Consistency, that’s the word. Not as in gravy or custard though!!! Consistency of quality food and service.

Let me give you an example of BAD consistency. Along the lemon tree road there is a Spanish restaurant that we used to go to a lot with friends and family, but the trouble was that on some days the food was the best, other days it was rubbish, on some days the service was great and the waiters were so friendly, yet on other days the services was so bad that we walked out before ordering.  Needless to say this inconsistency has caused us to no longer recommend, or go there ourselves.

Now, this weeks review couldn’t be more opposite to the above. Portico Mar in Guardamar has been consistently good, not just for months, but for several years. It was over three years ago that Denize and I first went and have been going regularly ever since. Well to be honest, up till about eight months ago. It was not our intention to stop going to Portico Mar, we just found ourselves at other places, like you do. We just forgot how good it was.

So it was with slight nerves that we asked a couple of good friends to come with us. We shouldn’t have worried, we were welcomed with warm smiles and greetings from the staff, Gabriel, the manager and Valerie, the head waiter. The same people that had greeted us both many years before... Consistency!  We were shown to our table by happy staff and we sat in real comfort with clean cotton tablecloths, polished cutlery and very clean glasses.

The service was, as always, good and attentive. We chose from the large selection of dishes from the evening menu, at €17.95 including half bottle of wine. Worth noting that it is particularly good value at lunchtime, same choice of menu for €14.95 including wine.

The girls started with sherry and the boys had gin and tonics. I had warm chicken breast salad to start. A meal on its own! Followed by one of my favourites from previous visits, half rack of ribs with mashed potatoes and a selection of vegetables. The ribs were even better than I had remembered, bursting with flavour, with a sticky bar-b-q sauce. You did not have to fight them either, the meat just fell off of the bone. For desert I had apple strudel with ice cream. It was superb. Denize had tuna salad to start with, followed by sliced leg of lamb, she said that it tasted “like a home roasted lamb should taste, beautiful”. She finished with her favourite pud of hot cherries with ice cream.

All 4 of us had a different dish for each course and none of us could find fault with any of the 12 dishes. The bill at the end of the evening, including the tip was under €25 per head. Not the cheapest evening meal but we all thought excellent value for money and high quality food, well served in pleasant surroundings.

I have no hesitation in awarding Portico Mar 4 stars out of 5. Sometimes  Andy, Pam and ourselves are the only customers in restaurants, but this is a busy place often full, so you need to phone and make your reservation.

By coincidence, we went there again 10 days later with our luncheon club and I wondered how they would cope with over twenty people all at the same time. I need not have worried, no orders were forgotten, all arrived at the same time and the food was piping hot and excellent.

So where is this special place? Well to be honest you would never just “bump” into it. From the Torrevieja end of Guardamar heading towards Torrevieja on the N332 coast road the first turning left after the roundabout takes you to the big Campomar Hotel. Take this turning but instead of going to the hotel keep parallel to the N332 as far as you can where it turns left, and the restaurant is just down on the left. Sounds complicated, but it’s worth the effort to find.