Lolita Barceloneta — Restaurant in Barcelona

Customer Service what not to do 101. Guy and a girl at the bar chatting to each other non stop without caring about customers. Yes the customers had to come inside and ask for the waiters to come to their table. We waited so long for the food to come and I mean even the starters took like half an hour (Olives and bread with tomato sauce). The place was pretty empty. There was 1 "chef" who was cleaning and "cooking" at the same time. Food: Seafood Paella: small portion, barely any seafood in it and average taste. I was disappointed. Vegetarian Paella: very good. Starters: not great at all. Wouldn't order them again. NOW THE MAIN EVENT. 2 french older women came and order sangria and food. They got their drinks but were waiting for their food bfr drinking. After waiting for 20 minutes or more they started to get worried. The waiters were still chit chatting and none of them ever looked at the customers. Finally the french woman gets up and goes to the waiters and asks what's happening with their food. They explain that the food takes long because it is freshly made and that it will probably be ready in 5 minutes. The French lady says 5 minutes not 1 minute more because in 6 I leave this place. The waiter now worried goes to the "chef" and he then starts to make their food. The waiter comes back to the lady and tells her that ther was a problem with the system and that it is now being made. The French woman tells them she knew the food wasn't being done because she was sitting facing the "chef" and she saw that he had been cleaning the whole time she was there and that even he even started making food without washing his hands. The waitress apologised explaining that it was her fault but the machine and the French lady asked yh but what have you 2 waiters been doing a part from chit chatting. And the waitress got angry and started replying back to the French lady. No compensation was offered to the 2 customers and they paid for their sangria that they actually didn't drink and just left on the table and they left. The other waiter was completely useless too. Not sure if retarded but whenever he could see customers staring at him in need of help he would just look the other way or go back to chit chatting. In the end we just had to stay just cause the whole situation was too absurd to be real. The sad thing was that 10% service charge was added to the bill which was a complete piss take. We are mid 20s so we had time to wait unlike older customers whom are more impatient but that service is down in the books for the worst one I've ever experienced...

We came here after midnight because nothing else was open.

There was a very strong food smell coming from the kitchen (like deep fried oil), so was worried I'd end up smelling like fries, although it aired out fairly quickly.

We got a Hendricks G&T, which was nice, but we struggled to get the bill even though by then there were 3 employees standing behind the bar, they all ignored us despite multiple attempts to pay, we had to wait a long time just standing there.

Also bit concerned about the hygiene, there were a lot of used glasses piled up at the bar and while we were waiting to pay, we noticed they just pick up the dirty glasses, rinse it for no more than 2 seconds with that water rinse feature that's under the beer taps, and then served the new beer in them straight away. I don't necessarily mean because of covid, it's just not sanitary even if there are no pandemics going around in my opinion. I don't think I'd be returning...

Lolitas' paella is probably one of the yummiest ones I've ever had. It has the perfect amount of seafood, the size is quite good, and if you let it set for 5 minutes more or less so the rice can settle, you'll be able to enjoy a delicious paella. Or at least I did! Although if I'm not giving it a full on 5 star rank it's because I know of some friends that also went there yet their experience was nothing like mine: the food came late and it wasn't at all what they ordered, they said it only had like 1 shrimp or something and no other seafood, and also that the service was very rude and careless, so my final thoughts on this restaurant are that I'll have to visit it one more time to have a definitive opinion about it.

Would I repeat?: Yes. With doubts, but yes. My experience was very nice and the food was very good so I would...