El Chasca - Ardales

Service good. Food was a major disappointment this time and sadly we won’t be back. Salad was lovely. ‘Scrambled eggs and mushrooms’ should be called ‘Mushrooms with a hint of scrambled eggs’, Paella with seafood was very dry and not pleasant to eat at all. The last picture is what we left at the end of our meal. 47 euros wasted.

The young waitress who served us was very friendly. They brought us a menu but we told them that we preferred half portions, and as seen in the photos, well served.

Very bad and expensive, we asked for the menu and they gave us one with some stickers on top of the prices, which of course, were more expensive because they DO have a menu for tourists and others for those who know!!. In fact, right behind it, there was a table with tapas dishes, while we only had the ration option. They took a long time for the few tables that we were at, except for the other table that I mentioned, which was evident from the way they greeted each other and the way they arrived and hit them. Two cooks, 3 people behind the bar and only one waitress, who is the one who is saved, because of her cordial treatment and because she tried to give more options and the owner, one of the bar, denied it, without caring that we were finding out and we saw how he did put it on the other table. Very unprofessional on her part. I will certainly NEVER return nor recommend it.

I am not in the habit of leaving bad reviews because everywhere can have an off day but... I will make an exception for El Chasco because I wouldn 't want anyone else to be disappointed. It looks very average but looks can be deceptive with Spanish bars and restaurants. We really wanted to eat in the main square but there was some sort of 'do ' on and it was packed so we found this little place and the reviews were reasonable so.... The waitress was monosyllabic and brusque (and I do speak pretty good Spanish so there was no language barrier . The food was awful which is unusual in Spain in our experience. We had tomatoes with sardines for 8 euros just a few chopped tomatoes with tinned sardines scattered around (no garlic, onion, olives... then aubergines with honey (these are usually delicious and they were undercooked and greasy and inedible . After this horror we just asked for the bill and left.

This restaurant doesn´t have the location on the main square like many of the others, but what it does have is a lovely lady owner who could not have been friendlier. It is near to the playpark where there is a small terrace on the street, with a few local men drinking and chatting. However there was a wide selection of tapas from gambas pil pil through to tortillas and empanadas. Not the best tapas ever, but all good value at €1.