La Alcoba Barcino - Bar de Tapas en el Gótico — Restaurant in Barcelona

I really wanted to love this place, but the best thing about it was the food. Unfortunately, service was terrible. We showed up a little after they opened and were told that they weren't ready to serve food so we would have to wait a little. No problem. We patiently waited outside and enjoyed the views of the neighborhood. As we were waiting, multiple customers walked in. We didn't think anything of it because we expected for them to hear the same thing--that they would have to wait. Nope. They were seated and served, all while the employee we spoke to walked by us several times and looked at us and ignored us. Oh well, maybe they aren't proactive and forgot? No biggie.

So after about 30 minutes we go inside and are finally seated at the worst table because the other ones are all full. Fine. Again, we are understanding and patient. We order wine that took quite a while to arrive, even though we were sitting right next to the bar. No problem. When we finally have the server come over to take the food order, we attempted to order about 4 different tapas. The server refuses to place all 4 and told us that we won't finish it, but if we are hungry she will place more after 3. Whatever. Im pretty sure we are grown adults and know our appetites, especially for small plates. About 45 minutes later, the first plate finally arrived. In that time, we notice tables who ordered after us receive food and finish. Cool, we'll just take our time because maybe it's busy. It ended up taking an inordinate amount of time to get all 3 plates, way more than any other table, to the point of ridiculousness. In the meantime, we sat with empty glasses and couldn't get our servers attention. She looked right at us and our glasses and kept walking. Even when she was just joking around with her coworker with nothing to do, she looked and ignored us.

We ended up leaving hungry because we didn't want to wait for another few hours to get food and drinks. The disrespect and attitude towards us was very noticeable. Maybe because we aren't locals? Maybe because how we look? It certainly wasn't because we were anything but nice. People say the locals in Barcelona hate tourists, I guess this was our time to experience...

Given the many enthusiastic reviews (by people that have done very few reviews), I think I had a very unlucky draw - or reviews are engineered - since something was clearly not working properly when I visited.

We came as a group of 4, and there were only 5 tables busy and two members of staff in service (a blond lady and a bearded bold man).

Getting them to take the order took a good half an hour while they skilfully ignored us - and just for the drinks since the bold man could only take drink orders (for food it took another 10 minutes).

We ordered as drinks the “cocktail of the month” - ie a “Basil Spritz” - thinking that that would simplify matters. The “barman” had no idea what that was supposed to be and consulted with the other waiter that also had no idea judging from their body language. And what we got showed that the consulting did not help: we got very flat (no sparkle hence no spritz), way too sour, drinks that only one of us managed to drink to the end.

We also asked for tap water for all of us, but being told that that could be brought only by the glass we asked for bottled waters - for all of us. We got 1 small bottle of water and 2 glasses only… hence I asked for two more glasses, and the bold waiter asked “why?” …and to that I reply that maybe 2 glasses for 4 was not enough…

We ordered simple tapas, mostly cold cuts, and it took more than one hour for getting the first pieces of sliced cheese: my 7 yo commented “they are not fast in cutting things”…

Eventually we spent there 2 hours to get a few more sliced things. Tapas were not bad (the cold cuts at least - the hot chicken satay instead was too dry, despite the overuse of sauce, due to the poor meat being badly overcooked), but the price quality ratio is not good, and the service was so bad that i would definitely avoid this place. Even paying took forever, as the lady kept on ignoring us and the bold man was too busy hitting on a girl at the bar (in the end I gave up and went to pay at the bar).

Baseline: very bad experience in a city full of great...

This is one of the best restaurants that I have ever been to. Me and a friend stumbled upon this place in the Gothic Quarter and were absolutely blown away. Jan and Neal helped us out and they were some of the nicest people that I have met in Barcelona. Jan had amazing recommendations that never disappointed. Our favorite dishes were the roasted red peppers stuffed with goat cheese, the calamari which literally melted in your mouth, and the burrata salad. The white wine and cocktail that Jan made for us at the end were amazing as well. We also got the brie and truffle toast which had great flavor, but our only note was that the bread became a little soggy. What made the experience so special was the ambiance of the restaurant. The decor, lighting, and music made everything that much better. Their service felt friendly and personable, which was very refreshing compared to other service that we have experienced during our time here. They even played our favorite song for us after talking to them for a little after our meal. I could not recommend this place enough, and if there's one restaurant in Barcelona I could tell someone to go to, it would be here. Thank you so much for an amazing experience! We will...