Carlota Akaneya — Restaurant in Barcelona

An insult to Japanese cuisine. My (Japanese) husband and I visited this place a few days ago as we saw such high ratings on google, however this was the most disappointing meal we have ever had in Europe. We should have known better, after reading the negative reviews of mostly Asian people afterwards.

To start with, the welcome upon entry was very fake and rushed. None of the staff were Japanese and it seemed like the staff that attended us were just taught a few sentences to say to try to show authenticity. However, a lot that they were saying were completely false. To begin with "Sumibiyaki" does not mean to grill at the table. It literally mean food that is cooked over charcoal fire.

When we were led to the table, the waiter immediately gave us the drink menu and bluntly said that they didn't have cocktails. Which was fine, but this could have been said in a more friendly way , given the fact that you put items in your menu that you don't have.

When the food came ( we had the 140 euro menu pp ), they served some edamame and a kamo namban with udon. This was the first sign that this was gonna be a bad night. The flavor had a very strong sour and sweet flavor, not like anything we have had in Japanese cuisine.

After that followed the tonkatsu, which had more breading than meat. (See attached pictures) Then came the shabu shabu, which was basically the same broth as the kamo namban but just a little less sour. This is where we really shook our heads. First off, the waitress served a miniature cut of "Wagyu" which as you can see is smaller that a small piece of Shimeji mushroom. As she was serving this, she dropped one of the mushrooms on the table and casually put it back in the pot.... If it couldn't get any worse, a few seconds later she informed us that "The Japanese like to eat their rice in the soup" and proceeded to dunk a bowl of rice carelessly in our soup without asking us for our preference. Obviously being Japanese, we knew this was false. Then she served the meat (did not taste like Japanese Wagyu at all) which had an equivalent amount of Maldon seasalt and poured a sauce that she called "yakiniku", which was basically just teriyaki sauce. Please inform your staff that yakiniku is not a sauce... The "ichibo" was served in a weird dish with such a strong flavored marinade that it was not enjoyable. The only nice thing on this menu was the nigiri, where they actually serve you 10 grams each of real Japanese Kobe beef ;). When asked where the rest of the Wagyu came from, all the staff could say was Wagyu. As we are in the Wagyu business in Japan and had our fair share of Japanese Wagyu, those cuts were definitely not Japanese beef.

Also, the "Crown Melon", that they take so much proud in mentioning throughout the whole meal ,served as dessert was nothing to write home about. You could get that same melon at the supermarket.

Overall terrible food experience and an insult to the Japanese cuisine. Please teach your staff well, if you are trying to sell our authentic cuisine! Especially if you dare to charge your customers these prices for such low...

We have been to Carlota Akaneya 3 times already and we remember it fondly. First time we went was around 5 years ago, the menu was around 45€, delicious with a lot of attention to detail and all the dishes were well thought.

Today that same menu is 90€ with worse quality and less well thought dishes. It is incredible that the price has more than doubled but the menu is practically the same but worse.

The miso soup was very basic, I do some premades at home that are better. The gyozas were very tipical and lacked any flavour. The shrimps tasted well but were so small we barely managed to squeeze any meat, other times we went they were bigger. The hotpot lacked flavour plus the meats we were given to put in it, shabu shabu style, were only 4 pieces and so thin and small that its was very disapointing. Theorically the point is that the meat will leave its flavour on the hotpot broth and enrich it and at the end you will have a very rich delicious broth, except it did not because there was no meat. Also adding a bunch of rice to the hotpot is just pointless because broth has no flavour and rice either so its overall very bland and the rice absorbs all of the broth. Honestly, looks like a dish to fill your stomach.

To celebrate something positive, yes, the meat is certified and has good quality, although, the quantity is small and is plagued with sesame seeds. The meat is specially good with the wasabi salt which is the only good thing about tonight.

Last note, for 90€, drinks not included, I expect a little bit more on the desserts part. Some melon kakigori, aka shaved ice with melon will not cut it despite the melon being good.

Overall very expensive for what it is and dissapointing experience. However, if you want an unique experience and dont care so much about price/quality ratio I guess you can still try it!

Pd: Also, if im not mistaken, before the table were of dark wood which matched more the atmosphere and low light...

Coming from Vancouver and having been to many authentic Japanese omakase restaurants including in Japan, I have to say this restaurant completely missed the bar. From the moment my sencha tea was served with a piece of tea leaf sticking onto the side of the teapot I knew that this was not an authentic Japanese restaurant. We had the 69€ set menu and right off the bat the edamame and gyoza were completely ordinary. I was especially displeased with the pork katsu and udon dishes as both were not well made nor did they have quality ingredients. For example, there was shredded (orange) carrot in the udon (which was not handmade udon as with many omakase at this price point) and I think a more sophisticated presentation would have been to turn it into a raw carrot paste so that the texture would compliment the soup - there is already spring onion as well as some long sprouts so it feels very much like eating a chop suey with the long shredded carrot thrown in. HOWEVER, almost every single review for this restaurant has been 4 or 5 star and everyone in the restaurant seemed really happy to be there. The mood was great and the service excellent. Clearly the employees were proud to be working at this restaurant and took pride in being there. Another point is that although the food was no good in terms of Japanese omakase the raw cuts of wagyu could not go wrong. The charcoal pit was fun and interesting albeit rather dusty when they were changing it. Overall I give this experience two stars because even though I will probably never come again, clearly there are people that love this place so in my opinion this is still a successful...