IKOYA Izakaya — Restaurant in Barcelona

Where do I start? Our service from beginning to end was excellent - our hostess was very polite despite the restaurant being very busy & having to handle some very rude, loud guests. Our server was so kind, I checked our receipt for his name but couldn't find it - he made incredible recommendations. Everything he suggested, we ordered and were very impressed. He clearly had experience with the menu items which is crucial for making honest recommendations. Thank you x1000! Every single dish was perfectly executed and although I've had sushi hundreds of times, this was one of the rare times where adding any soy sauce would've been a huge disservice to the meal. Every meal could stand on its own quality - the toro, salmon, eel, everything was so buttery smooth and full of flavor. Although we ate several dishes, we really wanted to try the dessert and chose to combine two options, the matcha souffle and the black sesame ice cream - wow wow wow. Absolutely delicious. The ice cream tasted fresh and the souffle was the perfect texture with a wonderful authentic matcha flavor. We finished one plate and immediately ordered another. I have nothing but good things to say about this restaurant and I wish we had one in the US. Kudos to the staff who cleared our table, the server who was a joy to have with us, and the hostess who was nothing but kind. The ambiance was intimate and unique - the hanging lighting fixtures, the fire lanterns, and overall vibe was really cool. Thank you for an impeccable...

Throwback to a date lunch at Ikoya Izakaya, a few months ago. I usually don't go to fancy Japanese restaurants in Barcelona. They're expensive and the food isn't better than what you can find at my favorite, more intimate and "rough" restaurants. But every once in a while, for special occasions, it's nice to try something new. So for my wife's birthday we had a lunch date at Ikoya Izakaya. The place is beautiful, really elegant and the service was excellent. We decided to sit at the counter to enjoy the cooking (we didn't see much in the end) and to sit side by side. The food was really great, and not the typical Japanese food you can find anywhere. Of course, the price was not low (€65 per person, no drinks, not much food) but we knew that upfront. The issue is that, during the afternoon, we both started to feel really sick. That may have been related to what we ate or not, I don't know and I don't want to accuse anybody. So I called the restaurant, just to let them know what was happening and to make sure they checked their products so others wouldn't get sick. I was not asking for anything. But the answer I got was "that's not possible because nobody else complained, there's nothing to check". And this answer is totally unacceptable, unprofessional and irresponsible.

Quality & taste: 9/10 Quantities: 7/10 Atmosphere: 10/10 Originality: 10/10 Ratio price / quality: 7/10 Service: 0/10 How I felt...

Rude doesn’t even describe this place. I will admit we showed up without a reservation at 7:50pm. We asked for a table for four people. We did not think this would be an issue since the entire restaurant inside (including the outside tables) had only 4 tables occupied. We were dressed appropriately but something about us did not meet their standard because she said starting exactly at 8pm all the reservation would arrive. We said “even at the bar area or a small table outside?” Her response “yes there is no option at all for you, everyone will arrive in 10 mins.” We we’re so taken aback that we really wanted to see if that was the case. We decided to dine at the venue right across the street and only two tables worth of people showed up to dine from when we were turned away. From 8pm until 11pm we sat across the street at a lovely venue totally disgusted that the hostess chose to lie so disgustingly. There must be at least 20-30 tables available maybe even more when you include the outside to turn away professionals ready to spend money and dressed appropriately for the venue makes no sense and then to lie to our faces when ever table but a few are full was disgusting. We had a lovely evening across the street and were able to verify that only 2 tables arrived after being...