Arenal Restaurant — Restaurant in Barcelona

Normally I'd never give such a bad review, but today was outrageous... Beside I was PUKING my stomach out and having horrible DIARRHEA until I squeezed my last energy to walk out of bathroom (2.5 hours after dinner), let me recall something more... The location is very good, also the coffee, unfortunately that's all. My boyfriend ordered beef with black truffle and mustard, they brought another dish which is with onion sauce and 7€ cheaper, tried to accuse us lying when we saw the bill, too bad nowadays we take pics of the meal and the evidence pissed them off. I ordered some kind of "Fishman's soup", as 14€ you'd expect something special but nö, I got a bowl of salty greasy porridge (yes, with RICE!) & a few mussels and clams in it. Sorry, I really think it's just lazy work of putting some water and salt in their LEFTOVER Paella! Also, it might be the origin of the food poison. My boyfriend only had a small sip, didn't like it. I finished it for the concept of not wasting food, now bearing the consequence. Mixed fried fish plate, looks nice, very greasy. Over-cooked lobster with a few frozen shrimps & clams soaked in the oil. But you know chef, if you decide not to put any salt in the dish, the ingredients must be super FRESH for letting me taste the freshness! I couldn't swallow any of the clams, they smelled like the sewer after the seafood market closes. The 2 waitresses were nice, the waiter served us ignored me calling the bill, after 15 mins waiting I had to ask another waiter (let's call him Mr. Pokerface), for sure another 10 mins later I had to ASK the girl to ASK the guy to bring the bill... Then voilà, the drama started :) When we told Mr. Pokerface that we didn't get what we ordered, he said the price of sitting in terrace is of course more expensive than sitting INDOOR, ok we could accept that but maybe inform the customers next time BEFORE sitting or just give us the menu with DIFFERENT PRICES?! And then we showed the pic on Google (the "real" dish - beef with mustard and truffles) he said that's what we had, then we showed the pics of what we really had... Fine, finally reprinted the bill, then threw the POS machine on table like I owe him a meal and walked away. Fantastic service! In the end, coffee, 2 starters & 2 dishes with a glass of sangria and water cost 114€, which is acceptable due to the location but quality wise is just out of my tolerance. To the owner: by any chance you see this, please go check out the kitchen and food storage randomly, taste the food by yourself sometimes. Hope you enjoy the discovery. For sure, we won't see you again unless Golden Ramsey shoots an episode of Hell Hotel at your restaurant and asks customers to come back after hell of...

Too long to take our first orders, I think it took them about 15-20 minutes. They had 3-4 people but moved very slow.

We also were moved from Xup Xup to here as they said that we did not book with Xup Xup, which I do not believe and told us that this one is better, which again, I don’t believe that either. They did give us a big round table. The atmosphere was amazing and the staff is friendly, our friends were amazing too. We did not mind the wait but it us not professional to break the expected rhythm. They were not busy at the time.

All the river food had the strong dimethyl sulfide which means it was old or poorly cooked.

I finished my dish (the one with mixed seafood) and my partner wanted to give me some of his: the lobster with rice and I had to refuse as the strong dimethyl sulfide made me sick. I only had one margarita, the alcohol did not have anything to do with it.

It makes me wonder if Xup Xup would had been better, but I would not know, as we were told that we did not book for that, but for a restaurant I did not know it exists.

I wanted the soup that says autumn-winter next to it, I thought that it was part of the recipe name, but it means that it is only served in autumn-winter. I thought we considered 22nd of September as autumn but the chef says that it is not the case, like the waiter said. I did not want to continue my argument about the fact that we do all agree that September is...

I went with a friend as this place has a reputation in Spain for serving good Paella (hence the pun) we were aware that they tend to prepare it for a maximum of two or more people due to the size of their portions (l'd advise reading the menu carefully about this - it's not inflexibility but the unique way they prepare the food)

Popularity brings queues but we were seated in minutes by the most friendly front of house team and the menu was out within seconds, some servers understand English and some don't, so be clear if they don't understand, I can speak Spanish so that wasn't a problem.

If you do order the Paella, they state a 20 minutes wait, and any review that says the food takes too long, hasn't read the menu properly.

The food was worth the wait, our mixed Paella had meat, chicken, mussels, cockles and much much more, it was light, never greasy, perfect temperature and filled me up just right, I noticed a customer had standard steak and chips and enjoyed so much, he ordered another round! plus the waiters were quick, friendly and polite.

.....as an added bonus, they have a dress code, so no beach-wear, and he was asking people to cover up or change before they ate but this seemed to be the norm across all eateries on the beach.

Ideally located, good service and great Paella (in this persons opinion) - you should...