Popped into La Perla Azul (wonder where the inspiration for the name came from?) in Plaza de España, Nerja, for a caña and tapas, listed on the board at €2.50. First time I had seen a few people on the terrace.

The interior looks pretty spacious and even has a pool table.

The waiter appeared fairly quickly and I ordered my beer and opted for albondigas as a tapas. He returned a couple of minutes later with the beer. It was quite sunny, so very pleasant sitting on the terrace and soaking up a few rays while I waited for the meatballs.

And waited..and waited..and waited. Seventeen minutes later, the meatballs arrived and were placed next to my empty beer glass. I was immediately asked if I wanted another beer. Having waited so long for the first tapas, I decided to decline the offer. Now, I’m pretty sure the delay wasn’t due to an oversight as there was no apology offered when the tapas arrived and I didn’t notice if anyone else suffered the same delay as I wasn’t particularly paying attention.

The meatballs were obviously microwaved and from a can/packet, so ‘made to order’ was unlikely to be the reason – the meatballs were actually quite tasty and certainly HOT.

In the past, another popular tapas bar on the Balcón de Europa employed a tactic to get you to order more drinks. The waiters would serve the drinks promptly and then watch and wait until you were just savouring the last drops before bringing the tapas and asking, ‘another drink?’. Crafty. Once you sussed it then it was so obvious…but fun to watch!

Anyway, pleasant enough on the terrace, tapas tasty enough and price reasonable considering the location. However, beer as a starter and tapas as the second course – not acceptable and spoilt the experience. I will adjust the rating if a subsequent visit results in a different scenario.