Restaurant Casa Mari i Rufo — Restaurant in Barcelona

Went into this place after looking for seafood restaurants on Google maps round the Gothic Quarter. Went based on the reviews and thoroughly enjoyed it. From the outside it is a very unassuming looking place that you would easily walk past otherwise as you can't see the dining area that is at the rear past the kitchen area in the entrance.

We went in at 20:00 and there were a couple of tables occupied but the place quickly filled up and was full by about 21:15. This gave a lively (and perhaps a little loud for some) atmosphere. The English menu isn't much help so it is best to ask about the dishes that are on the Spanish menu. It is a relaxed and friendly service by the small team.

The seafood was exceptional. Had the Frutti de Mare to start followed by monkfish for main. Both were excellent and combined with a great bottle of white wine. After eating took the rest of wine and moved to a table next to the kitchen and saw loads of amazing dishes being prepared. The steak looked fantastic and definitely worth a return trip to try!

It is fairly pricey - two mains, the shared seafood platter to start and bottle of white wine came to just over 100 euro but I think worth it for the quality...

It started very well, we were getting along with very nice waiter, talking and joking around.

We came for oysters and specifically asked for the price beforehand to avoid any surprises, he told us 24 for the dozen. So we sat, had 4 glasses of wine and enjoyed the oysters. There were fine, although two of them were not good and we couldn't eat them. Eh, that happens!

When time for the bill, we had quite the unpleasant surprise of being asked for 64 euros... Our nice waiter all of a sudden told us the oysters were 48 euros a dozen after all, plus charging us for a whole bottle. We had to remain very firm to pay for the agreed price when they tried to guilt us, saying how are we supposed to make a margin? While speaking together in Spanish.

I understand you pay for quality but that price was ridiculous and the process felt dishonest.

It's sad because we were having quite a good experience and thought we found a place with nice people, and left on a bittersweet note, feeling treated like a dumb tourist only good to...

Mari y Rufo is a small place, selling good products. The restaurant is a small and bald room that is optimized to host more than 20 guests, so be prepared to cosy up with your seat mate.

Service had a hard time to deal with us as english speaking guests, but they stayed friendly and tried. We did not really get what we ordered (still close), but as the place was crowded and service seemed a little overstrained we dealt with the outcome (water instead of sparkling water, one entree was missing, mixed clams instead of mixed seafood).

Glasses were a little dirty, all in all the restaurant didn‘t seem too tidy. However, products seemed very fresh. I would state the place still pricy (25€ for a plate of mixed clams and 17€ for fried calamar). However, definitely skip the pan con tomate (worst ever: totally soaked up, cold, didn‘t taste...