7 Portes
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Old-world space with checkered floors & wood beams, offering seafood dishes & classic paella.
attractions: Mercado de La Boqueria, Arc de Triomf, Arco de Triunfo de Barcelona, Ciutadella Park, Cathedral of Barcelona, Aquàrium Barcelona, Columbus Monument, Palau de la Música Catalana, Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso Museum, restaurants: Colom Restaurant, El Bosc de Les Fades, Restaurant Salamanca, Jesús Restaurant, Ocaña, Restaurante La Barca del Salamanca, Mirandoalmar, Tapas San Miguel, Les Quinze Nits, La Fonda del Port Olímpic
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Description
Old-world space with checkered floors & wood beams, offering seafood dishes & classic paella.
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October 7, 2023. Saturday. 11:00 PM. Dinner. I made reservations for this restaurant over a month in advance. This would be our first meal in Spain and I wanted it to be special. We had booked a flamenco show at Tablao Flamenco Cordobes at 9:00 PM, before this meal. However, due to flight delays, we had to reschedule our flamenco show for another day. By the way, if you are in Barcelona, it is well worth seeing this flamenco show! We barely made our reservation to 7 Portes due to there being several hotels with similar names. Needless to say, we showed up at the front desk of 7 Portes with luggage in tow. The host accommodated us, locked up our luggage and sat us immediately. Our waiter, Sebastian, gave us a tour of the upstairs. This had a special private room for two overlooking the outdoor seating area and several group rooms. This place has been in business for over 120 years and the marble tiles, impeccable service and attention to detail tell why. We ordered Paella Parellada (26.50 euros), Paella Manolete (25.50 euros), a bottle of Pago de Carraovejas red wine (60.50 euros), water without gas (3.60 euros), and my wife had flan (7.70 euros). The waiter recommended the red wine. They charged for the bread (2.80 euros) they brought us, but so do all restaurants across Europe. The wine paired beautifully with the two paellas. Of the two paellas, we both enjoyed the Parellada paella more, it contained: chicken, pork loin, squid, Catalan sausage, king prawn, mussels and half a lobster tail. The Manolete has: chicken, sausage, pork loin, cuttlefish, king prawns, mussels and crayfish. The meat and seafood were not overly abundant, but they weren't too skimpy either. They brought generous portions of bread and butter. I liked the nice touch of listing a famous person that had previously sat at our table in the bill. Our famous person was the Italian writer, Andrea Camilleri, who died in 2019. This beautiful, ancient restaurant does indeed have 7 doors, clean bathrooms and outstanding service. Make sure to make a reservation in advance. Although the outdoor seating was nice, I'm glad we choose to eat indoors because we experienced more of the tradition of the restaurant.
John SmithJohn Smith
00
My husband and I travelled for the first time with our 7 month old infant and his parents (back up babysitters!) to Barcelona for a week to attend a wedding in Montbui, sightsee all the attractions, but mainly EAT all the delicious foods in the area!! 7 Portes was recommended on our friend's wedding website as a good sit-down place for paella. I was excited that there was an option to make reservations through theFork so I happily made it for our last night prior to our departure the next morning. Unfortunately, during the day of the reservation, the in-laws were not feeling so great so they decided to stay in and watch the baby and my husband and I would go on a romantic date and bring back food for them. We arrived right on time for our reservation at 630pm and informed them that unfortunately, there was only 2 of us instead of 4 adults + baby. I can see the hostess whispering back and forth to the host and that, my friend, is when everything started to go downhill. We were lead to the back corner area and sat in what we found to be the "American" corner as there was a large group of loud, obnoxious, Americans behind us. Our server did not come to greet us until 10 minutes after we sat down. We ordered the steamed vegetables for the appetizers, the vegetable & meat paella for the main dish, and decided to split a bottle of wine for dinner as this was our last night. It took nearly 20 minutes for the server to come back to our table with wine and another 10 minutes for our "steamed" vegetables to arrive. I attached a photo to this review as the vegetables came out COLD and drenched in OIL. My husband and I decided to just let it go and was thinking maybe its our fault for trying to order steamed veggies as an appetizer (seriously... that was my husband trying to be healthy LOL). Then, 20 minutes later.. our paella finally arrives and we were both starving and ready to dig in! Sadly, we were both so shocked and disappointed to find that they made the wrong paella! They brought out vegetable only paella when we wanted the vegetable & meat paella!! We told our waiter this and he tried to argue with us that we only ordered vegetable only. It was totally ridiculous as I heard my husband order it loud and clear. The server then left and ignored us for the next 15 minutes. It was so unprofessional and we were shocked that we were receiving such horrible treatment at what seemed a "fine dining" establishment. Finally, a manager came who was dressed in black, came to see us and we explained the situation. I think it was shift change as a new server arrived too who was updated about our situation as well. We pretty much told them we wanted the Traditional Paella to go for the parents and then to pay the bill for our appetizer and wine (we didn't touch the paella). The manager and new server wanted to "do us right" and told us to choose a quick cooking item (basically non-paella item) and they will make sure we enjoy our dinner. Both of my husband and I really wanted to bounce but decided to give them another chance since we had a new server who seemed eager to make us happy. We decided to stay and ordered the Cannelloni to share. The dish came out quick but it was was just overwhelmingly bland and nothing to write home about. After everything, we received the bill and saw that they didn't comp us the cannelloni that they tried to "make up" for our bad experience and even tried to charge us extra for the bread that we didn't even touch!! I was beyond furious. It was such a horrible experience from start to beginning. What was meant to be a nice last meal in Barcelona was just a horrible experience that left a bad taste in our mouths. I would not recommend this place even to my worst enemy.
jenny nguyenjenny nguyen
00
7 Portes was the most memorably awful dining experience I've ever had. My wife and I made a new years reservation for 6:30 because it was all that was available. We spent 30 minutes in the mostly empty restaurant with laughably bad service. Our first waiter walked up after we'd been seated for 15 minutes and asked "what do you want?" I asked if they had a wine list and he seemed annoyed by my request. After we hit the 30 minutes mark we asked a manager of we could move tables. There were other guests seated long after us with drinks and orders placed when we had no one's attention. When we moved to a new table with a new server, my menu was blank on the inside. The waitress apologized and said "this happens all the time." The only sounds in the restaurant were the dozens of waiters clattering silverware and stacks of clean plates at many bussing stations in the dining room. There were at least 3 managers in suits with ear pieces in their ears but with zero sense of hospitality or service in their restaurant. It seems incredibly over managed and over staffed. The food was terrible. One of the sauces for our "giant asparagus with 3 sauces" was just Hellman's mayonnaise. The calamari rings were underfried and came with no sauce. My wife's paella seemed at least a day old with unbelievably overcooked shrimp that was the texture of a hard boiled ham. Her silverware was also very obviously bent and I was given a butter knife for my fish for some reason. (Pictures included) My €32 fish with clams was drowning in its own juice that had turned the breading on the fish into the consistency of mashed potatoes. The desert was laughably unappetizing. A firm gelatin of apricot and some red berry, both that required a knife to cut with a white ice cream that was neither cinnamon nor almond and two giant scoops of whipped unsweetened heavy cream. The lights are far too bright and there was no music at all until a piano started at 9 pm and played the theme from the lord of the rings, then Stayin' Alive. The entire ordeal cost €150. They proudly list all the famous people that have dined here in the past but it's clear they are trying to stay alive on this reputation alone. It was the worst meal I've ever had and I'm normally very complimentary in my restaurant reviews. I've spent a very long time getting this review within goggles character limit because it's just that bad. We spent our new years laughing about it.
WilliamWilliam
80
What a total disappointment. This is one of those places that has become such an institution that even when it’s bad, no one wants to say anything because the hype is so strong. Predominately a seafood place, but the fish was so strong smelling. We started with the cod fritters. They were cold, empty and when I tasted the filling, it smelled like all the leftover skim and fat parts of the fish mashed together. It tasted so fishy. We sent it back and they removed it from the bill without asking. We then had the spinach appetizer which was amazing. This saved the entire meal and the only thing I would ever want to go back to eat. It’s lightly sautéed fresh spinach with small golden raisins and pine nuts. Delicious. We finished the meal with seafood paella and steak with fried padron peppers. The seafood paella was a 3|10. There was very little actual seafood in it, and the pieces that were there, weren’t edible. There were 2 chewy and smelly mussels, the two shrimp pieces weren’t cleaned so tasted sandy. The lobster was good but not lobster. Small piece of langoustine about the size of my index finger. It was really disappointing. I know people will say that seafood should taste like the sea, but it shouldn’t be so strong smelling like the discarded pieces or leftovers from other dishes used to make the fritters and paella. The steak was really good. Very tasty and very tender. The padron peppers were also good. Nothing special, but acceptable. The french fries were really sad. Cooked in old oil, refried from a previous batch, and so dehydrated, and also cold. I seriously can’t imagine even on a good day, what the big deal is about this place? I’m really disappointed. In terms of service, not a smile in the house. You can tell the staff have been there forever, have nothing to loose, and are doing you a favour by accommodating you. If this place is on your Barcelona food experience, take it off. (My photo of the spinach is after we demolished it! It came a full plate but we got into it too fast to take a picture.)
Natasha LadhaNatasha Ladha
00
First time leaving a review because I really do not understand what did I do to deserve such terrible subtle hostility. I had a booking for 1pm when they just opened and the restaurant was 90% empty, yet me and my partner was being seated right next to the main entrance, away from everyone else. I do not think I smelled or have dressed inappropriately to deserve such treatment. However, I did notice that we were the only Asians within the restaurant. I had experience working in hospitality as well so I always treat others with manners and respect, knowing how hard it could be serving customers. Therefore I really do not understand what I’ve done wrong to deserve being treated this way, not like I was being rude to them. Just when I thought I was being too sensitive, when more customers filled up the restaurant, the waitress moved a serving table (trolley) from the other side of the door right next to us. When we looked over to the other side, a European couple was sitting at the table where the trolley was next to, once they were seated, the waitress pushed the trolley next to us instead, and piling up plates next to us. I don’t understand why they had to shift the table, perhaps it might have caused the other couple inconvenience, but maybe not to us? Not to mention the waitress kept urging to collect the menu, while I told her at least three times that I wish to continue to read the menu and to order more. The food was fair but overrated in general, I’ve had better paella else where with better price and treatment. The croquettes were overcooked on the outside, burnt on the outside but only warm (not hot) inside. Moreover, it was not fried properly either, with undercooked spots (as shown in the photos). I just wished someone could explain to me what did I do wrongly to deserve such an unfair treatment and silence aggression. I paid for my meal and I treated others with respect, do I not deserve equal treatment?
Ashley PshellAshley Pshell
00
First of all, I would like to say that I thoroughly appreciate the ambiance and historical and cultural significance of 7 Portes in the area near Barçelonetta. We were welcomed at the door with great respect, even without a reservation. We were shown to our table and presented with deliciós olives and fresh bread with olive oil. We each ordered a nice glass of Cava and a fabulous sauteed spinach appetizer to share which was well prepared and generous. We then ordered a traditional paella for two and the English-speaking waiter suggested the seafood over the meats and seafood version to which we happily agreed. We settled in to people-watch as we were advised that the preparation would take time. When our dish finally arrived, we tucked in. The rice was acceptably al dente, but without a significant saffron presence, nor a hint of bay leaf. The edges were brown, but not crispy as hoped. Mussels and calamari were tender, but the shrimp and lobster were way beyond overcooked. Our waiter never was able to return to our table before we finished to check on our food nor to refill our wine. Not his fault as we could see that he was harried and overworked, however I could see in the next section that others were being served seconds from their paella pan. I prefer to serve myself, so it wasn't a problem. We finally waved him down to pay our bill and told him that the seafood was overcooked. He appeared to be unhappy but made no comment. We paid our bill and left. We enjoyed our visit, but for the price and expectations of a true paella experience I am very sad that a fine tradition of over a hundred years relies on resting on their laurels and betrays their reputation. I am afraid that I will leave to go back to the U.S. without enjoying a fine paella. Alas I feel dissapointment. Most sincerely, Carol Honeycutt (and my sister, Gail Craddock)
Carol HoneycuttCarol Honeycutt
00
Nearby Attractions Of 7 Portes
Mercado de La Boqueria
Arc de Triomf
Arco de Triunfo de Barcelona
Ciutadella Park
Cathedral of Barcelona
Aquàrium Barcelona
Columbus Monument
Palau de la Música Catalana
Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar
Picasso Museum
Mercado de La Boqueria
4.5
(61.4K)Click for details
Arc de Triomf
4.6
(28.8K)Click for details
Arco de Triunfo de Barcelona
4.6
(27.1K)Click for details
Ciutadella Park
4.6
(24K)Click for details
Nearby Restaurants Of 7 Portes
Colom Restaurant
El Bosc de Les Fades
Restaurant Salamanca
Jesús Restaurant
Ocaña
Restaurante La Barca del Salamanca
Mirandoalmar
Tapas San Miguel
Les Quinze Nits
La Fonda del Port Olímpic
Colom Restaurant
4.7
(9.1K)Click for details
El Bosc de Les Fades
4.4
(6.6K)Click for details
Restaurant Salamanca
4.0
(6.3K)$$
Click for details
Jesús Restaurant
4.6
(5.4K)Click for details
Reviews
Overview
4.1
(5.2K reviews)$$$
Phone
+34 933 19 30 33
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Website
7portes.com
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Deep Dive
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