29/09/2026
A little extra behind the scenes of how the bookings go…
Last night (or is it this morning?), at midnight, 30 days ahead, the 29 of October became live online
It took just 15 bookings to book all 18 of the outside tables for the evening peak hours of 18:00-20:30 (groups over 4 take more than 1 table)
After that the system stops taking bookings.
This is why we say we can sometimes to walk ins before 17:30 and after 20:30.
Our priority is always taking care of the reservations first.
The reservations for 29 October started coming in at 00:01 and were done by 08:20. Just over 8 hours, which is actually quite a long window, some August is dates went within 6 mins!
of the 15 bookings -
7 are repeat guests (people who have used the same email to book before)
Of those, representing 46.6% repeat-
Two bookings are on their 12th visit
Three bookings are on their 3rd visit
One booking is on their 5th visit
One booking is on their 8th visit
The remaining 8 are new guests (or at least people who haven’t booked in that email before!) who will be visiting us for the first time!
What about the inside tables?
There are 10 tables inside (less on a Saturday and Wednesday as we remove three to make space for saxophone)
In the “summer” months these aren’t shown online as we found that when they were, people booked them and arrived thinking they’d booked the outside terrace. We also found that it was too hot for people to sit inside in these months, including October
How can you book inside tables then?
You have to physically know our space and be happy to book inside, and be happy to be seated outside of those peak hours 18:00-20:30 when we are prioritizing those who have booked ahead.
Inside is the part between the outside terrace where the majority prefer to sit, and the bar. It can be noisy as you’ll hear the ice crushing, the blender for cocktails, the dings of the commands being printed in the bar and kitchen (someone once said it sounds like eustion station😆), waiters and bar staff calling out to eachother in service, and, also, there’s high traffic, people walking through to go to the bathrooms, people coming up to the bar to order drinks for outside seafront seats (pavement marina edge drinks only) people coming to grab handfuls of our bespoke straws to take home 😖
Is it air conditioned inside?
No it’s totally open plan to outside so aircon would not work, some tables have over head fans. It is warmer than outside. This can be unbearable on a hot day hence us preferring not to prebook the space. We put our guests comfort ahead of our profit. The inside tables are popular in winter of course! Think November to March
Who can book inside then outside of winter?
It can be
Repeat guests who have missed the live booking opening slot and contact us to squeeze them in, and know the space already.
Last min guests who have been recommended to come for particular food allergies or birthdays and don’t care where they sit or when, as along as they get in.
“On the night” walk ins outside of peak hours (most people at the door say no to inside and go elsewhere, probably also to sit inside as there’s not actually that much outside dining at the marina!)
We disabled our phone line very early on as it rang non stop, mostly in the afternoons for bookings for that evening.
We disabled Facebook and Instagram messaging for the same reason.
In the first year we invested €2000 (payable annually) on CoverManager, Spains most popular live booking service, and we take booking only on there. The booking link is on our website, on Google Maps, on insta and Facebook. It’s super easy to use and gives an automatic booking confirmation.
We do still get a lot of emails. We don’t have dedicated office staff or hours. We reply “on the hop” between service. Majority of the emails we receive are from people who
1) have tried to book online for more than 8 guests and can’t - this is because we have a strict maximum capacity of 8. We aren’t set up for groups, even across split tables. We specialise in small groups and have just 4 possibilities for groups over 4 each evening. These are in the corners of the restaurant where tables can be combined without blocking guest or waiter access. That’s why it’s hard to grab larger tables as there’s so few. We always reply and suggest a bigger restaurant nearby which specialises in groups. We never just ignore emails about this even though we communicate the policy often and everywhere. We always add a footnote that we needed a bigger restaurant!
2) people who have booked a table but now have more family or friends joining them. This only works if it’s already a table of 3 who want to add a 4th, a table of 7 who want to add an 8th, this is because there’s already a spare seat at their table. We can’t add extra seats to other sized tables as they’ll block guest and waiter access - often it’s sadly a no then unless sometimes we have a larger table inside and the whole booking can move inside off the terrace, to be able to seat more people up to 8
3) people asking about Xmas and New year. Xmas day we are closed. New Year goes live 30 days ahead but we estimate that only 12-15 of the people interested will get a peak evening table, we are receiving that many Enquiries each week… we will have an earlier sitting around 17:00 for families who want to eat earlier and go off to see fireworks at 20:00 or to go to shows/places with parties on. That slot will be much easier to book
4) people asking to checking their bookings. If you have an email confirmation you’re booked and the only person who can cancel is you - we pay CoverManager to send you a reminder the day before so you don’t miss your reservation
5) people with a special occasion asking what we can do to make it extra special 🙂 (we reply with what we do complimentary and what you can pay for as extras) this info is also on a pdf on the website if you want to skip a step
6) people asking if there’s a fault on the website as no tables showing past 14:14/14:45 (no fault it’s just the evening tables have gone)
Thank you all as always for your bookings, Enquiries, tags, recommendations and reviews!
We know we are the luckiest restaurant on the island, and we also know that our success is down to our repeat guests who come again and again, and recommend us constantly! Without you guys and girls we are nothing 🫶🏼❤️🦓
