Restaurant Can Culleretes — Restaurant in Barcelona

After eating at 5 restaurants on Las Ramblas we decided to go to a less-touristy, authentic Catalan restaurant. The open air restaurants on Las Ramblas tend to have the same taste after a while. Found 3-4 authentic, highly rated Catalan restaurants on an internet search and chose Can Culleretes. It's tucked in an alleyway in the Gothic Quarter area. Walking in, we felt a sense of a welcoming, simple family restaurant. It has the ambiance of an old, authentic unassuming Spanish restaurant, with simple, attractive decoration like painted ceramic tile walls. I got the marinated anchovies, which we put on the tomato bread-- excellent. Got the olives as a nice appetizer, and the seafood soup (good, but a little salty). I got the cod with white bean sauce - very good; fish was fresh, the white sauce was tasty. We also got the lamb chops with patatas-- tasted fine, but pretty standard. Then we got the dessert -- Catalan creme (basically a creme brulee)-- very good. Also the caramel flan with ice cream-- very good (not as dense as Filipino or Mexican leche flan which uses condensed milk), and the ice cream cake with whisky, and a shot of espresso. This I felt was the highlight of the meal, as I've never had this dessert before, and it met my expectations. Not your typical dessert; and just enough alcohol taste to complement the sweet ice cream and what I think was not a cake, but something more consistent with a mousse. Basically, Can Cullertes is a nice place to go for a home-style cooked meal, Catalan style when you had enough paella, tapas and other common offerings in the other surrounding...

I hate that I have to give it even one star. We traveled on our vacation to Barcelona, looking forward to visiting what was our favorite restaurant we went to 15 years ago. We took our friends there, telling them they would LOVE it! It was a true Catalonia experience! The oldest restaurant in Barcelona! Blah, blah, blah! How incredibly disappointed and test embarrassed we were!

We made a reservation several weeks in advance (to make sure we had a table). Well, that was needed … the place was pretty empty. We were seated at a table in a corner (that was nice). Our server came to take our order … nothing to rave about there. We saw other employees in the restaurant doing their jobs, wrapping silver ware, setting up glasses, etc. Ours was non-existent.

The food came … lacking of flavor … sub par Paella was flavorless … fried seafood platter was pale tempura batter .. again, no flavor, no condiments, no sides.

What was truly disappointing was that when our server seated a gentleman at a table near us (I had seen him earlier handling the silverware, so he was obviously management or an owner), he sat at the table watching his cell phone in front of him. Our server completely ignored us, she concentrated all of her attention on him.

After waiting for at least a half hour, we finally got our ticket for our overpriced, lackluster food. We paid and as I was leaving I told the gentleman … “You sir, had the best table in the house!” I’m sure he didn’t understand me … but it was true … he received the service we deserved. Do better Restaurant Can Culleretes!! A true...

It's really hard to rate this place. We were unsure what to expect after reading the mixed reviews. It's a rustic place with on the one hand thrown together interior that in the back part focuses a lot on old signed photographs of (famous?) people, but on the other hand it feels authentic because that's how old restaurants are in my opinion, the did not have a perfected interior design concept. The food is hearty and heavy, like you would imagine people ate eighty years ago when fat was a rarity. If you are ok with this then main course was actually good. Veal was very tender, paella also tasty although too salty. We finished everything and I spooned out the veal sauce, no complaints here. The dessert, creme catalane, was good but nothing to write home about, presentation was a bit sloppy, but again it fits the rustic style. The espresso was sour, below average. The service depends on the person. The woman taking the order and serving the food was warm and friendly, the one cleaning the table wasn't seething with happyness but maybe she simply didn't know how to deal with people who don't speak her language. So service was not an issue. Did we regret coming here? Definitely not. I would even consider coming here again to try other main dishes. Was this an outstanding experience? No, for that the dessert, paella and coffee was too lacking. This was our first Barcelonian restaurant but I am usually critical with food so I think the "good" is well...