I'm not one of those people who only review here when want to complain and I do avoid leaving negative feedback if our time at a venue was not perfect due to some unforseen circumstances or a one off incident.
But THIS place is just awful! We often visit family in Southport and we like to check out local restaurants and bars as they are not as cramped as many are in London. We went to El Rincon on quite few occasions over the years and it has been, unfortunately, consistently mediocre at best (overall) with few promising signs every now and then, so we kept coming back hopeful to see the improvement. Wasted pottential, I'm afraid. Managers/supervisors come and go, some better some worse, the same with chefs - normal in hospitality, but here turnover is high so you never know what kind of service or food to expect. The most recent manageress that we met was rather sultry for an open to families, lunchtime vibe, and been more interested flirting with her staff members, on her phone, smoking outside or showing off her "assets" (skirt too short and cleavage too low for professional restaurant look, but great for nightclub).
In the past we were served food from microwave and lied to that it's prepared to order and not microwaved (when we could clearly see the chef using microwave to defrost a Spanish omlette!!!). Year later when we came back we had some ants in our drinks, and the staff (frustrated even more than us) said it happens regularly and confessed that just a week ago they were told by the owner to fish out the ants from all alcohol bottles and serve them like nothing happened!
The food on some occasions was ok or even good, but also sometimes just bad, in both cases overprized. Drinks mostly quite tasty, again depends who serves them. Coffee is undrinkable. Toilets are a constant pain because they more often don't work than they do - and the problem wasn't solved in years now. Decor hasn't changed much, we noticed bit splash of paint on walls last time we were in and few flags, some changes to the menu, but nothing major and nothing to cream at us that the place has been taken seriously.
This is not authentic Spanish restaurant if you paint some walls yellow or red and hang few flags. Music most of the times is not suitable for the place either. I can understand that playing the same music over and over again can be boring for the staff and I am not suggesting to play 2 CDs endlessly - but to not go for the other extreme and play some loud club music at 1pm. It really does not create a welcoming ambient for the guests. And Spanish music is so rich, they have pop music too if old classics are not to managers/owners liking.
And menu... Why THAI fishcakes in Spanish tapas bar? The whole menu looks like random bits put together, no consistency, no passion, no creativity, just boring. We got bored reading it, and even more so eating it. It all tastes like something cooked by an ordinary non-Spanish person who never chopped an onion and decided to be adventurous by baking cut potatoes and adding tomato sauce...
It really matters to have a great chef and don't buy cheap ingredients to create a manu that will make you feel excited when ordering your meal. Polite and happy staff would be an added bonus, here majority of waiters and waitresses we met were nice, some very professional, but you could tell they don't like working here. When we tried to ask them about it some would eventually tell you it all comes (what a surprise) from being unhappy with their employer. If you ever go to restaurant where waiting on staff looks like they're not bothered, trust me, its usually the management responsible for it - who wants to pretend a smile when you're not treated right and can't take a pride in what you're doing? Oh, and I should mention, the owner is an engineer, apparently Spanish cuisine enthusiast, and this is his little side thingy, so no wonder the bussiness here isn't blooming.