La Casa Vieja — Restaurant in St Helens

First of all the place and overall setting is lovely and certainly evokes a traditional Spanish setting. The service was second to none, all the staff were polite and are certainly the best part of the place. The wine we had was fantastic also!

Unfortunately, the food that we had was extremely poor. All of the dishes seemed to have the same very strange flavour and was generally off putting, rather oily overall and not resembling anything we have eaten before in Spain and in other Spanish restaurants prior. Generally the ingredients and meats used tasted to be of a poor quality and/or from frozen. We ordered Mussels which were not just bad but smelt off and of urine! They were well past being fresh! We both eat two just to make sure it wasn't just a singular bad one, but it wasn't, they were awful and we decided it would be best not to eat them. Credit to the staff they agreed they were not right and took them away then discounted them from our bill.

The next day, this made both myself and my wife ill from what we had eaten. We were quite honestly devastated as this was our first meal our as a couple on our own since the birth of our 2nd child and it missed the mark further than we could have ever expected and is certainly a place we would never recommend.

It is a great shame because you can see the potential in the setting and how great the staff are. The food however is some of the worst food we have personally ever experienced. I just hope our experience was a freak one, and not one that any other future diners...

Added after the usual stroppy copy and paste response from the owner. You obviously dont listen to your customers' concerns, and your contempt of them shows in your response. You are, in my opinion, overpriced. Your mushrooms were at best thumb nail size, i dont know anywhere that sells a burger for that money on its own either. As others have pointed out, your potion sizes are poor, for the price certainly not "huge" and you are expensive P.s. i left the £10 tip, not Colin, as it wasn't her fault you forgot my meal, and we also split the bill, had you bothered to check. I also think that using innocent individuals' personal details (of 2 people, one of who is very poorly) is despicable on your part. 2nd visit last night (9.12.23) both times at the insistence of my mother. Cramped place with uncomfortable seating. Food massively overpriced (nearly £10 for bravas, which was 3 small potatoes cut up with sauce on. Nearly £10 for around 10 button mushrooms in garlic oil). Forgot my main/fish dish, so I can't pass judgement on it, and it didn't seem like they were that arsed when I asked where it was. Tapas bars in Spain also put bread on the side of dishes served. These...

Not amazing but not bad. I hope this review helps the owners of LA Casa Vieja as I really dislike leaving anything but 5 star reviews. I had Really big hopes for this restaurant but unfortunately It was lacking in a few areas. Let's start on some positives. The venue is really pretty and quaint, the staff are very friendly & their is a big choice on the menu to choose from. Their is a big specialist brandy selection from Spain but unfortunately I was told they only had 1 out of the 10 on the list available. All the meat we ordered was very tough, especially the ribs that should have fell off the bone & The sauces all seamed to be very similar in taste. The whitebait I ordered I'm sure was the sardines off the menu even though I asked and got told they were the whitebait but they were too big & the bones were too big for whitebait. The bill/till system needs updating as we were waiting 15 minutes for the bill because it had to be done by hand and only 2 people could use the till. The black pudding was delicious and the sangria was also very good. I do hope this feedback helps you improve for the future as this restaurant has great...