El Camino Whitchurch — Restaurant in Wales

We have been at least 3 times before but the service tonight was terrible. We had to repeat what we wanted after 15 mins as the server who took our order didn't know if we wanted Tapas as starters or mains even though we were quite clear when we ordered. The mains when they eventually came out , as we waited nearly 2 hours, had a huge gap of about 45 mins between the first and last, so several had finished eating before others had even got theirs. They didnt even remove the starter plates before serving the mains and we had to ask for cutlery and napkins. The chicken skewers were spicy which was not mentioned at all on the menu and we had to ask 3 times for some Mayo. The beef estafado was mostly bones and fat. A plain fried steak was so late it was removed from the bill. The food itself was pretty good but totally spoiled by the awful service. It wasn't a pleasant experience and if the kitchen can't cope with the number of patrons they should think about how many they allow to book. We were a party of 12 but we were never asked to pre order. Very...

Another lunch in Cardiff on work, this time we chose El Camino, they had good selection for lunch deals baguette, chips and salad with drink of choice for around £10 mark, also another lunch special with 2 tapas dishes and drink for around £12. I went for a meatball baguette and paella, paella was a chicken and chorizo nice smokey flavour with plenty of meat, flavours did lack any real depth and rice dint feel fresh but solid small starter dish 6/10. The owner Maybe? did explain the evening paella dishes are different so maybe I’ll return to try one day. The meatball baguette was nice but nothing to shout home about, plenty of meat a tangy rich tomato sauce and fresh crusty baguette, chips were seasoned and small fresh salad with balsamic dressing was a nice touch. Plenty of options on the small tapas dishes and baguettes to choose from for lunch at a decent price. I’m sure evenings here would feel authentic and lively and maybe touch more class on the evening dishes. I would recommend it, give it a go! Sorry for poor pictures couldn’t help but eat...

We had a disappointing visit recently.

The service was extremely slow, one desert didn't turn up at all. BBQ ribs were swimming in liquid which made the chips soft. The Potatoes and Chorizo had five small pieces of potato and was overloaded with Chorizo. Bacon and Dates were excellent Garlic bread was tasty Cheese and Meat board consisted of two types of cheese and some quite tough cold meats.

Staff are polite and the atmosphere is relatively good.

When making the reservation I had informed them that it was my wife's birthday, but there was no mention of it to her, not even wishing her a happy birthday.

If I do return, I'll happily update...