COME — Restaurant in Barcelona

Over 5 stars for the kitchen staff ! Less than 1 star for the service staff,

Excellent food, best Mexican food we have ever had, innovative and unique.

But the experience since the beginning has been a disaster. We have been asked to arrive earlier than the scheduled reservation, and we registered our credit card for the 50€ fee per person if you don’t show up at the restaurant. So far a little rude, but understandable.

Once there, the service staff didn’t seem organized at all. We waited a little (which is not really appreciable in a restaurant of this level).

But the WORST has been to be almost forced to pick the “selection by the chef” by 2 waiters and several times. One of them didn’t even come with a pen to write down the order since he wanted us to pick that “selection”. Been forced that much, they actually created the opposite reaction and we didn’t go for it.

We asked the waiter to explain us a description of some dishes that we don’t know about (their menu is full of specific Mexican words that not everyone can understand). And they could barely answer us since they might not be used to explain the menu, the only word we clearly understood was the repeated “selection”.....

Then, a waiter asked us to formulate our order in precise way (for example we were not allowed to order a meat and then a ceviche since the ceviche was appearing first in the menu list). What ?! Haha. Again, we felt awkward and uncomfortable.

The waiter clearly told us we didn’t order enough food and took the initiative to add a (small) dish we didn’t ask for.

We ordered cocktails, a few minutes later the waiter came back and asked if we would like to change the cocktail we ordered for another one... (why that?!).

They forgot cutlery for one of the course.

Overall, don’t go to this restaurant if you are not starving enough to choose the 15 dishes “selection” (more than 100€ per person without drinks). A 150€ bill for 2 is not enough for them, it is not rentable enough for their business, you would feel like a very bad client.

It is really sad to have to write this review since food was literally excellent. The service just had us have a so bad experience that we couldn’t enjoy the food as much as we...

To preface, we likely had higher expectations and hopes considering this was where we ended up but had wanted desperately to dine at Tickets. We booked about 3 weeks in advance for lunch and this happened to be our first meal in Barcelona. We were one of the first tables seated for lunch; we appreciated the introduction to the kitchen staff prior to being seated at our table. We had a great view from our table of the kitchen and staff feverishly at work and the head chefs meticulously quality checking each dish prior to delivering. We loved some of the creative serving styles and will be adapting at home when we entertain (i.e. hot stone to keep tacos warm in a pouch). Our server did not have great English. He mentioned a "we choose for you menu", which we tried to clarify on twice, and we were still left confused. We decided to try it anyway to make it easy on ourselves. We wish our server had explained it's not a prix fixe menu, but rather they choose courses for you and charge you by the course. We ended up with 12 courses, and we really could have lived with 9 because we were so full and really struggled to eat the last couple of courses. In terms of the food, I was actually underwhelmed by the art considering some of the other dishes I've seen in reviews previously. One of the dishes served - apple souffle with young almonds - was just not good. We didn't bother to eat it after a couple of bites. Most of the dishes were so-so, with a couple of standouts - octopus + fresh peas, bone marrow taco, pulled pork taco. Recommend asking the guests if they want their last dish to be a dessert. I would have wanted to try something sweet. We would definitely try some of Albert Adria's other restaurants, but I don't think we would come back...

COME by Paco Mendez, 1* Mexican restaurant, Barcelona - April 2023

C’était il y a quelques années un des restaurants créés par Albert Adria (El Bulli, Tickets, Enigma) that he sold after what’s now know as « The Pandemic War » in the restaurant world. So many places closed or changed owners.

Now it’s Paco Mendez who’s the chef and owner, surrounded by a talented team both in the kitchen and on service. A very good maître D’ welcomes us, and then the excellent sommelière Johana Garcia took excellent care of us. The drinks selection is very good ! Wines, cocktails, mescal, tequila, we tasted many different things with our menu.

They are so good that they were awarded a first Michelin star in November 2022 ! 🌟👍🏼

For the meal, you have a choice of la Carte and two menus, a medium size and a large called Festival ! Guess which one we had !

Many El Bulli influences could still be felt in this meal. Liquid nitrogen, textures, powders, etc, changed surely from the usual Mexican cuisine. But it blended very well ! Here is what the menu was : Corn Tree Fresh guacamole and totopos Nashi pear with mezeal Tequila cloud Roots meringue, coconut and caviar Wagyu tartar tostada Grandma Flor's rib taco Cochinita pibil infladita Caesar's salad Asparagus with nixtamalized Miso Catch of the day ceviche Sea food tostada Triple pork "Romeritos" with prawn Artichoke with mole Veal cheeks, mole with bone marrow Passion fruit, mint and coffee Eri's ice cream cart Mexican Chocolate Coulant

Yes, it was a real festival. And what a great meal. Many great moments, lots of fun times, nothing was disappointing nor boring. Taste, originality and fun. We really loved it.

I recommend it highly.

@comerestaurant #Barcelona....