Restaurante Harry’s — Restaurant in Barcelona

We went to Harry’s last night for what was supposed to be a nice dinner celebrating our 5-year anniversary and it turned out to be one of the most disappointing restaurant experiences I’ve ever had.

At first glance, the place looks beautiful and gives you high expectations, but that changed the moment we walked in. The hostess was extremely unwelcoming and unfriendly.

We chose Harry’s because we were looking for a good Italian restaurant and it had strong reviews online. The menu, however, was confusingly minimalistic, only dish names and a couple of vague words, no explanation of what’s actually inside, so we had to ask the waiter about nearly everything. Between the loud music and our booth seating, I could barely hear what he said.

We ordered two specialty cocktails (which were actually the nicest thing we had), one carbonara and one tagliolini with morel mushrooms and chicken. The food arrived before our drinks, which already felt odd. My boyfriend had asked for an extra ingredient that was completely forgotten, and when he mentioned it, the waiter brushed it off with a quick “it’s coming,” though it clearly wasn’t. The service overall felt rushed and chaotic, giving the impression that you’re expected to eat fast and leave.

Before the food arrived, the waiter placed bread and olives on our table without asking. We both dislike olives and rarely eat bread, but my boyfriend tried a small piece since it was already there only to later find we were charged for it. I’ve been to many Italian restaurants where the appetizers served are on the house, so I was honestly shocked. If an item comes with a cost, the staff should clearly say so and let guests decide.

As for the food: The carbonara was decent but arrived lukewarm and got even colder while waiting for the missing ingredient. My tagliolini was a huge letdown - overcooked, lacking flavor, and the pasta was so thin it tasted like instant noodles. For 20€, that’s unacceptable.

We gave dessert a chance to redeem the experience and ordered the Lotus mousse and tiramisu. The Lotus one was basically a deconstructed Lotus Biscoff cheesecake served in an ice cream bowl with biscuit crumbs, cream cheese and Biscoff spread, topped with more cream and biscuit pieces. It was tasty, just oddly described on the menu - why not call it what it is?

The tiramisu was another story. Watching it assembled piece by piece only made it clear why it tasted like separate ingredients instead of a cohesive dessert. They used thin biscuits (not real ladyfingers) - the bottom soaked until mushy, the top left dry and hard. The result? A “cake” that falls apart when you try to spoon through it. And at 11€, the most expensive dessert on the menu, it was simply not worth it.

For two cocktails, two pastas, two desserts, and the unexpected appetizer charge, our total came to exactly 100€, which made the whole experience feel even more overpriced for what it was.

I initially thought of leaving a 2- or 3-star review, until the night took a much worse turn. A few hours after dinner, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe stomach pain, chills, and nausea. I had to rush to the bathroom and ended up both vomiting and feeling sick in every possible way. It was awful - I couldn’t sleep for over an hour afterward and felt completely drained. I hadn’t eaten anything else that evening, so there’s no doubt where it came from. I ordered the tagliolini with morel mushrooms and chicken, and it clearly gave me food poisoning.

I’ve lived in places like Mexico, and I’ve never had this happen - until now, in a supposedly upscale restaurant in Barcelona.

So thank you, Harry’s, for ruining both my night and our 5-year anniversary. If I could rate you 0 stars, I absolutely would.

I’ve been to another restaurant from the same group - Gala - and it was miles better: better food, better service, and better atmosphere. Harry’s is all looks and no substance - overpriced, overrated, and definitely not worth the risk.

Never again, and I would not recommend...

A long review but definitely worth a read if you’re considering going to Harry’s BCN. I have never had such an awful experience at a restaurant. I urge everyone to avoid this restaurant like the plague as you will be extremely disappointed.

We were stood waiting at the door for a while despite a number of waiters making eye contact with us. The stale and dry bread and olives that were brought to the table which we thought were complimentary (as we didn’t ask for them) we were charged for. After a wait a good wait, once the food finally arrived, the waitress asked if we wanted parmasan, which we said we did. The parmasan never arrived. We waited for her to come back to table before eating. As it had been around 10 minutes and our waitress still hasn’t brought over the Parmesan, we thought we’d ask a different waiter who was walking past (man with a pony tail) but as soon as we said “excuse me” he rudely stated “I’m not your waiter bro” and walks off not even offering to at least bring our waitress over. Not even 5 minutes has passed and he is flirting with the young lady on the table right next to ours (he was not waiting her table either). After this encounter, I couldn’t enjoy the rest of my meal. Initally we wanted to order desserts but as I was so upset, I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. We went the whole meal without any drinks, no one came over to ask, when we finally caught the attention of our waitress we asked for water and she nodded acknowledging our request. The water never came. We had to eat the whole dinner without any drinks. She also didn’t come to ask if we needed anything as we ended up paying the bill on our phones. As we were about to get up to leave the waitress finally came over and we asked her asked what the pony tailed waiters name was who rudely walked past, she refused to tell us and started speaking in a different language acting like she doesn’t understand English. We wanted to do this quietly as we didn’t want to make a scene however the waitress then brought the rude waiter over, we told him we were really upset and couldn’t enjoy our meal because of his attitude to which he replied “he wasn’t our waiter and he doesn’t have time for this” loud enough to draw attention of near by tables and he then walked off again. We were left speechless as it was made clear that despite receiving appalling service that it made no difference to them and they were really defensive. As we were extremely upset and very embarrassed by the scene caused by the waiters, we rushed out the restaurant quickly and I realised I had left my phone inside. As we went back inside to get my phone that same waiter who said “he had no time for us” and that he “wasn’t our waiter” was very rudely mocking and gossiping about us to the same young lady he was flirting with earlier. It was clear that whilst he didn’t have time to bring our waiter over or to hear our concerns about his service, he did have time to flirt and to gossip about his customers behind their back. When he realised we had come back he was at a loss for words clearly shocked and then asked us what our problem with him was. We told his whilst we understand he wasn’t our waiter and that he was busy he could have said it more professionally or even told us he will our waiter for us. He then (despite speaking perfect English the whole evening) started to act like he didn’t understand English as did the other waitress. To make matters worse he started to poke my husband. Unprofessional. Disgusting. Like the other reviews, I’m sure the restaurant won’t even care to acknowledge this one either. The service was a horrible ending to our holiday...

Unfortunately not a great meal at this restaurant- a shame as my partner and I were both very looking forward to it, especially reading the reviews. Getting to the restaurant was easy, pretty much right outside of the metro. Arriving at the restaurant, the greeter asked to see proof of our reservation- may be due to us only booking it a few hours prior, but didn’t see anyone else asked to prove there reservation with the email. We then sat near the window- the greeter asked if this seat was okay for us, in which I agreed. Not anyone’s fault. But this was right next to where all of the cutlery was, so the servers were brushing right past our table every couple of minutes- again I had agreed to this table so partly my fault. We then browsed our menus and choose what we wanted. In that time, a family of four were seated to the table next to ours. They were asked almost immediately if they wanted any drinks. We brushed it off and didn’t think anything of it, but about 15 minutes later, the same server finally attended our table and asked what we liked to order. The server was a fairly tall woman with brunette hair. The server then came over with our wine glasses and chosen wine. We tried the wine and said it was good. This was when I noticed the dirty glass that was presented to my partner. The server took it away, and came back with a clean glass, checking it at the table. Shortly after that, we received our food- pictured below. The food was presented to us, and immediately the server went away without asking if we wanted any salt or pepper, or extra cheese for the carbonara. Something we saw another server offer another table. The carbonara was pretty bland, yet could have been enhanced with the black pepper. The steak and chips on the other hand was cooked perfectly to my liking. We finished our food and the dishes were promptly taken away. Another 15 minutes later, a different server asked if we would like a dessert menu, which I politely declined and just asked for the bill.

When receiving the bill, we noticed that we were charged for 2 lots of bread as an appetiser- which we did not receive. Again, other tables received this, but I am unsure if it was brought to them without ordering or not. A final server came with the card machine to let us pay. I advised that we did not receive any bread for an appetiser, and asked for it to be removed. We did not get charged for this. We paid and she asked how was it. I said the food was good, but the service wasn’t great at all.

Unsure whether it was just rudeness of the server due to us being English, with Barcelona having issues with tourists at the minute, but we did not cause any issues to receive poor service.

Overall: the food was pretty good, but service requires something to be desired for. I have rated the service a 2, due to the other servers being nice enough, but the rude server is what has brought that score down.

Something else to note: whilst we were at our table, we noticed that a lot of people were coming in without reservations. It is somewhere that you would definitely have to pre-book. But, it seemed as if the host picked and chose who they would let in without a reservation. This was just an observation, and there may be a reasoning to that, but generally if you are telling people you are fully booked until 10:15, that has to remain constant? Not letting in...