Bodeguita Chaparro - Gaucin

We’ve stopped here many times for a coffee and beer or sherry in the late afternoon on the terrace opposite to sit and reflect on the day and take in the scenery and lovely view. Today we endured a rather torturous walk where we lost the path, fought the overgrown undergrowth and fell and scratched ourselves to bits……so this wonderful little bar was a very welcome treat on our way home. We indulged in a fantastic little beef bun with chips), two beers, two coffees and two yummy lemon donuts, mmmmmmmm. The place was buzzy with locals enjoying food and wine and beers and savouring the coziness on a rather chilly and windy day outside. This retreat offers sanctuary when you need it most and the staff were helpful and friendly despite going about their routine nonchalantly .

Having visited Gaucin many many times and having eaten at Bodeguito Chaparro many times before this was without doubt a truly awful experience from the start right through to the very end. Firstly made to wait 15 minutes for a surly and obnoxious waitress to take our drinks order after serving everyone else who arrived after us first. The waitress had absolutely NO command of the English language (not even the word Beer . Okay so we know the word cerveza but for heaven 's sake this is a town popular with tourists from all over the world, many speaking English as a commonly used language. After our drinks were served we then were made to wait for another 20 minutes whilst other prospective customers were treated equally as badly. A group of 2 men and a boy were made to look rediculous by simply asking if they could sit down (asking in English too . There were plenty of umbrellas to help shade from the sun but no one could be bothered to put them up for us or anyone else. We eventually moved to a table which had been vacated and had a nice shaded spot. Meanwhile another couple arrived, sat down, were served drinks, then asked what they would like to eat. After looking over to our table a number of times and ignored we were eventually asked if we would like to order. By the same non English speaking waitress. When she could not even understand our choices even by us pointing at the menu she went away to find a matching Spanish language menu so that she could relate our choices on the list to the Spanish list. We noticed that our usual favourites had dissappeared from the menu and were disappointed but hey, things change. One of our orders was brought out to the table and looked far inferior to the salads that we had enjoyed in previous years. Far inferior. We were offered no bread although others were. Meanwhile the other couple who came in after us were served multiple plates of Tapas and drinks during which the waitress glanced over and could obviously see that we were missing one plate of food from our order. The same waitress kept serving other customers and looking at our situation and smirking as she strode past our table. After 20 minutes of waiting my wife who is the most calm person on earth was furious and went into the Bar and asked where our second plate of food was. Instantly they knew exactly that we were missing one meal and said that it would be 5 more minutes. Amazing how they knew. At this point the waitress ended her shift and handed over to another equally poor collegue who brought out the meal and walked straight off without a word. The lamb chops were tasty but of poor quality compared with both previous years and other bars. The pre frozen and cooked chips were mostly congealed into groups of 5 or 6 having not been seperated in the kitchen but just simply emptied out of the frozen bag and warmed to serving temperature. The avacado on the salad plate was slightly unripe. After Covid has left so many bars chasing turnover why would anyone not want to be polite and/or helpful to every customer to get money through the till ? Why would anyone employ a waitress without the very basic requirements of the word Beer for example ? Why would waitresses who only have to take an order and bring it to the table get things so badly wrong ? We have experienced waiters in previous years who were obviously school leavers who have been brilliant at this bar, polite, helpful with a pleasant attitude to customers and money going through the till. During our meal it was slightly off putting to see the first waitress having a fag at the entrance to the bar whilst shouting at her collegues inside. A Spanish thing maybe unappetizing certainly. We paid and left no tip for the first time ever in Gaucin. We never returned all the time we were staying in the village although did happen to stroll past and saw similar poor service happening. When we first sat down and saw an obvious local leave half of his meatballs and chips and almost all of the bread in the basket we should have guessed there might be a problem but we had eaten here before many times and actually looked forward to returning. An utter nightmare ! If the owners don 't want anyone British to put money through their till then put a sign up telling us so. If the owners are not aware how awful their waiting staff are then why not ? At least they do now ! Would we have spent many hundreds of euros over the course of our stay ?, absolutely. Would we return ?, only for a bottle of water and a look to see if there has been any improvement, if there has not we won 't be spending any euros at this bar.

Called in as passing by, mainly local people but very welcoming so don't be put off. Food was good and not expensive at around 1.50 per tapas and 1 for a beer. Would return

Lo mejor, el servicio que presta una camarera a la terraza que tienen fuera. La comida bien. El lugar también. Repetiríamos.

La vista es maravillosa y se come muy bien. Excelente servicio!