Puertecillo Sagrada Familia — Restaurant in Barcelona

Restaurants which make you pay upfront always worry me. Unfortunately this place hasn't changed my mind at all.

We arrived at 7:55pm and there was already a long queue, so get here early. After about 10 minutes we reached the front and were greeted by a small but very fresh seafood counter. The lady serving us was very nice but did try to sell us more food even though we had ordered too much.

We took a seat and within five minutes our number was called to collect our soup starters and bread. The soup was very average, really just salty water with three mussels in it. The place also has a cheap high school cafeteria feel. Numbers are called every few seconds on the PA system which gets annoying fast.

We then waited 30 minutes for the rest of the food to be called. Despite the other reviews we didn't think the food came at all quickly. We noticed other tables who arrived after us received their food before ours despite ordering the same item.

The seafood was extremely bland with no seasoning at all. The major problem however was the fact that their grill was nowhere near hot enough, resulting in food which is basically steamed instead of barbequed. There were no grill marks at all on any of the food. They also cut up the squid into tiny cubes, probably so it cooks faster but completely destroys the texture.

After having a few bites I went to the counter to ask for lemon and tabasco sauce since the food was so bland. The woman ignored me for a few minutes and continued to call more numbers despite my presence right at the front of the counter. When I asked for the sauce she told me to get it from the end of the counter - there wasn't any. She then proceeded to give me a filthy look, then reach under the counter for another sauce before slamming it on the counter.

Also take note: everything costs money, which may be my own ignorance here. When they offer you a starter, bread, water or sauce it all comes up on the bill.

We ended up spending 60 euro for two people which included a beer and coke. Not expensive, but do yourself a favour and to get seafood from the market just off La Rumbla instead. It's cooked to perfection and a shared barbeque seafood platter will cost you 27 euro.

There are so many great places to eat in Barcelona, don't bother...

This place is an absolute paradise for true foodies and seafood lovers, by this I mean fresh, well-cooked seafood and not frozen mixed packets from the supermarket.

The ways things work in any branch is to be outside the restaurant 15 minutes before it opens. Once inside, you'll see a gorgeous display of fresh seafood and fish in many different forms. You choose the product and depending on the item, select how it's cooked. You pay and you wait to be called, you collect your food from a hatch and you return your plates to a different hatch.

On to the important bit.....the options you can pick from! Where to begin......they have whole squid, whole cuttlefish, squid tentacles, razor clams, regular clams, mussels, oysters, scallops, lobster, crab, tuna, monkfish, prawns, octopus and the list continues.

Some products come fried, I particularly loved the cuttlefish and the squid tentacles. Others can be selected to be grilled, there is an optional herby dressing which elevates the grilled flavours of absolutely everything we tried! The best grilled things were: scallops, squid, razor clams and the giant prawns (the very best prawns I've ever tried). The octopus comes in the standard Spanish way with potatoes, paprika and olive oil, very tender! I tried the mussels in tomato sauce, the mussels themselves are excellent, if varying in size.

Overall, the experience is excellent, it's such a great concept, with speedy, delicious food, calm, friendly and efficient service and honestly, a low price for the quality and quantity you get. You can control how much you have of each item and you feel like a privileged meal has been had. Couldn't recommend this...

This place is like the episode of the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld. Decent food but service is unsatisfactory. Just two examples of how ridiculously this place is run, please read the following. When we placed our order, apparently the cashier asked me if I wanted bread. Being tourist my Spanish was not great so I did not hear that part. I paid for the meal and let my family go back to the table. When I asked for two pieces of bread the cashier said that I owed 1.8 euros. I gave her my credit card but she refused to run it because both she and the manager pointed to a sign that said 7 euro minimum for credit cards, despite the fact that I just spent over 70 euros on a meal. When the credit card could not be run she dumped the two pieces of bread back into the bucket and that was it. When I went back to order additional items, the credit card machine inexplicably stopped working. I told them to hold my credit card till machine started working as we were all still pretty hungry and wanted some bread and an extra beverage to meet the minimum credit card charge amount. Believe it or not they would not release even the couple pieces of bread for 30 minutes until they could charge my credit card. I totally get that nobody wants to give anything for free, but this experience reminds me of how fortunate we are in the states regarding customer service in most establishments. Further, for a friendly City like Barcelona The Experience here was particularly noteworthy. Food quality and service not worth a repeat visit, in my...