LOKAL BAR — Restaurant in Barcelona

What's your priority: Fun or food ❓ Both are important. But when I eat out I'd say that food is what matters the most... to me. ☝️ In Eixample, there's a place I walked by once that caught my eye: Lokal Bar. On Maps, it has great ratings but also there are lots of pics of people having big dinner parties and it looks fun. 😄 So I put it on my bucket list. And a couple of weeks ago I went there with some friends. We went there for lunch so I guess that was not the best context for the fun part. Also we were with kids so... 🤷 But it's obvious, by the decor focused on music or by the cocktail list, that this is not only a restaurant. We also had a glimpse of that fun part when the waiter came and flamed 🔥 the herbs on our meat 🥩. Not sure that brought much in terms of flavor but that's definitely something I'll remember. The waiter, by the way, not only risked his life to flame these herbs 😅 but he was also very nice and attentive. 👍 The only thing that he did wrong was bring most of the dishes at the same time when they wouldn't fit on the table. 😓 Cause this is the worst part of this place: the lack of comfort. The tables are small so the plates don't fit, and the sitting is really uncomfortable. 👎 What about the food? Well, it was good but nothing memorable. And it was expensive. We had 7 dishes / tapas for 6 people, no desserts, I left hungry and we still paid almost €30 each. No bueno. I wouldn't mind going back there (especially at night 🌙) but I'm not dreaming about it.

Quality & taste: 7/10 Quantities: 8/10 Atmosphere: 6/10 Originality: 6/10 Ratio price / quality: 6/10 Service: 9/10 How I felt...

Overall the food and experience started off great with fast service and friendly staff, but ended with us feeling forgotten about and discarded. Our waitress learned we only spoke a little Spanish so she and I worked together to place orders. We ordered the patatas bravas, hummus, spanish omelette, chicken croquettes, and tomato bread, and it all came out within 5 minutes. Presentation was lovely, I will say. Flavor on everything was overall good but not amazing, not the best/freshest tapas I’ve had. Hummus chips were straight out of a bag, and the Spanish omelette tasted old or pre-frozen. Not the best first experience of tapas for my family.

The service worsened throughout the meal and by the end we had to ask twice for the check and waited 15+ mins for it. The servers seemed disappointed we didn’t finish all the food and took a long time to clear our last few plates. We also tried to get a dessert but it took so long to receive we decided to ask for it to go. Then, the waitress finally came over and hurriedly spoke to us in Spanish and placed a wooden box of business cards on the table. ?? There was no chance of understanding what she said or meant for us to do. The energy had definitely shifted since the start of our night, so we paid and left feeling like we did something wrong. I don’t recommend taking the dessert to go- was not good, but that may have been our fault.

Perhaps a misunderstanding or language barrier got in the way of a better experience, but many reviews comment on subpar service and overall “just okay” food, so I know our experience...

We just finished a week long trip to Barcelona and had some incredible meals and experiences, but I believe Lokal Bar was my favorite of all. We made reservations for an early dinner around 7 pm. The servers were so kind and gracious and welcomed us immediately. Shan was our primary server and did a great job explaining the menu, making wine recommendations, and checking in on us throughout the night. We started with some beautiful appetizers - a cheese platter, Spanish olives, potatoes bravas, calamari, and I couldn’t resist trying an anchovy. These were all delicious. The cheese plate was especially inspired with a nice range of hard and soft cheeses with mild to intense flavors. My wife was thrilled. They have a nice drink and wine selection, and I had a beautiful red wine. I saw some very tasty looking drinks prepared at the bar, too. For our main courses, my wife had the Black Rice with Seafood, which had a rich, buttery consistency and succulent chunks of calamari buried throughout. On Shan’s recommendation, I had the Aged Beef Tagliata which was presented with fiery fanfare! It was such a fun experience. The ambiance was complete with smooth jazz music piped in from the speakers which was replaced later by live piano music. At the end of the night, they brought us colorful digestifs - even one for my little girl, who was so delighted to “cheers” her Mommy! I cannot remember a dining experience that was more fun, or where I felt more looked after. The servers go well out of their way to create an incredible evening. I give my absolute highest...