Recommendations

I tried to post this on the Chit Chat thread but it seems to be broken.

If you have spent the day on the beach (or at an EGM) you sometimes don't feel like going out to eat. That's how we felt last Saturday se we tried Monte Maria Pizzaria in Torreblance who have a delivery service. Ordering was easy and the food arrived after about 30 minutes. There is good variety (not just Pizza), the quality was OK (we had to heat some of it). We will use them again. I will take the menu home and if anyone wants a copy e-mailed just let me know.

I am told there a Chinese who also delivers. If anyone knows about them please let us know.

Other places we have tried this trip include

Timmies Bar behind the Fuengirola Park hotel (thanks Ray for telling us about it). Really nice smoke free bar, good food and better prices than you'll find on the front. 

Restaurante La Escollera (just past the Red Dragon). They have a variety of Menu of Day offers from 8.90€ for 3 courses. If you don't want desert you can have a drink instead (suits the Munsters!). If you have a bottle of wine you get a voucher for a free one on your next visit. Really nice Spanish couple run it.

Nice thread David!

I can really really recommend the restaurant "El Higueron" at the top of our hill. (when you take the backroad you bump in to it automaticly, it's just before the BP petrol station).

It is a bit more expensive than the tourist restaurants in Fuengirola, but compared to the top restaurants in Amsterdam and Barcelona it's still very cheap and I dare say it's one of the best restaurants I've ever dined. A lot of people I have taken there, who are used to really high standard restaurants agree with me. The view is breathtaking, the atmosphere is very relaxed with very good service and the quality of the food is amazing. One of the persons I took there could only say between his bites  "this - is - the - best - steak - I - have - ever -eaten - in - my - life ". Try it out when you have something to celebrate, I assure you you won't regret it!

If you want to keep it simple and cheap, there's an Italian restaurant on the paseo marítimo (the beachside), between Comfortel and Yaramar. The restaurant is called "Primavera" (spring) and is a popular place for your Spanish people. It's always very lively, and they have a big choice in pasta's, salads and pizza's for low prices.

Last but not least, there's a Maroccan restaurant on the complete other side of the beachroad. I don't know it's name, but it's just a bit inward before the Sohail Castle, near the mini golf course. The entourage is beautiful (my daughter said "mama, we are dining with a king now!") and they serve great tajines and couscous, but also more  "european" food for people who prefer that. I can look up the directions if anybody is interested.

(I hear rumours about a nice Greek restaurant in Fish alley, where they predict your future from the tea-leaves in the end, but haven't had the chance to go there yet. It might be worth a vist)

Good friends of mine have an Irish bar in Los Boliches. It's called Tom's Irish bar. It's located in the alleyway behind the Comfortel Hotel which is on the seafront. If you turn into the open square beside the Comfortel Hotel, turn left at the money exchange shop, and walk for 100 metres or so, and Toms Irish bar is on your right, on the corner. The guinness is excellent. They have 4 large plasma tv's showing all sports from UK and Ireland, sometimes 2 or 3 different games at the same time. Good atmosphere, and friendly hosts, Sean and Liz.

As for restaurants, beside Toms bar is a restaurant, I think called El Rio. Also Wolfgangs just up from the Calypso bar on the seafront. In the Summer, you have to book in advance, it's very busy. If you like fish and chips, there is a fantastic restaurant 2 alleyways back from the Comfortel in the direction of Fuengirola about 300 metres down. The name has slipped my mind. Mozza might remember it. The best cod I have ever eaten, and you get large cod, chips and peas for 2 people for € 9.95.

Westport

Recommended Top Restaurants

In  5 years I have visited many restaurants around  Fuengirola

Its time to share the best ones with you!!

Restaurante Las Islas

Most romantic restaurant I have seen at the costa, beautifull garden where the terras is located. In the evening it looks spectacular. The food is great, a lot of choice between european dishes and Libanese dishes.

Its close to Don Juan but a car is recommended because its in a valley on a hill and if you don't know it you will never find it.

Drive from Don Juan down to direction Fuengirole taking the coastal road, then turn right at the 2nd roundabout after you leave Don Juan and check for the sign Las Islas that is located close to the roundabout. go over the railway with Torreblanca station on your left hand side then follow the signs. Follow the signs up hill for about 2 km.

It is really worth a visit!!

Price is about 20-25 euro for main course

http://www.lasislas.info/restaurant_lasislas.html

Restaurante El Higeuron

Good restaurant with nice view over Don Juan and the rest of the coast. food was excellent.

Located next to the highway when driving up from DJ  you will pass it.

Price is lower than the cars in front of the restaurant do imagine. But between 20-30 euro for a Main course

For this money you will eat in a top restaurant where you will pay in the rest of Europe easily double or more.

http://www.elhigueron.com/

Restaurante Gavia

Good restaurant at the beach road. From DJ to direction fuengirola on coastal road then first roundabout to the left en you will find the restaurant in front of you between you and the beach. Close to Callypso Bar!!

Main coarse about 20 Euro 

http://infoplus.qdq.com/restaurantegavia/ct/web

Restaurante Angus (Harbour Benalmadena)

For the meat eaters among us!! Good Argentinian steakhouse located on the first floor in the harbour of benalmadena.

http://www.angus.es/

 Main coarse about 20-30 Euro 

Restaurante Aroma

Nice restaurant in the centre of Fuengirola located in the restaurant street of fuengirola that runs parallel to the beach.

On friday there is live music but dining music so very cosy and its not that loud that it is impossible to have a conversation. It is recommended to make a reservation for fridays because its always full.

Main coarse between 15 and 25 Euro

http://www.restaurantearoma.com/

Restaurante Pueblo Lopez

Romantic place to dine outside. A secret garden in a white village in the middle of the centre of Fuengirola and only a few people know it. Good food including vegetables!

From the railwaysation you walk  in direction Carvajal towards the fish/meat  market Merca Centro at the roundabout you turn left  and pass on your left hand side a chinese restaurant. Follow this road and pass left hand side big villa with camera watching the side walk. At about 100 m turn left that is almost opposite of the hospital on the other side of the street.

After 50 M you see the sign of the restaurant. Enter the white houses square and you will see the terras. Its basically behind the railway station Mijas side. Hard to find but worth to go there!!

Calle Mijas, 9. Pueblo Lopez. Fuengirola
Telf.: +34 952 471 929.

Main coarse between 15 and 25 Euro

Restaurante Taverne de Pintxo

Special concept Tapas restaurant. The concept is that about 50 different tappas (cold and warm ) are produced in the kitchen and the waiter is coming round to the tables to show the tapa from the moment on a plate and you can decide whether you will take it or wait for the next round. Every tapa has type of stick in it like sword or heart or wooden stick and for every type of stick there is a fixed price. Prices between 1.60 -2 Euro per tapa. At the end the waiter collect the sticks and calculate the price.

The tapas they serve are 50 diffrent ones and consist out of  meat, fish or vegetables on a piece of bread. The word "Tapa" comes from cover. In the past people used to cover their beer with a piece of bread to avoid flies and wasps drinking together with you. Later the horeca came up with the idea to upgrade this bread cover with some small food.

 The ones I recommend is the fried breaded cammanbert with marmalade, the entrocote, the chicken brochetta, the spinache, the gambas. But thats ofcourse personal

In general all people I brought there liked the concept and its a good opportunity to get to know the spanish kitchen without wondering what the spanish description on the menu card means because what you see is what you decide to get.

The restaurant is located close to the railwaystation in Fuengirola 200M. From the railwaystation cross the street to the opposite of the entrance. Turn right and first left. after 20 meters on the left hand side you see the terras on the sidewalk and the restaurant.

Price full meal about 8 to 10 Tapas about 20 euro

Remark: The waiter starts going round with tapas when there are enough people in the restaurant from about 21PM when its not crowded the Tapas should be ordered from the menu card.

If  I discover more I will post them here

Enjoy your Dinner!!!

Best regards,

René

This message was last edited by Rene35 on 25/06/2009.

This message was last edited by Rene35 on 25/06/2009.

This message was last edited by Rene35 on 25/06/2009.

This message was last edited by Rene35 on 25/06/2009.

This message was last edited by Rene35 on 25/06/2009.

Some good restaurants there René!

Just to be clear to drive to Las Islas you turn right at the 2nd roundabout after you leave Don Juan, go over the railway with Torreblanca station on your left hand side then follow the signs.

Hi Rene, Thanks for sharing the info! Any chance you can copy and paste again and add a rough budget cost per head. Im not tight but i like to have a rough idea of the pricing before I go. I've not been to El Higron yet but I have heard that is very good but you will have to pay min 50 euros per head, is this true?

Regards Andy

I have updated the restaurant file and added a new one too

Enjoy your meal!

We visited El Higueron, and it was certainly pricey but food was good, with 5 people and 2 bottles of wine it worked out at €50 per head. Of course they gave us olives, bread etc at the start  most of which you end up paying for. I wasn't as impressed on the second visit and they tried to charge us for something we hadn't got. They sorted it out without any problem. 

One I would recommend, but is in the same price class is La Salina at the top of Avda. Salina which is very dug up at the moment. The easiest way to get to it is to take the back way out of Don Juan, then the motorway towards Fuengirola, exit at 212 go left at the roundabout into Fuengirola, La Salina is a yellow building on the left after crossing the bridge.  They specialise in meat , particularly lamb.

I know a lot of neighbours enjoyed the hospitality of Graeme and Debs at Slammers and will have discovered it was under new ownership this summer. They had an unsolicited offer for Slammers and sold in June. They took the summer off but have now opened a new bar\restaurant called El Bistro 50 yards on the Fuengirola side of Los Boliches station.

The offering is similar to Slammers but as the kitchen is bigger there is more home cooked dishes. Good simple food. Main meals 5€ to 8€; some tasty tapas at 1.50€, Sunday Roast etc.

As per Otterandy's request to get this forum back to normal in his last post under the Community Matters thread, I have a recommendation to make.

We have just discovered a great takeaway Thai restaurant . It is called Pad Thai Wok and is dead opposite the old Spainsbury and Xpat Insurance shop in Los Boliches / Fuengirola.

They are mainly an express take away restaurant although they do have a few seating places in the restaurant and they do excellent inexpensive food. I had the red curry which came to under €7 including rice! The food was surprisingly good! They have only been open for 5 weeks and is owned by a Spaniard who has spent 2 years in Thailand and has native Thai chef. They are open all day till around midnight.

A far better alternative to McDonalds or Burger King when you want something quick and inexpensive.

With most of the cheringitos closed at night and those that are open not being great there is limited choice for eating out in the evening in Carvajal this winter.

La Trinicria, commonly known as the pizza place is actually good for a lot more than pizza. They don't have fish all the time but when they do it is excellent. Their salads are to die for.

They are also doing a delivery service over the winter. They put menus in our post boxes and already have a number of customers in Don Juan. I recommend you ask to speak to Alex (the big tall guy) as his English is good.

Based on René's recommendation we went to Restaurante Pueblo Lopez last night. The food was good and it is a lovely setting. Although the prices are higher than the 3 courses for 7€ currently on offer in Fish Alley we were surprised how reasonable it was. They had a 3 course menu for 14.50€. Main courses off the A La Carte were from 10.50€ to 18€ - good recomendation, thanks René

We have a lot of favourite restaurants after all those year, but there are a few which I didn´t mention before and are worth a recommendation.

Matahambra is so enormously popular that there are crowds waitng for a table. You get a ticket on busy evening. However out of season and at lunch time there is enough place. They serve very creative dishes in small and larger portions. Very ecclectric kitchen. There is a branch of this small chain in Fuengirola, Los Boliches at the square with the fountain. You can´t miss it. Low prices and exceptional value for money.

The same goes for the El Lizzaron ´pincherias´. Mostly small dishes, not tapas, but usually small toast with a great variation as toppings. You serve yourself, just fill a plate with whatever looks nice and you pay at the end for the number of ´pins´ on your plate. Yes, you can cheat but I have never seen it happening. There are more of them, but f.i. one close to the AKI and Worter store everybody has to visit once a while. Again perfect for lunch as you decide how much you want to eat.

We have for a long time been on the look out for a good Japanese restaurant but never could fine one. We are hooked on the Japanese kitchen, Saskia prepares very good sushi and sashimi´s herself but for the ultimate in variation and ingredients (and a lot less work) a restaurant is the best place. Unfortunately it´s not as popular in this area of Spain as it is in large cities like Madrid, Barcelona and of course Amsterdam where we had ample choice in all price ranges.

The one at the boulevard is not to our taste, the one next to the Mercadona close to the highest (white) hotel at the boulevard doesn´t look very inviting but thanks to a tip of Rene we went toTekiyapi. It´s outside of Fuengirola next to the highway in the direction of Marbella. Around the 100 km sign and opposite La Cala.

Real Japanese food with a wide choice. They do a lot more than the usual spectacular act at the barlike kitchen, but for those who have never seen Japanese chefs with their theatric style of very clean cooking it´s certainly worth sitting round this kitchen block.

At the tables you can choose for sushi, sashimi´s but also a lot more of smaller dishes to mix and match. Their seafood menu was excellent and contained a few surprises i had never eaten before. The sashimi was as always excellent, but unfortunately our seven year old accompanies us to Japanese restaurants from her first year and is addicted to raw salmon and tuna. We have to eat faster than we like to get a decent share of them.

Price a bit higher than fish and chips, but  for a good reason. They are actually quite cheap for a proper Japanese. We spend about 75E with the three of us.

Last but not least don´t forget the two best restaurants in a large area which both happen to be very close to Don Juan. The spanish fish restaurant very close to us at the street side of the boulevard (direction Benalmadena, take the second one, not the first) is at 500 meters from our complex, looks out over the sea and has the best fish dishes in Fuengirola. Excellent wine cellar as well. Without wine about 20-25E a head for a very good meal.

The ultimate eating experience is still El Higueron overlooking our whole valley. A view to kill for and an exceptional chef. I prased them before but they are worth a new mention. More upmarket than the rest, but always full with mostly Spanish for lunch and dinner. I guess for about 30E a head you already have a remarkable meal which would cost you 150E or more in London or Amsterdam.

Max

 Hi i went to a restaurant in Benalmadena pueblo Saturday night called Casa Fidel telephone number 952449165. There is a 25 Euro set menu with Wine  included, nice terrace out side and main restaurant  with Air Con inside. Saturday night was full so book in advice on weekends and peak weeks Irene

We tried a restaurant called La Marmita de PM near the castle end of the Paseo last night. It doesn't look anything special from the outside but is actually very nice inside. 

So many restaurants have similar menu's but this was quite different. We went for the tasting menu which had 6 courses all of which were good and at 18€ a head was good value.

It has only been open for a few months and is described as a Gastrobar. It is actually owned by an architect who didn't have any work so decided to open a restaurant! We'll definitely be back. www.lamarmitadepm.es

Every Spanish visit we're going to the Sandpiper at the boulevard of Los Boliches. (just before Yaramar)

They have a choice menu of 12,50 ( 3 courses) and we think the food is great.

Increadible for that price!!

And the entertainment of the gay waiter costs nothing, just a laugh...

Next to the Sandpiper is Pizzeria Ramazotti, where you can eat great garlic bread for 2,50 excl. IVA.

So with a wine or a beer it's great to try...it's like a very thin pizza.....

Although I have to admit they are not so happy, when you only order garlic bread, but for a snack it's great....

c.u.

Corrie

We always go to Pizzeria Ramazotti when we are over, they serve the best pizza ever tasted, in fact we were there on Saturday night.

If there is a group of you they supply a tasty free large salad with your starter.  

We saw Sandpiper but didn't go in as it dId not seem too inviting. Must not judge a book by it's cover, may be we will try it next time. 

You are right, the pizza's are also great at Ramazotti. But for just a snack the garlic bread is the best we ever had...

About the salad is also true, but for me they serve to much sauce on the salads.

It's worth trying the Sandpiper, also Arome in the city of Fuengirola is very good, 20 euros 3 courses, but that's worth the money...

When I remember well Rene also recommended Arome, it's a class restaurant we think..

Just a short comment regarding MAX (Wetakecare).

This is not an invitation for anyone to post comments as this has been done to death in the past. But when anyone provides a poor service it is easy to be critical but people often don't tell the other story.

I have recently had some dealings with him (as I have in the past) regarding the rental of my apartment and thought that it should go on record that the service he provided was second to none. His company was efficient and helpful delivered in his own polite and friendly way. This has been consistant over the years.

He has not asked me to do this nor is he aware of it.  I would not hesitate to recommend his company.

Finally, A Happy New Year to one and all from the SRS clan!