Enoteca Paco Pérez — Restaurant in Barcelona

Sadly, I have reached out twice via email to the management since I ate at Enoteca Paco Perez, and have received no response.

I do believe that feedback should be given in private, and if nothing is resolved, then in public. Alas maybe this way, I'll get a response from the restaurant.

-- Original complaint --

Me, and 5 other friend visited Enoteca in August for a friend's wedding celebrations, and food aside, the whole experience was dismal.

It was 15 minutes after being sat down before one of had to ask for even a glass of water. Literally not a single member of staff came to our table to ask a single thing. No menus. Nothing.

Asking for water seemingly annoyed the waiter, and it was another 5 minutes before we saw anyone again.

Unfortunately, this put everyone in a bad mood, but the calamities continued.

Our glasses were empty more often than not, at once left empty for 15 minutes before we were topped up.

We had to continually ask for more wine and when we did get orders in, it took 15-20 mins with no drinks. Normally I'd go get the bottle myself, but we chose to be in a restaurant known for service. We chose to spend €200 on dinner each. And as such, we expected to be treated that way. If your staff don't like pouring wine, then it's fine, but leave the bottles on the table. Also, if I wanted to be jumping up and down every 5 minutes, I'd have gone to the gym, or a buffet.

Now, I don't know if six 30 year old men is your usual clientele, but it did really feel like your staff didn't want to serve us. Apart from one woman (Susanna), nearly everyone was useless. We had to ask for everything multiple times, knives, butter, bread, wine.

We had a vegetarian with us, who when asked what he likes, explicitly said no mushrooms. But was later served a plate of rice laden with the dastardly little things. You'd have to be an expert at Super Mario to navigate that dish.

I eat regularly in Michelin starred restaurants, I work very closely with the Joel Robuchon guys, I'm working with Michelin on an event later this year, and I'm a Marriott Platinum guest. So in case you assume that I just don't know how things are done, I'll squash that train of thought.

As I don't like complaining, the food itself was impeccable, and was as expected. Although one of the vegetarian options; a plate of asparagus pointing at the ceiling for €60 was a bit much.

We argued as a group as to how much of a tip should be left. I'm a keen believer of 10-15%, but honestly, last night your guys deserved nothing.

When the bill came, there was also confusion as to whether Marriott Elite guests get 20% off. It was immediately confirmed as true by one member of staff, who when went to ask and said if only applies to in-room dining, which I know not to be true. I later found out that Paco Perez doesn't participate in the 20% off, which is fine. But educate your bloody staff.

Sadly, this is one restaurant I...

Overrated restaurant. This was my 15th Michelin restaurant visit and for the first time I am very disappointed. The service is flawless but the food and plating is not Michelin 2 star quality. It feels like a tourist trap for rich clueless people that think a 700 Euro dinner is amazing because of the price tag and service and not because of the quality of the food.

The tasting menue should first of all be renamed “16 spoons or 16 bites” or something because the majority of the dishes are so tiny I would not call them a dish. It is like it was plated for dolls in a doll house.

For the first dish I am served chicken broth although we been promised a pescatarian menu and no bird / no meat.

The best tasting dish the Red Mullet is so small it is not even a mouthful. We got 2 cm of fish. Just ridiculous and cheap.

The shrimps lack seasoning and freshness of some acidic element. The shrimp is served with the black “shitstrings” intestines not removed. On a two star restaurant…Come on!!!

The rest of the menue is one dimensional cooking. Often under seasoned and bland. Frankly the majority of the dishes don’t taste much.

All desserts are boring and lacks freshness. It feels like the chefs fokused all on Umami but forgot the other key elements to a great desserts. It is no fireworks, no explosions of tastes in our mouths.

One at the table who is allergic to nuts get the food and desserts with no decorations at all and no crunch or structure. Despite the restaurant Being informed about this when the booking was done.

The Autumn is the only dessert with nice decorations. It taste ok. Nothing special. The best dessert is the petit fours. It is 4 cute small cookies only millimeters in size and you feel like a giant eating them.

Overall a very disappointed experience. Expect around 350 Euro a minimum per person for a dinner here. Value for money? Not at all. The first time I rather felt robbed after leaving a restaurant and I eat on fine dining restaurants on a regular basis and gladly pay for a great food experience.

We shared the restaurant with only 6 other guests on three tables. The rest of the tables were Unbooked. I understand why. Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe with lots of great restaurants so choose wisely and avoid this one. I can’t understand this gets 5/5 from other reviewers. This was far from that. I give this restaurant 2/5 because of the service and staff. They did a great job. But the food should be the hero...

It is my second time at the Enoteca. The first one with the full tasting menu, this time the weekend 'rice' menu.

The dining room is welcoming, very well designed. Maybe the music was too loud (likely more and American style restaurant, in the traditional Spanish restaurants we have less or no background music, it is a cultural thing).

The personnel was welcoming and very polite. The lead waitress was very talented, knowledgeable and pleasant. The secondary waiters did a good job as well. The sommelier gave us a great recommendation regarding a Chardonnay from the Penedes and a Tokaji after lunch. He gave us the right explanations but he did not overextend them, which felt perfect.

The menu itself was 4 starters with small bites centered on sea products (cod, melva-anchovies, exquisite small smoked peas...). There is a bread tasting which was ok, but the starters and the rice were really the main characters. The rice was paella style for the non-Spanish readers. Rice with sea urchin, mushrooms. Most of the dishes had some black truffle. I am not a fan of truffle, but on this occasion I have to admit that it was fresh, it did not hide the other flavors and it was used wisely by the chef, great! Products were local and really fresh. The rice was wonderful with the soft sea urchin touch. The first desert was a brie cheese pastry and the second a sweet complex composition Winter-themed, difficult to describe, but with an excellent and refreshing taste. Petit fours were offered with coffee. My only complaint is that the coffee was clearly a capsule-coffee, the taste was clear and I was able to see the machine later. I think it was the only detail that did not match with this extraordinary restaurant.

We had a great time, 200 euros per person all included, which might seem expensive but I think it is up to the level of the restaurant and according to other first tier restaurants in Barcelona. We will certainly return for a...