Puertecillo Paral·lel — Restaurant in Barcelona

A novel concept for a restaurant that could be a revelation but sadly felt short of expectations. It looks like a fishmongers from the front with the amazing display of fresh fish. You queue up at the counter and buy your fish which is priced inclusive of cooking but only grilled or fried. This was the first hurdle to overcome as there was just one person serving so by the time each customer chose their fish placed their cooking instructions and moved down into the restaurant you could be standing and waiting half an hour. Not a good way to start an evening meal. The next hurdle was to order your drinks and a compliments which were salad or nothing. Chips or potato bravas had gone awal from the menu. None the less we persevered in spit of our second thought's so we substituted the potatoes with lots of bread rolls. This is very much a self service restaurant where you are the waiter. This turned out to be quite a stressful experience for a group like ours who did not have a familiarity of Spanish. Our order number was called every time a dish was ready for our table and because of our lack of number recognition we were not sure if we had heard right so we were up and down like yoyos while at the same time trying to eat what was on the table. Had there just been a simple number display at each table any confusion would gave been avoided. In spite of this what foid we had was fresh and goid. If they can speed up the front desk service, add a few extra menu items and introduce a more customer friendly call system thus could be a...

This is a new location that is larger and nicer than the one near El Born. I have always enjoyed the food here due to the its freshness and the price.

We ordered mussels, chipirones, navajas, some super large shrimps, and octopus. The mussels came with two different sauces. I can't remember the sauce name but it was just a tiny bit hot probably due to the pepper. But not too bad. The normal steamed ones were good. Mussels here are always very sweet.

The chipirones are also good. Navajas were ok. Nothing to complain about. But I felt that the flavor can be better. What this means is that I've had better somewhere else.

The large shrimps we're great and extremely sweet. Definitely a recommendation if you can stomach the high price. Or just order a few.

Octopus (pulpo) wasn't as great. A bit more hard and chewy. I generally prefer my pulpo a la gallega style which is super tender and great. So I'd recommend eating pulpo elsewhere.

Overall, still a great place...

This spot was a terrific find in Barcelona. Outstandingly fresh seafood at a terrific price. You select from the seafood options available that day, as well as the cooking method (grilled or fried). The very helpful staff will also make recommendations. Once you've made your seafood selections, you pay, and then when the food is ready, you pick it up from the window. This may sound very "fast food" to Americans, but we felt the experience was anything but. The dining room was casual, and mainly locals, which made for a warm, joyful environment.

We had mussels cooked with lemon (the freshest mussels I have ever had), steamed clams with chimichurri sauce, fried calamari (again, incredibly fresh), and the grilled dorade. Everything was perfectly cooked, and the breading/batter on the calamari was light as air.

Tourists should not be intimidated if your Spanish/Catalan is less than stellar, the staff was very friendly and willing to help. We had no problem....