We took part in the La Rueda De Las Tapas Benijofar 2024 on the Saturday. This was a bit of a mixed bag really, for a number of reasons I’ll lay out below.
As I said last year regarding the 2023 event: What I will say here is these are not detailed reviews but just an overview of each of the locations we visited. Everybody loves a great tapas dish, so this was a chance to visit and try several different ones.
So let’s go through in the order we visited. We decided to make notes on Service; was it friendly, polite, hurried, etc.? Ambience: Was there a nice atmosphere? Was there a buzz? Did it feel enjoyable? Drinks: this is based mainly on the beer and Coke we ordered, so size, was it flat or fizzy? Last but not least, the tapas. The flavours, how it looked, was it enjoyable to eat. After all, this is the perfect way to showcase your kitchen offering.
The price for the event had gone up by 50c compared to last year, but was this rise reflected in the quality? Let’s see shall we.
Victorias Palace
This is one of our regular go to places, never had a bad meal or service here and today was no exception.
The tapas was onion bhaji and this was cooked beautifully, fully of flavour, nicely seasoned and washed down with a glass of house draught beer. Soph went for the a bottle of water option here.
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 8/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 32
Tommys Bar
Really disappointed here as we got there at 11.51am to be told they weren’t doing the tapas until noon. Yes a whole 9 minutes away. There was 1 bloke sat on his own having a pint, so instead of saying something along the lines of ” I can get your drinks now and then bring the tapas dish out at noon “, we were told to come back at noon.
Needless to say, we didn’t bother. They had made no mention of their times on the official booklet, unlike other places. They failed to communicate times etc last year too, when we arrived very early to have a cooked breakfast.
Service: 0/10
Ambience: 0/10
Drinks: 0/10
Tapas: 0/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 00
El Mundo
So once again, no sign of life then we saw a female on the terrace, she then locked the gate up. By the time we had left Tommys and set off down to Los Dos, there was still no real sign of life. And so, as with Tommys we didn’t bother here.
Service: 0/10
Ambience: 0/10
Drinks: 0/10
Tapas: 0/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 00
Plaza Diferente
We walked down here and managed to grab a table for 2, we both had a soft drink here and the tapas was a montadito of ham with a mustard and honey dressing. This was delightful, tasty and very enjoyable. Super fast service and the place was buzzing.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 9/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 35
Luma Brunch
This is a place Soph had been wanting to visit, to try a breakfast but we’d never got around to it. Today was an ideal opportunity. Service was friendly, prompt and the tables were almost all taken. There were customers having breakfasts and smoothies, as well as the tapas visitors. Drinks were served in large plastic cups, the equivalent of a 33ml can, but possibly poured from a large bottle.
Tapas was ok, it was couple of small vol au vent cases covered in a mushroom sauce. This wasn’t packing any flavour and the fact the staff member was taking these from packets means they weren’t home made.
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 6/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 30
Restaurante Los Dos
They were setting up as we walked down to Plaza Diferente, but by the time we’d finished at Luma Brunch and walked back, they were rammed. The server was looking lost already and this was only 30 minutes into service. She’d past our table twice taking drinks to others but managed to avoid eye contact both times. On her thrid time of passing, I raised my hand to get her attention.
Soph didn’t have anything here, but I had a beer and the croqueta de ternera. The drink came out quickly, there was a wait of 3 or 4 further minutes for the tapas dish, which I have to chase up. The veal croquette was ok, the next table had 3 and very one looked the same size, so I doubt these were home made.
Service: 4/10
Ambience: 6/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 7/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 25
DH Urban Fusion and American Diner.
We didn’t bother with either of these establishments. Last year both were really poor, we have since tried the American Diner for a really poor Sunday lunch visit, so decided not to pay for disappointment again.
Las Papas Doradas
I have to be totally honest here as I said last year this is added to our list of places to return to but we have never gotten around to it, as yet!
Once again these guys set themselves apart from the majority of competing establishments with proper knife and forks, proper crockery, a noticeboard detailing the drinks available, the prices and that they only take cash.
The home made goulash was delightful, proper melt in your mouth meat, with a nice sized portion of fries, which came with a sachet of salt, for those who prefer fries salted.
Super friendly staff providing prompt service, they even did a check back to ensure everything was fine with the food and drink. Drinks were a full can of soft drink, served in a good quality tumbler.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 9/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 35
Rincon De Mateo Cafe
We missed this one, as we’d experienced poor service last year, where staff were badly prepared and disorganised, struggling to cope. As friend of mine visited on the Friday evening this year and said the service was poor, due to being in a muddle, so we decided to give them a miss.
Oasis Bar
They did not take part last year but when I saw they were serving Jamaican chicken curry, I knew I had to try this.
We managed to get a table outside in the shade, but the place was very busy. Service was super quick, drinks ordered but these were served in the tiny plastic cups. The curry was also served in a small plastic tub and although tasty and had a nice little kick to it, was a tiny portion and needed something like a small piece of naan or roti or rice to have with the curry.
This portion size for both the drink and food was more evident as we had just come from Las Papas Doradas where we both had a can of soft drink and a large plate of food.
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 6/10
Drinks: 5/10
Tapas: 6/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 25
Restaurante El Gusto
This is our first ever visit here and wow, it is a little gem. Service was quick, friendly and welcoming. The restaurant is nicely decorated and spotlessly clean.
There was a choice of 2 tapas, so we selected a different one each to try.
First was: mar y montana. Crispy jamon serrano, gamba crema de coliflor, curry y mango. Translates as Sea and Mountains. Crispy serrano ham, cauliflower cream shrimp, curry and mango.
The second was pancetta ( slow cooked for 11 hours at 92 degrees) lacquered with teriyaki sauce, pistachio crumbs and guacamole.
Both these dishes were excellent, full of subtle flavours and levels of taste. I had a red wine, the house red which was ok, Soph had a soft drink.
So yes we will 100% be returning here and will keep watching their FB page, for when they bring out their menus.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 10/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 36
Blissful Bites
Since this place opened I’ve seen mixed reviews and we knew we had to go here. This was actually going to be our first port of call, but as they weren’t opening until 12.30, we ended up coming much later.
I think they were blissfully unaware and unprepared for the event and the onslaught of visitors. We managed to get a table on the large, covered terrace, which provided shade and a welcome breeze.
From here though, things went downhill.
There were tables empty, but had not been cleared down. There were several tables sat waiting, to the extent a couple of customers were waving to try to get the staff members attention, to order.
Drinks were eventually ordered, a beer for me and a Coke for Soph. The beer came out in a proper glass, the Coke was the smaller sized bottle, but came with no glass. We’d noticed a table of 4 next to us and both the soft drinks there also came out without a glass.
When the food eventually came out, it was served without cutlery. Then we had a knife brought out each, but no fork. There was an older couple on the table behind Soph, who were sharing 1 fork between themselves.
The food itself was described as an Indian mixed platter and consisted of a piece of chicken tikka. This was very tender and nice to eat. There was an onion bhaji too, but this was quite plain and not a patch on the one we’d had a Victorias Palace. The third item was a bit of a mystery, it was like a potato pakora or something.
To make matters worse, as this location is on the outskirts of the town, it meant that when the train arrived, it almost emptied at once, so suddenly there were another 15-20 people arriving at once. This was just going to have a knock on effect, as the server was heard explaining to another customer who asked for a fork, that they had basically run out and they were waiting the dishwasher to finish the cycle.
Unfortunately, we won’t be adding this to our list of places to visit.
Service: 5/10
Ambience: 6/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 6/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 25
The Pines
We like this restaurant, the food and service have always been very good, so we wanted to go back here to pay another visit. The outdoor tables under the shade of the trees were all taken, but we managed to grab a table outside.
The drinks offered here were the most limited sadly, with water, beer or house wine on offer, the soft drinks were charged at another 1.50 a can, as an additional purchase, which was disappointing. Soph had to switch from a soft drink to water.
The tapas was chilli beef nachos, and the chilli was tasty, but not a big portion and was served in a cardboard serving box, without a fork. We heard one guy asking for a fork, then a woman from another table went up to ask for 6 forks, for her group.
The Sunday offering sounded great though, roast pork with veggies in a Yorkshire pudding wrap with meat gravy.
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 6/10
Tapas: 7/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 29
Bar Sonia
Sadly this place wasn’t taking part until 8pm on Saturday running through till midnight. I guess that when a place is as popular and as good as here with their tapas, they don’t need to adapt their opening hours. We’ve visited here twice in the past 10 days, which gives an idea of how good Sonias is.
Bar Tekomento
We’ve never been here before, but driven past a couple of times, while trying to find a place to park to go to Sonias. Anyway, we parked the car, walked to the bar as the woman was taking the order from a couple sat at the first table. The next 3 tables were all full of groups of 4 to 6 people, but we managed to grab the last table outside.
The server brought the couples order out, managing to get one of the two drinks wrong, so went in to bring out the correct drink. She then brought out their tapas. Each time she glanced over at us, but never spoke or came to serve us.
Then she was inside, chatting to a group and then went back into the main bar area. This group inside left, so she went and cleared their table, again in full view of us, but chose to ignore us.
The groups sitting outside all left, the server came out and cleared one table, the furthest from us, but again made no effort to interact with us, instead choosing to wave and blow a kiss at a customer who got into his car, reversed into the sign then drove off.
At this point I said to Soph ” Oh F**k this for a game of soldiers ” and we got up and left.
Service: 0/10
Ambience: 0/10
Drinks: 0/10
Tapas: 0/10
Overall score out of 40 possible points: 00
Our Winner
This year El Gusto Restaurante, just shaved the win in our books. Narrowly beating Las Papas Doradas and also Plaza Diferente by a single point. This was proper fine dining, restaurant quality food and we enjoyed both of the tapas dishes here.
The Prizes For Taking Part.
For visiting 5 establishments and getting the booklet stamped you can win one of 5 prizes of €50, if your name is drawn out. Completing 10 stamps there’s a €300 in cash prize to win and all stamps get you into the draw for €500 in cash.
The winning restaurant gets a plaque and €1000 in cash.
The votes get counted on the 25th of October 2024 and prizes are awarded on 7th of November 2024.
Final Thoughts On the La Rueda De Las Tapas Benijofar 2024
At €3.50 each, that’s €7.00 per round and we completed 9 rounds, thus spent €63.00 today and to be frank, we were quite underwhelmed with some of the offerings. We probably won’t bother with the event next year, these are good for tourists or if you’re meeting up with friends too. The downside is some of the bars and restaurants look at this event purely to make extra profit, as we discovered last year and also earlier this year at the Los Montesinos event.
I’d rather come back to the 3 places we really liked and enjoy a meal at these restaurants and spend our €63 on a nice restaurant quality meal. We visit Victorias Palace and Sonias regularly, so know how good these places are.
We will attend the Catral Tapas Trail in a couple of weeks, hopefully this will be a good event too. I think for us, because we lived down in the Granada province for a few years, we were used to getting great tapas free with each drink in all the bars and restaurants down there. Granted this was 3 years ago, but the beers were €1.80 and the tapas came with each beer or soft drink.
As the famous Anthony Bourdain once said ” Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone” It is a pity some venues didn’t showcase what they could actually be offering, instead going for the cheap option and looking to make more profit while doing so.
There were some really nice dishes today, some ‘as expected dishes’, but sadly some that never made the grade. Check our photos and you’ll see what I mean.
