La Cantina by iaia Cristina — Restaurant in Barcelona

To be honest, the food at this restaurant is good, but no matter how good it is, I definitely won’t be going back again. One of the owners has an extremely bad attitude!

We had a reservation for 21:15, but when we arrived, there was no table available. (I can understand that — maybe the previous customers were eating slowly, which is beyond the restaurant’s control.) However, what happened afterward convinced me that this restaurant has no organization whatsoever.

While we were waiting, the owner stood nearby and kept giving us unfriendly looks for some reason. My friend politely asked how much longer we would need to wait, and the owner suddenly snapped, saying, “Didn’t I already say the table is being prepared?” in a very rude tone. I was genuinely upset at that moment, and my friend even suggested we find another restaurant, but it was already late, and we were starving, so we decided to endure it.

I thought that would be the end of it, but to my surprise, the owner got even worse! When our table was finally ready, he led us over with a sarcastic tone, saying, “Oh, sorry for making you wait those extra two minutes!”

I immediately turned to him and firmly responded, “Yes.”

At this point, I think it’s clear that our frustration wasn’t about waiting those 10 minutes but about the attitude of this Italian owner. It felt like we owed him money just for eating there!

Later, I tried to order some bread, and as he walked past me, I raised my hand, but he completely ignored me. (Trust me, I’m not being overly sensitive — he genuinely ignored me!) My friend even joked, “Are we getting bullied at a restaurant right now?” 😂

Your restaurant might be very popular, but whether a place is worth visiting isn’t just about how good the food is! I don’t expect you to provide 100% attentive service, but at the very least, guests should feel comfortable and not feeling like we’ve spent money just to be...

Well the 4.8 rating of this place is certainly a mystery. We popped by on a Monday evening, and it all quickly went a bit odd. The clams were off the menu, which was a shame, but hey, it's Monday, fish on Monday can be tricky. Thing is, nearly all the white wine was off the menu as well, which seems less plausible to blame on it being Monday. There was a house wine, though, which was certainly better than its 3.3 Vivino rating and would have been lovely if it had been legit cold (and perhaps put in an ice bucket). The waiter wasn't into pouring it for us, but hey, we have arms. My wife's burrata arrived, and it was the wrong item, not the pesto version. Looked fairly good, though. Nothing for me – I'd ordered some porchetta instead of the clams – and its driness (when it finally turned up 10-15 minutes later) indicated what took so long. You don't heat it in thin slices, lads. It dries out. But there sure was a lot of it. A couple of minutes after this, my wife's carbonara arrived – ufortunately not velvety, just sopping wet. Most of it went down fine, though, but it's hard to eat two dishes at once, so she left most of the first course – except for what I comandeered to save the heap of dry porchetta. When I had to leave more than half (still expecting a steak as the main course) and most of the burrata was left as well, the waiter got in a huff, and we didn't see him again. The steak never turned up either, though we waited – and to be fair, it didn't appear on the bill either. We settled it fast and left. This was clearly no success. A tiny acknowledgment that someone had mistimed the courses completely (and forgotten one in four, mishearing another one) may have been nicer than "You didn't like it??"...

We visited today. The place had a few people seated at the time but not many, nobody welcomed us. After a few mins I tried to ask a passing server about a table, he immediately told me to wait and continued his work. A couple of minutes later another guy , maybe a host appeared. He told us to go downstairs with a colleague. There were a lot of free tables upstairs and downstairs, downstairs is not as nice as it’s a basement, a bit dark and had mosquitoes.

Once seated, I noticed the plate on my table was dirty with old food on it. I pointed this out to the waiter and he got another plate that was better but still not clean.

We ordered various dishes and most were ok. I had pasta arrabbiata. On biting into it, it was cold and under cooked, I drew this to the attention of the waiter, who simply responded its al dente. I told him it was hard in the centre not cooked and firm and he seemed put out. He said he can bring it back but it’s al dente. I told him I couldn’t eat it. He took the plate and went away.

On returning he was more reasonable and said my dish would be ready in five mins and if I would like something in the meantime they are happy to provide. I declined and my dish came back fairly quick and was hot and the pasta was cooked and served al dente.

It was clear that the original dish was just recooked further as the fresh basil topping was now wilted inside with some new basil added.

There are so many good Italian restaurants in Barcelona, I recommend giving this a skip. The overall service was a fail and I feel between waits for hosting, dirty plates, undercooked food and attitude to feedback that they...