My family and I went fishing and wanted to take our catch to a nearby restaurant at Las Animas beach for lunch. Our Captain recommended this place and so being unfamiliar with the area, we went with his recommendation.
Las Animas beach is beautiful with all the restaurants sitting at the waterfront, lounges right at the shoreline and tables right in the sand. When we arrived at Los Conos, we were excited and ready to have a taste of my dad's big catch. A waiter immediately greeted us and invited us to sit. I told him we had a 4-5 lb Jack Caravelle and asked how much to prepare and cook. He seemed to have thought about a price before telling me 120 pesos per person (5 adults and 1 child). 100%, I knew he was up charging because we're tourists. But he was like we'll bring out rice, beans and salad for everyone. I thought it was kind of weird that they're charging per person and not a flat price, but I decided not to negotiate (hindsight, I should have considering there were other restaurants on the beach). I'd figured since they were bringing sides for each person, sure, it would justify the price. Except, they only brought out one small bowl of each side! How disappointing.
For our fish, we requested to have it cooked three different ways: breaded and fried, butter garlic and grilled plainly. It took quite a bit of time, but we were told it was because they had to filet and clean the fish. Fair enough. When it finally came out, we were super excited and ready to grub! Of the three diff styles, I definitely would say the breaded and fried was my least favorite. Only because it was so heavily breaded. And with a fresh fish, having it fried really seemed like a waste. Everything was good, but I wouldn't say it was exceptional or really unique.
Although we enjoyed the food, the reason for the 3-star was because I felt like we were taken advantage of with the made up price on the spot. I didn't appreciate that. They included gratuity of 113 pesos and each bottled water was 25 pesos. Total was 863 pesos, which is almost $50 USD, which I felt was a bit expensive considering we brought the fish ourselves. Oh well. read more