Dolphin restaurant in La Duquesa port

 Hi all,

I wouldnt normally be writing a review of a restaurant here, as I think it only fair that I, as a resident, give the restaurant a few goes before casting judgement.  However, today my partner and I received the worst service and attitude that we have come across in our 10 years spent living on the coast.  We own a successful real estate company and spend quite a lot of time in restaurants and cafes entertaining clients.  Today we stopped in La Duqesa port for lunch and a drink.  The Dolphin restaurant is the first cafe/restaurant on the left as you enter the port, and today, when we arrived, had around 10 people seated there.  After sitting down and waiting for 20 minutes to be served, and after being shouted at several times by one of the girls running the Dolphin saying "in a minute" we finally got served, ordering a toasted tuna baguette and a Avocado and Salmon salad.  After waiting another 40 minutes (my girlfriend is heavily pregnant I might add) we decided to move inside the restaurant.  We then waited another 10 minutes for our food - so by now we had been here for 1hr 10 mins - and many tables who sat down after us had been served, with no explanation to us other than "we are very busy" our food appeared.  The baguette was not toasted and my salad was on a plate the size of a side plate.  I had just seen another salad come out on a plate twice the size of mine, so I politely mentioned to the waitress "is mine the same as the salad the lady has over there?"  Not a rude request I thought??!  Obviously the girls behind the bar thought otherwise as they started shouting at us saying "oh my god, are you for real, are you joking", to which I answered no I am not joking, we have waited over an hour for this food, that my girlfriend is pregnant etc etc.  The girls working here told us to leave and to never come back again, and we left with them swearing at us as we walked out.  A real charming little restaurant ruined by bad service, bad attitude and some of the rudest English staff I have ever come across.  The sort of establishment I can imagine the girls doing something to your food if you dare to ask for something out of the ordinary.

I for one shall never return here and will unfortunately be taking my clients elsewhere.

 Rule number 1 before entering a restaurant

is it busy with locals

2 are the plates empty

but I agree if you go somewhere bad then let everyone know

It is unfortunate that quite a few restaurants are run by amateurs.  A very bad experience Visatelli, and indeed you would be quite entitled to report them to the local tourist office. 

My advice: stick to the Spanish restaurants.

Patricia

janie, you won't find many locals in Duquesa Port, it's mainly tourists!  And..

"but I agree if you go somewhere bad then let everyone know"

Yes, but we also want to know WHERE to go so honest good reviews are always welcome.

And Visatelli, it sounds like you had a bit of a nightmare experience there!  I've had some bad meals in my time but never been sweared at and shouted at.  I don't think that can even be classed as "service"....unless you are into that sort of thing

But I also had a bad experience with service and food at the Dolphin Bar and I've never been back.  There are plenty of decent other places in the port such as Oscars and C-Bar!

Justin

I have a very short list of restaurants I recommend to friends who come over to Spain.  Very short.  A good restaurant speaks for itself.

Patricia

Come to think of it - I cannot  think of one good restaurant in Duquesa .  They are all  so over -priced and not a patch on what we can get at home.  The food at the beach is good but again so over- priced .  It is such a shame as we now hardly  eat out at all when we go to Spain.  By far the  best restaurnants are in Gibraltar .

There is one good grill restaurant - do not know the name but is in front of Arenal Duquesa and near the post office run by a lovely Spanish family.  The food is great and very good value.  I have never seen any Brits there except us .  That is the only restaurnant that we have ever returned to except the Chinese and the Indian at at the port - but why go to Spain to eat Chinese & Indian food !!!!    

 I dont agree with The Dolphins Bar coments!!!, it is a lovely bar we have been visiting for many years.  Also it is Spanish run by the family!!!.  We have been visiting the bar every summer for 18 years and don't believe that you got treated like that!!!.  They serve the best coffee in the port and you only have to see that they are always so busy!!!.

This type of coments from one visit to a bar should not be admitted because it is one of my favourite bars in Spain!!!!.  Also the other bars they mention are not very good at all and Oscars?, it is always empty!!!.  I suggest you all give The Dolphin bar another go!!!!

 I am writing in reponse the the comments regarding the Dolphin Bar.  I have lived in Duquesa for many years and have often frequented the Dolphin bar on many occasions and found the staff and food delightful.  it is a spanish family run business and it is the one bar in the port that is constantly busy due to the high standards that they deliver.  I find it a shame that Visatelli finds it necessary to leave negative comments on such forums, particularly as i believe them to be completly unfounded.   As i am sure you can appreciate the costa del sol relys on its tourism to survive, and i tend to stick to the age old saying of "if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all"!

IMO people are entitled to give their opinion if they had a bad experience in a restaurant or hotel. 

Both good and bad reviews are allowed, I am sure.

Patricia

 To a certain extent i agree with you campana, if an individual regularly reviews restaurants.  However visatelli has posted only that one review and nothing else therefore i questions the motives behind it and also completly disagree with what was posted. Surely i am also allowed my opinion.

Absolutely, Whitehouse!  Of course you must post your opinion and your opinion of the establishment in question.

I think Justin also made a mention of the same establishment, not in glowing terms either.

I don't review restaurants for a living, so I don't like to post on here which are my favourites and which are not.  When friends come to visit then I give them the (ver short) list of those places which I have found best.

Patricia

HaHaHa, since when was the Dolphin a restaurant?  This lovely bar has been one of my favourite bars for years.  We used to come over from Estepona frequently just to visit before we moved to this area.  It gets a bit busy at this time of year, as do all good bars here in the port, so service would be expected to be slower than the norm ( I usually wait no longer than 2 minutes) but i think you are stretching it a bit to say you waited over an hour Visatelli.  As for the staff, I know they only have one English waitress who has always serves me with a smile and a warm greeting.  I know the girls in there would never be so petty as to put things in your food, only fresh ingredients! 

I can only assume you were in a parallel universe that day and had actually walked into a "restaurant" that was in your mind alone.

Hmmm, I'm going to have to try this place again.  We had really slow service and food was poor when we last went.

But hey, maybe I got them on a bad moment.

I will trot down there this week and check it out again.

Justin

Having been here in Spain for the past 4 years and living locally, I have been in several bars in Duquesa port English and Spanish owned.

I have also been in the catering trade for 20 years and can honestly say that the Dolphin bar is run with care, speed and above all politeness.

This bar I know has been in the same hands for 23 years a Spanish family who have also had businesses before so therefore cannot be considered amateurs.

The mere fact that that this bar has been in the same hands and is frequented by English and of course Spanish alike and has many regulars all year round of all nationalities  says much more than one couples vicious and unfounded attack.

I do hope that that their estate agents business never comes across someone such as them who obviously has nothing else to do with their time.

I think you will find that most of us have would not bother to make such comments we would just not return.!!!

Nicky

IF and I say If you have a successful real estate business in Spain you are very lucky, and if indeed it is that successful then the Dolphin bar is not for wining and dining potential clients, it is however a typical Spanish family bar with and I quote from many people that I speak to “oh that is the bar with the comfortable chairs” and they serve a limited menu serving breakfasts, toasties, salads and baguettes, and yes it is a successful business supporting two generations of Spanish Nationals trading all year seven days a week closing only on Christmas day and to my knowledge of the port is one of the few that that has a continual customer base of locals and holidaymakers whom I know return year after year making it a very popular and successful venue and enabling them to trade all year.

I have been In Spain for over four years and I have worked and am working in the port at the moment visiting the port most evenings for a few drinks and using many of the bars the Dolphin included and I have never come across any rude staff or bad service in any of the bars, my knowledge of the catering industry spans over 40 years and for me to read that you could imagine somebody putting something in your food I find very insulting to all catering staff the world over and in all my years have never encountered that happening.

Why did you wait so long for a sandwich and a salad, from my past experience customers waiting time for food is often exaggerated and I do insist a time is put on to all orders I receive, I however would have walked away long before that and even sooner had my wife been pregnant, I have only walked away from one bar since I have been in Spain and that was after waiting only 5 minutes with nobody coming to take my order.

Peter A.