. We had bread and olives with an oil and balsamic dip while we sipped white Rioja & decided what to order and they were excellent. Always encouraging when the simple basic things are right.

The tapas was similarly very good with the chicken marinaded in Spanish herbs and the potatos bravados (I think it was called) being the stars. The tiger prawns in chilli & garlic were good but lacked pizzaz, the mushrooms in cream and garlic and the strips of beef in red wine sauce similarly very acceptable but just lacking a spark.

The hot chocolate pudding with ice cream was rather good too.

I would put this high on the list of places to eat in Plymouth, quirky & different from the run of rhe mill chain Italian Pizza places with good food, a great atmosphere and...