Galú Restaurante Italiano — Restaurant in Barcelona

I was in Barcelona on business for a few days, and I passed by this place randomly on a Wednesday night, walking back to my hotel after an obligatory stroll around the cathedral. I wasn’t even that hungry.

It is hard for me to put into words the joy that this meal gave me. The service was low-key, polite, and unobtrusive, which I appreciated. And my God, the food was fantastic. The menu is Sicilian themed. I love Sicily and southern Italy, and it is very rare to find a restaurant that executes the cuisine from that region correctly. (I live in Paris, where most Italian restaurants are pricey and inauthentic.)

First course was caponata. I had forgotten that this dish even exists, so it was a very happy reminder. It’s basically Italian ratatouille, but it has olives, and somehow the interplay between the eggplant and olives just elevates it to another level. Next was homemade pappardelle with a sausage-truffle cream sauce. Earthy, delicious perfection. If you’ve ever had the experience of feeling a twinge of sadness as the food disappears from your plate – because you don’t want the meal to end – that’s what I felt here. The house red wine, a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, was the perfect complement. And it was only 4 euros a glass!!! Finally, for dessert, a cannolo. (We call them cannoli in the U.S., even if they only serve you one of them.) Again, perfect. The sweet cheese filling, usually a mixture of mascarpone and ricotta, was delightfully creamy and not too sweet. The real sign of a legit Sicilian cannolo is that they don’t fill it with cream until you order it, otherwise the cookie tube gets soggy. Even the espresso macchiato I had with the desert was somehow better than any I’ve had in the 15 years since I left Italy.

What an incredible restaurant. Just go. You will...

Went to this restaurant last night with my amazing wife for her birthday and couldn’t have been more disappointed. We booked ahead of time on Open Table but were offered one of two tables, by the front door or at the back of the house by the kitchen, and felt rushed all night, with one plate brought to the table after another while we were still trying to finish what was in front of us.

The food was poorly prepared, over salted and luke warm (steak, fish, etc.) and the service was horrible. The waiter kept sprinting up and down the stairs next to us which drove my wife crazy and when we asked the owner why he was moving us to fast he said that he was trying to keep all of the tables served but we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted at ours! He was condescending, indignant and rude.

But back to the food - the pasta far too salty and otherwise flavourless, the steak on the green salad was greasy, luke-warm and far too tough, felt like it had been prepared and reheated, the artichokes were greasy, salty and a huge ‘miss’, the bread and olives tasted like they came from the local grocery store, etc.

When I got back to our hotel and wanted to leave a review on Open Table I noticed that the owner had cancelled our reservation on-line so that I couldn’t share my experiences with anybody. When I called him and asked him to put it back up, which he promised to do, he never did - I’ve reached out to Open Table’s CEO to share my experience as this is a flagrant misuse of their application and their platform. It’s also unethical.

What an absolute fail of a night - avoid at all costs. In fact, avoid even if it’s free … not worth your time unless you’re senses are numb and you love...

What a disaster. Where do I begin? After eating some of the best meals of my life in Barcelona, my fiancé and I decided to skip the jamon, olives and sardines for one night; I suggested Italian.....what a mistake.

The food was AWFUL. So bad that I couldn't eat my sorry excuse of fettucine Bolognese . The salad was gross; overly sweet dressing to cover up the old, wilted greens. The olives tasted like they came straight out of a jar. My fiancés steak was so disgusting, it made my stomach turn. I could go on and on.

Now I was a waitress for years, I know what it's like to have a customer scream, complain and berate you because they hate their meal, so when our waiter approached us, I calmy and kindly explained that the food was not good, and we would like the check. He quickly took our plates away and a couple of minutes later another man approached our table. Here's how the conversation went. "So I hear you don't like my food?" I asked "are you the manager?" He goes "I am the owner, manager Chef of 18 years blah blah blah" literally gave me his entire resume in the most condescending way possible. I responded back stating that I am Italian and grew up eating Italian food, so I also know a thing or two. HE THEN responds with "you're not Italian! you're American, let me hear you speak in Italian."

He continued to berate me in front of other customers until we left. It was comical now that I look back, because it showed just how fragile this man's ego is. I have never seen a grown man, let alone a business owner behave in this manner. Trash food and...