I'm 44 and this is the worst Tapas I've ever had - quite a statement I'm sure you'll agree but let me fill you in. Now, I'm not a food snob, I've been to Nandos....several times. I even enjoy rubbish food now and again (mostly when I'm drunk to be honest) but when I'm not expecting it....that's when it hurts the most.
The service and ambience in the place in generally excellent - the menu was basic for Tapas (nothing I couldn't get in even the most basic Glaswegian joint, not a city that's particularly well served by Spanish food) but nothing that threw up signals of just how terrible things were going to get.
The "starters" were actually not bad (we opted for the set menu of 8 tapas selected by the "chef" and it was divided into an intro of cold tapas and then the main dishes) - we had olives, two cheeses, some bread and some deep fried peppers with rock salt none of which were amazing but none of them warned us of the horrors to come.
The mains were as follows - patatas bravas. These were large potatoes cut into long slices (I thought it was a yam or sweet potato at first) which had managed to be both incredibly overcooked and incredibly greasy and served with a peculiar sweet tomato sauce which was familiar but I couldn't place at first.
There were also "meatballs" - these were appalling. My three year old rejected them - I tasted the sauce on them and suddenly I recognised it. It was the same sweet and sour sauce you get on ribs at your local Chinese takeaway. And the sauce on the "papatas bravas" had been the same!
Next, deep fried prawns - I've had Tapas all over the world but can't remember ever having deep fried prawns before. These ones were encased in a thick batter and served again with a very familiar sauce and some lettuce (?). Then it hit me - the batter was exactly the same as you get on sweet and sour pork balls from your local budget Chinese restaurant.
Guess what? There's a Chinese restaurant right next door.
We ate less than half of the main dishes and that's rare for me - if I'm paying for food I'll generally eat it no matter what but in this case all four of us just couldn't bear to eat what was in front of us.
The waitress asked us if everything was ok and although I'm usually incredibly bad at complaining, I did point out the similarity between what we had in front of us and a cheap Chinese takeaway and she sort of laughed and said "maybe if you go next door to the Chinese place it tastes of Spanish food".
Like I said at the beginning of the review, I'm not a food snob - I'm not complaining about slight regional variations in chorizo or the way they grill their blood sausage instead of frying it.....this was terrible Chinese food dressed up as Tapas for unfortunate dinners that haven't ever experienced anything even close to the real thing.
I feel sad that anyone coming to Mallorca could leave and think this was in any way related to genuine Spanish food, it isn't. read more
