La Vinateria del Call — Restaurant in Barcelona

It is very rare indeed that I find myself giving such a bad review to somewhere clearly so popular, but our experience was, unfortunately, absolutely awful. We live next door, literally I can hold my breath and step out of our apparentment and into this place. Knowing it was popular, we avoided it until a day we knew we would arrive back late and need to pop in. Last night was that night. They were obviously understaffed because the waiters were positively upset when we turned up. They tried, they really did, but regardless we felt the entire experience to be anxiety inducing as simply asking for another glass of wine resulted in eye rolling and huffing and puffing. We felt so guilty that we didn't ask for more than three glasses over the evening. As for the food, the fish we ordered was hot on one side and stone cold on the other. Again, I presume they were understaffed and over worked. But we literally were unable to get the attention of any staff for five minutes and so eventually gave up and ate it, hoping for the best. It tasted delicious, no doubt it could have been great if reheated properly, but it was clearly reheated badly and was soggy. The other dishes ranged between acceptable and quite nice, and the house wine was lovely. We slept very badly, probably due to the amount of oil much of the food was soaked in, and still feel bloated in the morning. Maybe this is a one off, and my bad review will be buried by all the positive ones. I hope so. The selection of food and wine was decent, the decor was lovely, over all it should have been great. But if they were unable to cater for us they should have turned us away at the door. Instead, we got probably the worst dining experience we have had in years, and certainly the worse in Barcelona, having eaten at maybe thirty different establishements so far that is really...

So after having been to Alcoba Azul I have decided to give Vinateria del Call a try. While ordering aperitivo and asking about the food, I was informed by the waiter they can do ½ of most tapas. Great, so I can try more stuff. I promptly started ordering, after 3rd of 4th item waiter suggested its probably a good idea to stop for the time being as the portions were quite generous. If I wanted to order more afterwards-kitchen was open until the doors were open. I proceeded to order a glass of red, and the waiter asked if I preferred dry one with a lot of character or something sweeter with my dinner? I went for dry one, the waiter returned with a glass and the bottle, poured the wine and said: “If you don’t like it – let me know, I will bring you another one to try”. Happened to me before, so its good to know they won’t make a scene in this case. Wine turned out to be really good, I was happily waiting for the food. Service: 5 stars+, topping the expectations. Food arrived promptly. I had several dishes of meat and fish (chorizo, butifarra, anchovies etc). It was cooked to the point, very tasty, served warm and the portion size was just right. At the end the waiter brought me a shot of orujo, which I haven’t tried before. He also answered my questions about the origins of the drink and what its made of. To summarize: good to very good food, good wine, fantastic service. I can definitely recommend and will come back next time I visit...

Great meal but horrible ending. Food was very good, service very accommodating for Celiac. All but a couple dishes could be made gluten free. And my daughter said the GF bread was really good. But, after our meal was done, I went to the restroom which consisted of two individual stalls and a shared sink. As I was leaving, one of the chefs came out of a stall, walked past the sink without washing his hands and then proceeded back into the kitchen (which patrons can see into) to prepare food. Disgusting. Won’t be back and cannot recommend just because of this.

Edited to address restaurant’s response. I could see in the windows to the kitchen. He walked in and immediately started handling food. Not to mention that having the cooks exit the bathroom without washing their hands while touching doors/handles that customers use is...