Restaurant Windsor — Restaurant in Barcelona

The staff is not prepared and/or trained at all to deal with food allergies. Unacceptable.

Edit: thank you for responding to my review. I would like to take this opportunity to elaborate on my unfortunate experience, hoping it might help clarify our concerns and contribute towards bettering your approach to food allergies in the future.

Upon making the reservation, I mentioned to your staff my girlfriend’s severe tree nut allergy and arriving at your restaurant; I reiterated this to the waiter at the entrance. Regrettably, this information did not filter through all staff as it should have, which resulted in several upsetting instances.

While we were waiting for our table to be ready, we had our first incident when we were served peanuts alongside two glasses of Cava. Despite the surprise; we appreciated the quick removal of the peanuts and the apology for the misunderstanding.

After not even 15 minutes, this incident repeated when we were served bread with nuts in it at our dining table. We were concerned but maintained our optimism as the staff again promptly rectified this.

The third, and unfortunately most serious incident, occurred during dessert. Despite the repeated reminders about the allergy, the cheese and jam platter served to us contained nuts. This oversight resulted in my girlfriend having a severe allergic reaction and required immediate medical treatment.

What was even more distressing was the response of your staff during this critical situation. Instead of offering help or showing genuine concern, the team fell into denial, even contradicting our concerns by stating there were no nuts in the cheese. Moreover, one of your waiters confused allergy with intolerance, further proving a lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation.

We understand your restaurant is certified and strict with allergy rules and procedures. However, our experience painted a different picture. You claim to be certified and strict with allergy rules and procedures, but during our dinner, we experienced severe gaps between your claims and actual practices.

Please understand that severe allergies are not a matter of choice or preference - they are a medical condition that can lead to dangerous situations if not handled appropriately. The level of distress this situation caused us was immense, ruining our special night and placing my girlfriend’s health at risk.

I truly hope you take our experience as an opportunity to reassess your procedures and training regarding food allergies. No other guest should have to undergo what we did. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to...

We went as a group after a long hot day touring the city. I live in Barcelona, but my family was visiting. We wanted to get some starters going, which seemed to be a problem for the waiter as he wanted all of our order at the same time. Fine, a lot of nice restaurants do (for timing) but just come back in 5 minutes and all is well. Humor us. Unfortunately for him we hadn’t had time to look at everything, and my nieces were very hungry, the place was empty, we were not in an hurry. He let us know later by ignoring our table, interrupting, and generally being quite short with us. We felt like a burden. I was surprised because normally in restaurants of this caliber the whole experience is meant to be pleasant, but it felt quite condescending in tone. It feels like a place you pay to really be waited on. I even noticed him complaining about us in the corner, yikes. Drinks took a very long time to come out and some had to be ordered twice. Perhaps they wanted our table for a later lunch coming. I also didn’t feel the standard of the food was quite up to such snobbery, but I was willing to believe the food might be amazing. Then one cannelloni came out for my entrée. Fine I thought maybe it’s amazing, but then the meat was dry. It had a pretty flower on it, but what’s the point when the meat is over cooked. We did get the cheese plate which had one piece of cheese per choice, which is crazy because great award winning cheese is not wildly expensive in Spain or France. Everyone loved the jam that accompanied it. None of the food that we experienced was remarkable or worth the price. My sister had a gazpacho with some sort of minty sorbet in it. I liked it and it was fine, but again gazpacho even with organic heritage farmed tomatoes that are only grown with magic water are commonplace anywhere else, especially in the south. The mint sorbet was a choice, but I liked it. This place feels like somewhere you go with people who have never eaten real food from their Spanish mother in law. Again I get the presentations are nicer, but the taste is just okay. So that leaves the service and the service was not great. Waiting for bread, waiting for drinks… etc. So not only am I paying 20 ish euros for a dry cannelloni, but I’m having to flag down my waiter.

I must say the younger food runners were kind and lovely and attentive.

The waiter did change his tune at the end maybe because my family is American and he was...

OMG! The owner just totally ruined this place for eternity! Mr Joan Junyent, I hear through Barcelona rumors, worked his way up from waiter, to manager, and then bought the place. It will be a story for me to share at dinner tables around the world. First, the location is nice, the decor is relaxing, and the food is good (not inventive -- not phenomenal -- only good). My toro tuna was overcooked. I voiced my opinion and I was read the third degree riot acts by this tyrannical owner as the glimmer of his silver spoon lapel pin caught the light. Instead of making me happy and offering to bring the tuna rare (like I had asked) he proceeded to list 8 different reasons why I should eat the 23 Euros dish. He told me the tuna that was caught weight 400 kilos and it was prized in Japan. (Much later I found out on Google that the last large tuna caught weighed only 290 kilos and won the fisherman $1.2 million —- I certainly hope I didn’t waste a piece of a million dollar tuna) -- so now this man exaggerates to add. He stood at our table and gave us a ten-minute monologue on what an idiot I am as I do not know anything about toro (tuna belly). THEN... and get this!!!... he takes the plate away, only to bring it back rearranged and shoves it in front of my husband's face and suggests that my husband should now finish it (after my husband had already eaten dinner) This owner insisted he was doing us a favor. For the life of me, I still cannot figure out what planet this man is from, let alone who gave him his culinary skills. What an insult. Judging from all of the responses he has made to others in these blogs I am sure he (just like the Donald Trump rants on Twitter) will also rant away. I am sure his ego will get the best of him YET AGAIN, and I am certain he will accept no blame. BTW: at the end of our meal we still had 35% of our $75 bottle of wine left, he sent a waiter over to remove it from our table unfinished. He did everything to chase us out after I offended his humungous ego. It was the first time I had seen my husband in 3 weeks, and I think we were interrupted at least every 5-6 minutes by a server for something. Definitely not a place to go for quiet intimacy. THANK GAWD we went to a Michelin restaurant the next night in France (Jean-Claude LeClerc) it blew this place out of the water and confirmed this: Windsor will NEVER have a Michelin star, not in this...