The Avo

The Avo...cado Restaurant in Frigiliana was on my list for quite a while. A restaurant specialized in Avocado dishes, but including meat and fish - hence a restaurant to go with my husband.

It was the weekend of the "Ruta del Arte" in Frigiliana, and my friend Jane at MajesticArts was showcasing her fantastic paintings. The time was right, I booked a table at The Avo using WhatsApp which worked fine: quick responses and good communication even in English.

You might remember during the summer month we run "The great Spanish Sun Lounger Test" checking out Beach Bars and Chiringuitos along the Costa del Sol. Now autumn and winter are coming up, and because of the great responses to the reviews, I have decided to start a new test series: "HellsKitchen or MasterChef"! What do we do: We are checking out restaurants. After the visit, we fill in a questionnaire of 14 questions which are answered on a scale from 1 (very bad) to 10 (super duper fantastic). The Avo was the first one to be reviewed.

The Avo = Hells Kitchen or Master Chef?

I had booked a table for 8 - going with friends to the Ruta del Arte first, and having lunch afterward. The table was set up nicely on the terrace when we arrived.

Within seconds, the waitress arrived asking "Bebidas?" - drinks? No drinks menu, just the question. That's a thing I really don't like in Andalusia, they hardly ever give you a drinks menu. I love drinks menus, it inspires me to order and try something completely different. Without a menu, I always order the same. It was the same at the Avo, no drinks menu available when we asked for, and we ordered the same as usual - Shandy (Radler, beer with lemonade) and Tino Verano.

With the drinks, the food menu arrived. Huge print on cardboard - I really loved it! Never seen such a huge menu before. What I liked, too: Menu options were limited to 6 Appetizers and 6 Starter, 8 Main dishes, and 5 desserts. Having not a lot of choices make the dishes available usually tasty and perfect. Here? Let's see.

We waited for all our friends to arrive. From Frigiliana it's an 8 minutes drive, The Avo is located in the Hotel Posada Morisca. Absolutely beautiful surroundings, and great views down to the Mediterranean sea. When our friends arrived we ordered the food.

Waiting time

The waiting time for the food was over an hour. Hmm. Although we were hungry, we had a good time with our friends and had interesting talks. Just before the food arrived, we were served crispy bread rolls (yes! not the plastic ones!) with Avocado butter. Very nice! And this was not charged on the final bill - even better! When the food arrived, the waiting time paid off: It was wonderful! Great presentations and yummy tastes.

We had ordered:

Mango & Avocado Sushi Roll 13.90Euro

Tuna Tartar 13.90Euro

Citrus Shrimp and Avocado Salad 12.90Euro

Avocado and Salmon Rice Bowl 17Euro

All food dishes got a rating of 9 points out of 10! Tuna Tartar even 9.5 out of 10!

We tucked in our food and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Coming to the downsides now: The service was...... to be polite: not good. Very slow. We always had empty glasses on the table and would have ordered more drinks if someone had asked. We were missing napkins while eating, but could not catch a waitress to ask.

But the worse - what really made us angry: We had 2 dogs with us, they were under the table. We had asked before if dogs are welcome and got a positive answer. Hence, they knew we were coming with our furry friends. There were 2 dogs running around on the terrace without a leash: An Alsacian and a Dalmatian. Both barking and surrounding our table, what made our dogs nervous. The Damlamtion came very close and we were scared he might attack ours. The owner arrived, a super arrogant woman, telling us "It's their place here, and I am the owner of the hotel / restaurant". WHAT???

How stupid can you be? If you really want to make guests angry, that's the way to do it.

The Bill

We paid a total of 157Euros for 7 people. Food prices, in general, are not cheap, but we all thought its worth it. Drinks prices are average for a restaurant. Bread and Avocado butter was on the house, which was appreciated. Two Barcadi / Cola were not charged - which we only noted at home looking through the bill (assuming they forgot).

Rating

We really liked the food, and the beautiful surroundings. But customers are not important, as we were told by the owner. Our overall rating is a 4,9 out of 10 and that's mainly because of poor customer service and a very arrogant woman who calls herself the owner. Additional downsides: Wrong drinks order was brought to the table, insisting we had ordered. No upselling, we always had a lot of empty glasses on the table. We were not given a free shot, a limoncello, or caramel liqueur with the bill, which is common in Andalucia. We would not return, which is a shame because the food and view were great.

Stay tuned: HellsKitchen or MasterChef returns soon!