Mare — Restaurant in Phú Quốc

The experience started off positively. I emailed to book, and the staff were efficient and responsive. We were seated promptly upon arrival.

We ordered drinks, which took close to 35 minutes to arrive. While this was understandable given it was a busy night, it was challenging to get a staff member’s attention to place our food order. We opted for their recommended carbonara, steak, and several sides. Unfortunately, despite ordering before a neighbouring table of Caucasian guests, they were served, finished eating, and left before we received our first dish.

The restaurant aimed to serve all dishes together, which is standard practice. However, the steak arrived cold, which was especially disappointing given it was their recommended 1kg cut and priced at over 2.2 million VND. The carbonara, described as their signature dish, was unseasoned, bland, and fell far short of expectations. We ordered three side dishes but only received two, and staff were unapologetic when we pointed this out and we had to ask to get it taken off the bill even though it never arrived.

The one redeeming aspect of the service was the staff member responsible for drinks. She was polite, attentive, and handled an issue with one of our drinks promptly and graciously, ensuring it was replaced with an apology.

At the end of the evening, the hostess came to check in for the first time. When I provided feedback, her apology seemed insincere, and her attitude was dismissive. As she cleared our table, her actions came across as unnecessarily abrupt and unprofessional as she loudly slammed dishes together while we were still seated at the table.

Overall, both the food and service were highly disappointing. Based on my experience, it appears that treatment may vary depending on clientele, as the Caucasian table next to us received noticeably better service. I cannot recommend this restaurant and suggest to others to explore other...

I was craving pasta and seeing all their reviews it really got me craving for their carbonara. WRONG CHOICE! Perhaps all of the other pasta would have been amazing? Especially the slow cooked beef ragu was a dish I was contemplating, but I went with my heart - Carbonara:

Pasta, al dented? Just a tad over cooked, still ok. Guanciale, crispy, salty, smokey, not over powering, great choice. But the sauce 🤌🏼, it is supposed to be the soul of carbonara, perhaps the pecorino is not a well aged pecorino where the flavour was way too mild. Unfortunately that was the make or break for me. Instead of ordering dessert, I was feeling unsatisfied and had another glass of Chianti and heading for local cheap eats…

Context: This is my last chance to get pasta before I head to another area in Phu Guoc, so I splurge. Splurge wise people and choose something else rather than their carbonara🚫 For this price, I would have gotten delicious carbonara from Hong Kong. Note that everything on this island is way more value for money vs what I pay in Hong Kong, except for this meal.

Service: great attentive manager? I was sitting by the pool and he saw me looking for my server and rushed out to see how he can help.

Atmosphere: points deducted due to as a 5 star hotel’s restaurant and there were 0 care to their guests about the evening mosquitoes, from burning incense or organic lemongrass spray, there...

The worst experience I've ever had is in this restaurant and before they try and reply to discount what I say I give them credit for good food but the service was absolutely awful. The restaurant wasn't even busy and there were so many staff hanging around. Maybe because we weren't hotel guests they didn't care but whatever the reason and no matter what happens you still say goodbye to your customers. They deliberately/or not bumped my chair at one point and didn't apologise. When I left one of the staff stood in the middle of the entrance way on his phone and even backed into me as I left. This is absolutely disgraceful. What happened to the customer is always right? Please do not reply to me because I don't ever want to speak or see you ever again.

Anyone reading this I would avoid this restaurant like the plague because they do not deserve your business they have no idea what it means to be in the service industry. I was the bigger person and did not even say a...