Trip Advisor ranked this as one of the better seafood restaurants in Antalya, and I went there last night for dinner. I'll review completely honestly:
I left a hotel near the stadium and went about 11km to get to the Ship Inn. Prior to my arriving I had my hotel call to ensure the restaurant was open and to reserve a table.
Upon my arrival I told the waiter "I believe my hotel called you about my coming here?" He said "No Reservation" and ushered us to a seat outside of the restaurant and quite literally by where people were sunbathing at the end of the day. To be clear this was not a beach setting or a romantic setting, this was on the other side of a rope boundry with (again literally) over 20 tables sitting empty which he insisted he could not give us. Again this is during July 15 when most people were in the center of town for celebrations.
When we sat down he stood over us waiting for us to order. I told him we needed 'just a minute or two if you dont mind' and he took two steps back, and turned around. We ordered the Tuna Salad, and the Avocado Salad, My wife ordered the Grilled Salmon, and I ordered the Stuffed Calamari.
When the salad was served her (tuna fish) salad was great, while my salad had a lot of 'bottom of the lettuce' leaves, with avocado which was not the brown or dark avocado, but the greenish (plant tasting) avocado. The waiter was gracious and poured vinnegar and oil for us, poured out our water and her cola and then left us to consume our salad.
While eating our salad we had women with strolers, children who had been swimming, and other folks walking directly by our table - some even looking at our meal to see what we had ordered. Again (and to be clear) this was not bystanders walking a promenade and taking a quick moment to admire the meal, this was literally people walking next to the table and looking in.
When the main course arrived I spoke to the manager and asked him why we had been seated here when there are open tables. He responded by saying 'you came from Rixos Hotel right? - yes we have a table for you' This compounded the issue as he knew right away we had made a reservation, yet the waiter had opted to ignore that fact and put us at a 'non reservation' table. We then proceeded to have the manager come back, and english speaking colleague of his come up and ask us 'you have a problem?' only to then return with the reservation list to prove to us we had a reservation, followed by the waiter returning to appologize. Then the manager came back offering to give us the table we'd reserved.
A few things struck me about this:
1) If it was clear they only had 4 reservations on the list why would someone who didn't have a reservation be put on such an undesirable table?
2) Why the need to keep bothering us to apologize, if the damage has already been done
3) If the manager knew right away we had made a reservation when he spoke to us, why did this mistake happen in the first place?
4) The waiters standoffish attitude when we arrived was only based on appearance (westerner), so is this how they treat westerners at this restaurant?
At the end of our meal we opted for coffee's and enjoyed watching the boats come back into the marina.
When we asked for our bill I assumed based on how insistant they were in appologising and interrupting our meal to show they had marked down our reservation - we woudl at least have the coffee comped (after all what does that cost the restaurant?) - But alas they gave us no discount, and other than the lip service of apologizing - they really had no intention of taking any sort of 'hit' either with food or a discount to make this right by us.
As for the food, it was pretty good, the calamari was cooked right, and her salmon was pink and tasted grilled to the right time and temperature. The coffee was strong and not out of a tin, and (her) salad was fresh. - I just cannot recommend this restaurant based on my experience with/without a reservation, and the way they opted to treat westerners.
I hope this experience causes them to take a good internal look at themselves and perhaps focus on the experience and not just the 'bottom line' in future. read more
