Bocadero Bilbao — Restaurant in Bilbao

This restaurant is a beautiful dinner setting. The architecture is impressive with graceful arches, high ceilings and lovely accent lighting. However, don't let that fool you as it did my dining partner and I. The service is polite, if not quite welcoming. Upon arriving we were promptly seated by the young man that was also our waiter. For a while it seemed that he was the only one working there because he disappeared for a while, and we saw no one else until he came back to take our order. For starters we ordered a salad that looked great but lacked any seasoning and it seemed the dressing was just plain oil. We wanted to ask for salt and pepper but gave up because our waiter never came by. I ordered the pork ribs which were okay but once again, were rather bland. My dinner partner ordered the moussaka which he enjoyed but it wasn't really authentic. He couldn't find any potatoes and it was drowned in a tomato sauce. For dessert we both ordered what was described as "cheese cake". This was the greatest disappointment of all. What we were served was a slice of cream cheese topped with a small scoop of ice cream and drizzled with some sort of berry sauce. Yuck! I complained to the young lady that came to clear our table and she actually laughed and said, "Si, eso es lo que se sirve aquí". By the way, they charge €5.95 for that fake dessert. From my experience here I do not recommend wasting your money at Bocadero. Bilbao has so many better...

Well, we ordered Txipiones as a starter, not the first time we ordered them in this restaurant and obviously not not first time ordering them as we live in Bilbao. What we got was battered cardbord, lukewarm and super dry. So we sent them back. I saw the manager on duty tasting one, making a weird face, sending them to the kitchen. One minute later the watiress arrives and tells us "the kitchen says it's how they are supposed to be", you can have something else if you don't like. Then came the "chicken breast a la brasa". "A la Brasa" ? no, sorry, it was deep fried chicken. Not a la brasa, deep fried. Like a cheap chicken breast from a kebab shop.

overall nobody seems to care about what they serve there. It used to be a nice place with good sensible food but such experiences only show that the management cannot hold a standard very...

Excellent food and fast service. Maybe not the nicest staff, but they did their job in a competent way. Everything we ate was really good quality, and thanks to their speed it's a perfect place to go for quality lunch that doesn't take forever. You should try to come just before 2pm, because the second that people who work around the area get off for lunch, man does this restaurant fill up in an instant, and it'll take a while for you to wait for a table. But considering their overall affordable prices, I recommend you try to...