we went to ashvem today, about 25/30 mins from anjuna on the bike. Decided to try golden eye shack. Some brits say its their fav up here so wanting to play it safe after being sick we visited. Just didnt get it ! Breakfast was porridge and beans on toast , easy enough ? Toast wasnt toasted so had to go back. Went to eat porridge and it was hot milk and uncooked oats floating so it went back too. Toasted bread came back with cold beans. Give up. Then Porridge returned raw and still uncooked. Told him bring to boil then cook low for at least 5 mins till yellow oats open and go white. Came out for third time still the same. Sent back again. Waiter came out 4th time and said “sorry i cancelled for you cos we cant make porridge” haha . WTF?? Fail.
Wifi didnt work on beach. Coffee was cheap and nasty. Sunbed was broken. When clearing the tea and coffee the waiter spilt a jug of milk over the table and our throw. Apart from all that its over priced. If they cant make toast or porridge, the basics, what hope for cooking meat or shellfish ? Bullet dodged hygene rating zero. As we paid bill [only for tea/coffee] , the other waiter came running back out with more uncooked porridge saying “sir more for you” ? I said you said ‘you cancelled our order so we have paid and are leaving’ . He said “no try its good”. I said ‘you eat it then , but you might want it cooking first’ ! Golden eye should be called brown eye. heres their menu for what its worth …
Went to ‘marbella beach’ next door instead, much more us [we thought] . Cool loungey house grooves, white furniture, we like it here… yeh very smart been here several times in past seasons. They have seats for well over 250 people inside but today absolutely ZERO people in whatsoever . it isnt cheap here at all but you get what you pay for and its very clean with good cocktails n pizza along with djs or live drummers early evening . Along the front they have 15 large cabanas, only one was occupied. inside they have stacks of white couches , solid wood furniture , its all modern and designery . They needed some business cos it was empty so we took the plunge . We took a cabana and the waiter and manager came over with the security guard and manager challengingly barked “minimum spend 6000 per cabana”. i showed him every shack on the beach has many people in it … except marbella, weve come to spend around 2000 today probably on lunch drinks cocktails etc , is that ok ? He said no ! I laughed and explained to him you have 15 cabanas and only 1 is occupied and another 250 seats with nobody in . he said sir we have 13 cabanas !!! LMAO missing the point . with that attitude marbela wont be in business next year turning away the only business he had . We left him and his staff to his 2 patrons , 13 cabanas , and 248 empty seats . Fail .
getting nowhere fast so went to one of our regular few ashvem haunts further along the coast. Was busier this year with about 20 people , american, russian, several french, couple of brits, few travellers…. Perfect. Pool is mint, immaculate toilets, jazz music next to the pool, waiters in white naval style uniform, fab service, food n drinks…. Classy stuff, just perfection.
There is one reoccurring theme in goa… Waters, chronicle. Sunset ashram, bardo, antares, marbela beach, teso … These places they look great and are really stylish, but they are so over priced absolutely nobody goes there except for the odd party special event night. Look at their facebooks, cool pics zero people. Then they close. I mean 250r for a shot of local blue ribband gin in antares ? ok so break it down , on a 750ml bottle that costs 170r it works out at 6r a 30ml shot bought in a local supermarket at retail price, probably 3r a shot wholsale price. then marked up to 250 a shot ?? All these places are empty and doomed. Bardo closed, waters up for sale, sunset ashram was run into the ground last year…. When will they learn? People will pay more, me incl, but you cant take them for absolute gullible mugs. Good luck guys 🙂 so my couple of thousand today went on 3 water, 2 teas, a few fresh shakes and lassi at 130 – 150 each, 2 mains about 300 each , couple of rounds of cocktails strawberry daquiri and pina coladas , 10% service that was deserved…. Pool incl…. lovely . better still 2000 that didnt end up in marbela where i visit each year , or golden eye . just cant get the staff half the time . incidently marbela was empty last time i went to eat – but we left as they where half asleep on the couches and not a single customer , and previous time again they messed up our pizza order, argued about it, and forgot to charge us for some drinks we later realised . These jokers are costing the owner a shed loads of money , i suppose someone will forgive them .
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong” – Gandhi
This evening we needed a place to watch the match at 2am-3am. Coral blue on anjuna main rd opens 24-7 and we found has hd and is happy to put anything on the tv for you. Do a great pot of coffee and tea too. Shame about the result but awesome vardy goal i enjoyed.
check out this timelapse sunset over ashvem
tharobster 
Goa is very awesome place for holiday. This article is very nice to know about everything at Goa.