Teresa Carles — Restaurant in Barcelona

My partner and I had quite a disappointing experience at Teresa Charles despite being very excited to come here due to the reviews. It was our first dinner in Barcelona and we left seeking other food to cleanse our palette. We ordered the paella and the vegetarian burger. The burger was just okay and slightly on the sweeter side, nothing to write home about, but the paella tasted like a poorly made risotto. It was wet with leftover broth still being soaked up, and the texture was just very soft rice and no crunch. The flavours weren't great and the vegetables tasted kind of old and mushy. The food also came out so fast that it was concerning. Perhaps because it was late at night most of the meals or ingredients were already prepped/cooked so what we were served wasn't very fresh. It's likely we got unlucky with the two meals we ordered, but with limited time in this city, we won't be going back to try other dishes on the menu.

Service was very abysmal and left much to be desired. Usually when we ask for water, we're given an option between still, sparkling, or tap. They didn't give an option and just brought two large bottles of water. They server uncorked the bottles the moment they got to our table before we could ask for clarification and ask for tap water. I'm not sure why they didn't just come with one bottle, but both bottles came to €5 total, which is about $7.50 CAD for water... If we knew we'd be charged this much, we would have gotten drinks, or taken the time to specifically ask for tap water. Make sure if you're used to getting water with your meals, ask specifically for tap water! This started our dining experience off on a poor note as the server didn't take care to check on our needs. Our table was also not checked on throughout our time there and the restaurant wasn't very...

This stylish restaurant appears very popular. There was a long queue when we arrived. Luckily we booked and were quickly shown to our table. The popularity has a knock on effect, the meal felt rushed with little time between courses, no doubt in an effort to flip tables as speedily as possible. That’s a shame because the modern design of the interior is one you feel you’d like to luxuriate in.

For starters we had the kale chips which were wonderfully crisp and dusted with what tasted like a nutritional yeast based seasoning. The bravas was a quirky take with an assortment of veg. The nuggets were light and crispy with a tasty dipping sauce. The Barcelona ‘bomb’ was a tasty mushroom based,crispy dish with a good tomato sauce.

My main was seitan with a ‘Gouda’ and red pepper centre, served with two delicious sauces and excellent hasleback potato. It was a delicious dish, rich and creamy with a myriad of flavours. Every mouthful was a pleasure. Quite a unique dish that shows thought and imagination.

My daughter had the pad Thai. Sadly, she couldn’t eat it. On trying it, there was a very odd cheesy taste (nutritional yeast again?). The flavour was just odd and the textures not good either. The pickled veg accompanying did not seem to go with the dish and seemed superfluous.

The chocolate cake dessert was very good, a huge portion and a thick, rich chocolate frosting on top.

Overall, a mixed bag but clearly some excellent dishes, all very well presented. Perhaps you have to expect some dishes that don’t sit well with your palate in a restaurant that tries to be creative.

Updated from previous review...

Here’s the deal! I was in Barcelona for my birthday and we searched for vegetarian/vegan restaurants. Of course Teresa Carles came up. We went for lunch. The menu was confusing because there is the regular menu and a “special deal” menu. We were sat in a room far from the main entrance. We were the only people in that room. The guy who came first said that we would order either specials or from the regular menu. The waitress made it clear that the regular menu was not available only the specials menu which was very limited was available. We ordered from that menu. In all honesty the food was magnificent. Had the waitress been more relaxed the whole experience would have been different. At the end the waitress almost pushed us out of that room which then became empty. We thought they were closing for a siesta but the main room was full of people so it was not clear what was going on. I did make a reservation but upon entering the restaurant we were just taken to that far away table and I didn’t mention the reservation. Bottom line- the food is absolutely outstanding. The other reviews raving about the food are not wrong! The food is out of this world. Most notably the cheese cake which they said was vegan. I think that may just have been the most outstanding cheese cake we ever ate. It’s not clear how they managed to pull that off but that was one wickedly tasty cheese cake. But the atmosphere was rushed and the service was a bit nervous and not relaxed. I think that we might have come at a bad hour...