Txapela, Plaça de Catalunya 8 — Restaurant in Barcelona

Please seriously train or re-train your staff on basic service etiquette!!

My friend and I walked in for a quick bite on 10 Aug at 11am; was in a hurry as we have a train to Vic at 11:35 am so we quickly smiled , signalled and informed a service staff (a tall black curly hair guy with a beard and moustache without spectacles) we need a table for 2.

He was NOT friendly NOT welcoming and simply said ‘un momento’ and went away. I looked at the restaurant there were at least 3 or 4 sets of empty tables and not busy, but we understand that service frontline work can be tiring so we kept our peace and waited. However the same service guy then simply went around slowly settling the bill for another table at a leisurely pace, and after a few more mins of waiting we signalled and informed him we have a train to catch; and then he simply gestured to a empty table right infront of us. ( why couldn’t he have done so at the beginning?) We quickly decided in 1 min what to order but when we tried to catch the same waiter’s attention we noted that he was just not interested in serving us; he was even taking his time to crack a joke with another table right beside us.

That was the limit and we walked out.

It’s not that hard to show basic respect to customers; I have rarely posted poor reviews but this is really at another level of bad.

Really, why open a restaurant in town with a lot of tourists if you don’t intend to service the fast moving...

Do NOT go here. There are plenty of other wonderful tapas restaurants in the area, but Txapela is not one of them.

My partner and I went here for some last minute tapas and while the restaurant didn't seem that busy, we waited for about 15 minutes to get seated. Should've trusted our gut right there, but alas, we continued on.

Once seated, we ordered drinks and a round of 4 different tapas, 2 of which we NEVER received! My partner and I are fluent in Spanish, so we are certain that there was no language barrier issue. After watching our waitress, Julia, seat table after table, take their order and bring out their food, an hour had passed and we still hadn't received our tapas. After pulling her aside to let her know we were still waiting, she told us it was because "las personas en la cocina son nuevas" and to just wait. She moved on from us and never checked on us again. After an hour and a half of waiting, and seeing other tables eating the exact same plates we had also ordered time and time again, we finally decided to close out our check and go find another place to eat.

The best part of this story is that we still got charged for all of the plates we never received and had to pull Julia aside, yet again, to tell her to correct it. No apologies, no discount, no remorse, only a "vale".

Some of the worst service I have ever received in a restaurant. Only go here if you love leaving hungry and...

We took a seat at the bar, the stools were very comfortable and from that vantage point you can see the pinchos being made and have a chance or photographing and of course choosing the most tempting ones, but best of all the waiters treat you like you were their only client.

We had the chance to chat a bit with TMB (@s_s_wings) a beautiful African lady that's a joy to listen to the details of living in Barcelona and suggested my favorite of the cold pinchos we had, a soft shell taco filled with sweet soy sauce marinated salmon, cucumber and red onion... Delicious!

We had 2 large hot tapas: Fried chipirones with a fried egg on top sitting on a bed of potato wedges with alioli (ñam!). And small tomato & arugula salad with a nice herb sauce and tuna ventresca (it's considered the tastiest part of the tuna), the herb sauce provides a nice contrast to the olive oil used on the preparation of the fried chipirones& egg. Also delicious!

Besides the complimentary marinated salmon taco given to us by the lovely TMB, we enjoyed tortilla, serrano & another marinated salmon pincho with different sauces.

Four large bears, round up our lunch at Txapela for the very easy on the pocket 24 Euros!

This is a wonderful price if you consider they were large pinchos not a full meal, but it's definitely the way to go if you're seeing the City by foot.

Highly...