GILDA Tapes Bistro Urbà — Restaurant in Barcelona

As this is going to be a pretty long one, I'll put a short summary in front: Really good tasting food Nice variations or feed I've never seen like that before Nice waiters, Nice boss good timing / quick serving of the food, but obviously fresh made

maybe the only negative point may be that some tables don't have much space but it's Barcelona and a small restaurant so....what do you expect

Location: Me and my brother first went there around noon when the restaurant hadn't opened yet. Boss still opened up and told us about the next best Restaurant (hint: pizza next door is good if restaurant is closed). We came back at night to be greeted by the boss and took a table. Two tables are not that nice located but it's a smaller restaurant in Barcelona so I think you could say that's normal.

Tapas: we ordered the Hummus and the crispy shrimp on curry ice cream after the boss told us that this is their absolute must-have. The combination of the second sounds a bit weird but tastes absolutely amazing together. The Hummus with freshly baked bread is really good too and a good portion if you think on eating it alone.

Main-course: I ordered the tuna tataki and my brother the Steak&Frit. If you have like me never eaten tuna like that (tataki) before - try it, it's amazing. The pasta and vegetables taste really good and it's well served in a nice bowl. The Belgian steak was done rare, just as my bro ordered it. The pepper sauce was done really well and not to spicy (everyone can eat that). It's served on a nice looking plate. All of the food was hot.

Dessert: as the boss told us to take a shot at the Belgian chocolate with cannabis ice cream we did that. I did not really know what to expect from it, but was well surprised. The Belgian chocolate was just as you'd expect it to be, warm, fluffy and we'll tasting, made of a bit darker chocolate. The cannabis ice cream tasted just as cannabis does without that tabako smell you get from smoking. You don't get high from it so...don't panic. After eating the boss told us told us about his upcoming dessert that will be added, some special Belgian waffles, another creation on his own.

Drinks: we both had still water so I can't talk about that :D

I really like the boss's mentality (we talked a bit afterwards) to serve his new creations to costumers for free to get a feeling for how people like it and how not. This is done until 95% give a positive feedback and than it's added to the menu, which show's how much he cares to only serve good quality food. Waiters were nice, especially the German speaking waiter was fun (if you read that: "moin diggah").

At all, I highly recommend you to go to that restaurant, it's one of the best restaurants I've been in in my whole life, if not the best in this category! Keep up the good work, I will come back when I return to Barcelona. PS: Angry Donald trump and bodybuilder Kim Jong un will hopefully be...

I have never reviewed a restaurant before. Whether the experience is good or bad, I usually shrug and move on to the next place to find delicious food.

If this was just about the food or service, I never would have written this review. However, there are some actions that cross the line of acceptable behavior.

I have East Asian heritage but I am a citizen of a Western country. Tonight, a group of Caucasian men refused to sit next to me because of my Asian descent. Verbatim, the men told the staff, "we cannot sit next to her. She is Asian." I cannot control the prejudices of others but I expect a restaurant in a metropolitan city that hosts a wide variety of tourists and foreign residents to not tolerate this kind of language towards other patrons.

Towards the end of my visit, I was asked to move tables to accommodate the men. It was a large group of people, but I already had reserved a table at GILDA that was confirmed by the restaurant via text message/email. The staff moved me to allow the men a table without me present. This action solidified and prompted this review.

No one should be ashamed of their ethnic background. Asian people are not a threat. I expect better.

Update: I am often unavailable to answer phone calls or messages throughout the afternoons because of my schedule. I did respond to the text messages when I was finished with pressing duties. I never got any follow up emails.

When the staff asked me to leave, I asked for the check because the uncomfortable situation above had already occurred. There was no formal explanation of any additional services being offered. I was made to assume that leaving was my only course of action so out of politeness, I asked for the check.

However, when I went into the bar area to pay my check, the group of Caucasian men were also being attended to at the bar. I quickly paid and left because I did not want anymore potential verbal insinuations.

I would never make light of a situation that could have been a potential safety risk. With current global events, any comment with prejudice should be met with zero tolerance, even for regular customers. This...

AMAZING food. We had the pan con tomate, los mejillones al estilo gallego, la sopa de cebolla, and the mixed croquettes. Cannot rave about the food enough; after a few months in BCN, this was by far some of the BEST food I’ve had.

Unfortunately, management and poor service taint the experience. After ordering our dessert and waiting for a bit, we were told that we were out of time and that they needed the table (exactly 72 minutes after our dinner reservation started, reserva at 8:00pm and we were told to leave at 9:12pm)

Keep in mind, we had not paid and were still waiting on items. Although we felt a bit unwelcome, we informed them we were waiting on the dessert still and decided to stay.

30 minutes later, still no dessert and not a single server checking on us to get more cocktails or give us an update. We ended up having to flag someone down to pay and left feeling completely unwanted. But fret not, the manager who had sent someone to push us from our reserved table was happily available drinking at the bar on the way out to discuss our experience.

Hopefully this is just a reflection of poor management tonight and not the standard here. Because of how good the food was, I will definitely be back and hopefully can give the 5-star this kitchen and food truly deserves.

UPDATE: The quick response from the owner/management shows what is important to this restaurant and I am happy to update this review in anticipation of my next visit 😊 I believe this will be the preferred location for my client dinners in...