Federal Cafè Gòtic — Restaurant in Barcelona

BAD SERVICE 😢 RUDE WAITER 😣 STAY AWAY ⛔️

Disclaimer: I visit Barcelona often and I was also often in this cafe, and I loved it, so I was positively biased. BUT:

This time it was different thanks to one person.

I am here on a business trip and wanted to have breakfast. I arrived before opening and tried to enter at 9 am (the opening time). The bold guy (yes, he is famous already here for his rudeness) said I cannot enter, and asked if I see the lights. I had no idea what he meant, he started to aggressively pointing at the ceiling and said "as long as light are off you cannot enter". I asked when will you open then, and he said "gooood, can't you wait, like, 2 minutes!"... Ofc I could wait, but a good place would either politely asked me to wait a little bit or would let me in and offer to sit, asking to give them a couple of minutes to open (can't you start working on time btw???). After couple of minutes he looked at me and said "well?.." suggesting I can come in.

The further service was meh... No apologies, no better attitude.

Other minus is that the place was not super-clean. On the table that I set there was still a receipt from the other day.

The food was okay. Same as always. The space is nice. But I will not risk going here again.

This bold guy is apparently not going anywhere since there were so many bad reviews about him (scroll down and you will find them), but this guy continues working. He is either one of the owners, or a friends of the owner, or the owner does not care at all about what customers complain about 🤷🏼‍♀️

Please do not encourage this behaviour; if you do not pay them, they will be forced to become better. And there are plenty other places where you can work or have...

After reading all the reviewas I was expecting an amazing brekfast, however that did not happen.

The cafe was pretty empty as it was still "early"-10:30. We entered the cafe and nobody even seemed to notice us, but were standing around chatting with eachother. We sat down on an empty table and waited 10 minutes without anbody bringing a menu so I went and took it myself. We ordeered the porridge and an avocado toast with salmon. Good things fist: The avocado toast was good - they forogot the salmon and after we asked again they brought it - however it was unenjoyable because of the smell and taste. The porridge on the other hand was horrible. It was oats socked in water. It had no taste. On top there was a teaspoon of coconut flakes. It was highly overpriced and unenjoyable. After I asked for some syrup and telling them it had no taste - which the staff completly ignored - I stikll couldnt eat it. When the staff took ou plates I commented on it again: the comment was " sorry its too late now" The worst of it all, after not getting an apology I checked the bill, I had to pay for the porridge and 1€ more for a tablespoon of syrup.

All in all the food was bad, the staff was unfriendly, highly overpriced and the whole vibe in the cafe was very weird as it seemed the staff did not want to be there and had no fun at all. I would defnetly never come back and defnetly never recommend this...

EDIT: ALWAYS ASK FOR THE BILL!

ORIGINAL: The salmon egg benedict is excellent but the service is in need for improvement. It is also unclear at which tables it is allowed to use laptop - perhaps adding a written sign would help? Nonetheless, the elder male waiter could notify the “tresspassers” in a kinder and more customer-friendly way..

EDIT: Originally added 3 stars because the food was good. But the staff’s attitude later made me change it to 1.

When I paid they did not give me the bill so I asked for it. They did not want to print it, just went away and made me wait for quite some time. At that point I knew something was fishy. The same elder waiter came back and asked how much I paid. I listed the items I consumed but he insisted asking me how much I paid. Finally, he gave me the bill. I saw I was charged 10% extra for the terrace that I was sent away from because of my laptop. I challenged the waiter: he - instead of admitting the mistake and apologising - was just repeating that I was originally sitting at the terrace (for some minutes, until he sent me away in a not nice way because of my laptop). In the end, he gave me back the money in cash but kept telling me that I was at the terrace and he simply did not want to see why it is a bad behavior to send someone away from the terrace then charge the person by 10% more for using...