People really like this restaurant. Like a lot. I've spoken to a few people who think it's the best place here on the island. I don't subscribe to that notion. It is good though. I will say that.
My wife and I came in here for a lunch during the season when we both had the day off (can you even believe it?!) because we wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The service was good, as you might expect from a place with a higher price point like this one. They did do one thing that I wasn't a fan of but I'll get to that later. First the food.
The standouts: we ordered the octopus here, as I've been know to do at many a restaurant all over the world. Octopus is delicious, so it makes sense. Because it is one of my favorite dishes, I have ordered it in many places and had it prepared many different ways. The grilled octopus here though, was the best octopus I've ever had anywhere. That's not even hyperbole. I honestly couldn't believe how good it was. I think that whenever people order a specific dish at various places, they expect it to taste a certain way and have a certain texture, etc. This was the case for me as well when I ordered this, and the flavor was out of this world, BUT, it was the texture that sold me. The waiter told me that they boil the octopus first and then grill it, so the texture is maybe a bit different from what you expect when you have grilled octopus at a different place. It was perfect. Literally flawless. There was nothing they could have done to this starter to make it better. It is now #1 on my list.
The desert we had was also quite good. We ordered it on a whim because I'm not really a dessert guy but it was a good call. Cream, pistachios, what I'm assuming was some sort of graham cracker crust or something similar. It was surprisingly good, especially for someone who isn't a fan of dessert.
This leads me to the item that wasn't stand out: the paella. We ordered the paella with lobster (obviously) and like you do whenever you order lobster, the waiter went in the back and brought out a live lobster to show you. This is one of the ridiculous things that they do in all restaurants (and completely unnecessary i might add) but it happens. The joke is, that a place will show you a lobster from their tank, and then when they are making your food they will make it with a lobster they have frozen in the back. I know for a fact that places do this. I'm not going to accuse Es Calo of doing this. What I will say, is the lobster they brought out to show us was definitely NOT the one in the paella. The one they showed us didn't have claws, and our paella lobster did. This is important because the lobsters without claws tend to cost more money. I wasn't ready to stress about it because for me lobster is lobster, but it must be said that they tried to pull the old switcheroo on me. That being said, while the paella was good, it wasn't the best paella I've had on the island, and it was amongst the most expensive. If I go back I probably won't be ordering the paella but that's no big deal.
If you're wondering, my wife did actually talk to the waiter about the lobster switch, and he apologized (he wasn't the person who brought out the livelobster, it was someone else) but for me it wasn't a huge deal. This place is good and has things that are fantastic, but I wouldn't call it the best restaurant here. read more
