DavidJackson.info

Restaurant Azul
Hotel Tikar,
Garrucha

What to get a sister in law for her birthday? For Christmas she got a smoothie maker – for her birthday, she got lunch. Being a generous sort of chap, I also splashed out for the little bro, and for a friend to come along as well. I even let her choose the venue. The kid stayed at home with a baby sitter.

Vicky plumped for the Hotel Tikar, which intrigued me as I hadn´t previously been there, although I had had good reports about it. So we were agreed, and one Saturday lunch time turned up there.

I turned up at the appointed time, and found an easy parking spot just up the side of the hotel, on a road whose condition could only be described as Zimbabwean.

Entering, I was pleasantly surprised by the interior decor, which is very nicely done out. While I personally wouldn´t pay €400 for any of the paintings for sale on the walls, the overall impression was nice. Bit blue perhaps. Still, the clue is in the name.

We had a couple of quiet drinks in the comfortable lounge and bar area before walking around the screen into the main dining room. Comfy chairs. Somewhat too comfy in fact, didn´t want to get out of them. However, after being prodded a few times with a stick I stirred myself and found a table.

The chairs are, not to put too fine a point on it, damned uncomfortable when you first sit down, especially after the lounge. Still, after a bit the nether regions went numb and I was fine.

Now, the menu looked quite decent. They do a very decent set menu for €24,50. 7 starters and 8 main courses, plus desserts of the day. Also a decent little wine menu. I´m currently off the sauce, but still…

Now, I´ve gone and lost the bill, so I don´t really remember what everybody had. I do remember that I got overexcited and ordered the warm pasta in an apple and curry sauce to start with, which was nicer than expected; and the grilled pork tenderloin with a caramelised onion sauce to follow. I forget the pudding.

We finished up at around 4, pleasantly satiated from the food, and, belts undone, pottered off for a siesta. Damn nice all round, and definitely worth a visit.

Original comments copied from original website>

Thought your review was quite accurate. I personally didn’t find the meat very good (2 x entrecote steak) and it was not cooked as requested but otherwise not bad.

Los Gurullos, Mojacar

Los Gurullos is a small restaurant, on your right as you descend the hill towards Mojacar playa, in front of the rug shop and just before the petrol station.

Gurullos is a typical dish here in Mojacar, made with small pasta balls in a stew, usually with chicken or rabbit. It´s lovely and I tons of the stuff, made to perfection by my chef, Fran. But I digress. By the way, ´Restaurant Los Gurullos´, which is in the area of ´Los Gurullos´ of Mojacar does serve Gurullos, although I´ve never had them there. Confused? I was!

It was quite late on Friday night on the eve before a trip to Scotland when, hungry and in the area, on an impulse pulled in. Parking is easy, although my initial impression of the placed soured when I spotted a car outside that was newer than mine. (Yes, new car! Hurrah!)

Inside, it was a plain affair, but deliberately so, decorated in the style of an old cortijo. A small bar area lead into the main restaurant, which despite holding a couple of large parties was quite quiet. Room for about 50 people, split up with some columns and screens.

The menu arrived, and it seems to be quite a simple affair, with a number of plain starters, a large pizza section and a small meat and fish section. Nothing spectacular, just simple food that the chef knows how to cook. Just what I like.

We ordered a large salad to share – and boy was it large. We then continued with a couple of pizzas, which were also large. Home made and hand cooked, they were perfectly adequate.

We finished up with a coffee, and feeling full, looked at the bill. Which was a surprise. Worked out to be 9 € each. Lovely.

Updated 4th August 2008: It’s reopened! Find out what I think about Orsoca Turre here.

Updated 13th April 2008: Upon my return from the UK, I notice that the Orsoca seems to have closed! Can’t say I’ll miss it’s current incarnation. What will it be next?

Restaurante Orsoca

Many years ago, this was a family run restaurant, under the watchful eye of Maria, the matriarch who, clad in black, presided over the control of the tables while her husband, brother in law and sister produced some of the best food around.

It was for many years my families favourite restaurant, producing only top quality food in a great setting. I still remember when the family, one Christmas, won several million pesetas on the El Gordo lottery and brought us all the meal!

Shortly after this windfall, both families took early retirement and passed the bar onto one of their sons. He didn´t do too well, and after a year the parents, having tired of retirement, took it back. Back came the quality, and back flocked the Jacksons.

Until around 18 months ago, a Spanish chappie who had lived in London for years brought it. A strange mix ensued, as he tried to take it upmarket without quite hitting the mark. More indifferent then exciting. His wife still runs the pizzeria in front (Tito Pacos).

As from the beginning of this year, it was taken over by some new people, who started off with a bang and a huge paella out front. A party notable mainly for the paucity of the drinks and the fact that a large German woman knocked my mother over.

Therefore it was with some interest that we ventured back one Wednesday evening.

Upon first entering the restaurant, not much seemed to have changed. The main restaurant is (ugh) smoking, although there is a large separate room, which is for the non smokers.

Now, there are many ways that a pregnant lady can look dignified, even attractive, while expecting, but resolutely sticking to a shirt that was too small to begin with is not one of them. Flesh protruding everywhere. Not attractive in a waitress, even when she is the wife of the owner.

We poured over the menu, and ordered a selection of starters, and three main courses. The menu doesn´t seem to be any different from the old Orsoca – did they find them in a cupboard and blew off the dust?

The starters arrived, and at first seemed promising. The Morcilla a la flamb&ecute; was quite nice, although it had gone out by the time it reached us.

As we were sitting all alone in a big empty room, we had to wait for a bit to get the attention of the waitress, who seemed to have forgotten us. However, she eventually spotted my Michael Winner napkin wave and cleared the plates.

She brought us two main courses (fortunately mine was one of them, lamb chops), dropped them on the table with a smile and happily left. Sadly, she forgot to bring the third main course. Nor were we able to get her attention again until we had almost finished the chops.
For some reason, being informed that she had forgotten to bring us a main course seemed to amuse her greatly. In between giggles she told us that she´d given the fish to someone else. This, as you can imagine, annoyed us somewhat. She ask if we still wanted it, but as we pointed out, since we had been unable to get her attention we´d finished the chops, and weren´t in a mood to wait another 20 mins.

The chops weren´t that good, either; some incredibly soggy and sickly broccoli, mushy veg and somewhat greasy chops.

We just ordered coffee and the bill. When the coffee appeared the waitress asked if we wanted a bottle of cava to compensate us for the missing meal  she seemed unaware of the fact that I never drink cheap Cava, and knew just how much that bottle would have cost them (E2.99)! We rejected the bottle, but told her that the boss could pay for the coffee and brandy if he wanted to. He didn´t.

The waitress then seemed to decide that we were too much trouble for her, and passed control of our table over to a rather dim English waiter. He brought us the bill, which, when we looked at it, seemed to have overcharged us by about 30E.

We queried this, and the bill returned to the bar, where the boss, waiter, waitress and a chef all poured over it for a few minutes. Eventually they decided that the bill was correct, but the totals in the total column were wrong. We thought this moronic, and said so. This for some reason did not go down well.

To cut a long story short, the Jackson clan is now barred for life from the Orsoca in it´s current conception. Not that I´m too worried, it´ll probably change hands before I´m hungry again.

On a side note, I spotted that a certain member of staff in the kitchen is a moronic ex dealer who we had to fire years ago. Just a heads up!

(PS: Friends have recently visited, and said that rarely have they ever had worse food in there lives.)

Original comments copied from original website:

es una pena que en la publicidad que hace la junta de andalucia sobre turismo,integre este restaurante en el grupo de los aconsejados

muy mal servicio,malisima comida y caro para la calidad que dan.Nunca volvere y si ustedes van,nunca volveran.