Bistro Shabby Chic - Altea

Very bad experience. We had several days before ordered the seating for two person to Christmas evening. They sent a message, that they wanted to know more, and we went up to talk with them. We decided the time, the seating and the Christmas menu. Fine we thought, they really want to be organised. When we came the the table we booked was occupied and we were given the smallest table in an inconvenient place. The only Spanish speaking waiter gave us a menu card and no Christmas menu was there. After trying to explain we left and went to another restaurant.

We have visited all of the Bistro Shabby chic restaurants many times as we live in Altea and have had nice meals. However we had dinner in the original Old town Atea one on Sunday evening and unfortunately it was not a great experience. It was quite a cool evening and the restaurant was very cold, doors left open no heat on. We had to keep our coats on! The host had a full length wool coat on so I suppose that said it all. I asked for a candle from the waiter to try and give a semblence of heat and atmosphere. You'd expect that to be a given. Foodwise we had bruschetta to share for starter which was not great. It wasn't the nice fresh tomatoes you'd expect and bread was a bit stale. The mains were served and waiter was about to run quickly back downstairs! I just managed to ask for oil/balsamic dressing for my salad before he did!! He never asked did we need them as you would expect or for them to be on the table! He brought me two oils and had to smell them when I told him it was not balsamic but 2 olive oils! As if he didn't believe me! My main cajun chicken was nice but my husband had entrecot it was cooked well but was like leather. (He said it was like a workout for his mouth to eat it. By the time the water came upstairs to ask us if everything was ok we were nearly finished eating. We told him about the steak and the host gave us a dessert to share which was a nice gesture. However a better cut of meat would have been preferible. The two owners of Shabby Chic that we have had the experience of in all of their restaurants before were not there this night. We know they are very attentive and give a very good service and I would imagine they would not be too happy with this review. I hope on reading this they will get their staff to improve on all of the above.

This was a shocking experience . The waiter was all smiles but did not really know the menu. 3 of our party asked for steak, once the food arrived they had to ask for steak knives, then ask for the sauce they had ordered. There were 2 baby potatoes cut in half on the plate , not nearly enough food. So my friends ordered more potatoes, I went to look for the salt and pepper and half way thru the meal the waiter took them away

It is a place where astronomy floods by its nature, everything is manually crafted; the best thing that people who have been very friendly and attentive to us would certainly repeat again.

As long as I'm late, I repeat, because I have the food they serve. the only one but it takes a lot to serve between the first and the second dish, that when they bring it you are no longer hungry. They usually invite you to a lemonade shot, but this year they've passed. But we'll still eat in the next few years.