Sesamo Restaurant, Mijas Costa

When my neighbours, the Goodman family invited me to supper, what better plan than to do a review at the same time?

Keeping to the theme of finding good quality local restaurants we decided to go to Sesamo in Mijas Costa which had been discovered by my restaurant ‘scout’ Caroline.

Sesamo is a three theme restaurant – Spanish, Indian and Moroccan. The inside of the restaurant is magnificent – tall carved banqueting chairs that look like thrones and beautiful furniture. Ideal for a Moroccan feast.

We decided to sit outside. We were shown to a table in the corner, and when we sat down it was immediately obvious that the chairs were way too low, quite bizarre as we could only just get our chins over the table. So we moved to another table.

Also rather bizarre, was an ice cream stand situated amongst the diners tables, complete with a pizza oven!

The service appeared slow. Eventually Helena wandered over to see what we wanted to drink. Richard, who is 3,000 metres National Champion and 2010 Cross Country Champion ordered water. Fitness drink. I chose the same, as did Linda.  Clive went for a beer. The drinks took an eternity to arrive. Then a very tall waiter arrived to take our order. No Moroccan food available, he announced. Has to be ordered 24 hours in advance! A poor start!

I decided to go Indian and opted for Prawn Puri – lightly spiced prawns served with crispy Indian puri and a lamb rogan josh. Linda chose mushroom pakora to start with followed by a curry. Richard went for Tandoori Mushroom followed by Aloo Palak – potato and spinach made with onion and tomato.

Clive decided to go Spanish and ordered Gambas Pil Pil and an Entrecote steak. Then the tall waiter, who didn’t seem to understand what his name was when I asked him, returned. No mushrooms! Clive couldn’t understand how a restaurant could run out of mushrooms at 8.30 on a Saturday night! He didn’t feel the waiter inspired much confidence.

After hurriedly choosing new starters, and throwing in a pashwani nan for good measure, we awaited the arrival of the feast with baited breath. A family from England turned up and patiently queued at the entrance waiting to be asked to their table. I am sure they thought they were at a Harvester. They were shown to the table with the low chairs!

Then some food started arriving. My prawn puri was quite good and the lamb rogan josh was ok. Nothing brilliant, but ok. Linda loved her curry. Clive’s gambas pil pil got the nod, and his steak was ‘alright’ – Richard seemed to quite like his food.

This was nothing spectacular, and given the lack of choices available, got the thumbs down from me. The service was pretty average to be fair.

I think Sesamo need to decide what they are, a Moroccan, Spanish or Indian restaurant. Or maybe an ice cream parlour, with pizza facilites. Whatever, they didn’t deliver this time in my opinion.

I would like to go back in the winter and try the Moroccan food inside. Give them a second chance to polish up their act. But for the time being, for a new restaurant, they need to get their act together. And get hold of some furniture that works for al fresco dining.

Restaurant Sesamo, Urb Torrenueva, local 1, Mijas Costa
952 49 20 71
Open 1pm – 4pm and from 7pm

Rating service 2, cleanliness 4, food 3, overall 3
Price €30 – €35