La Barchetta — Restaurant in Candelaria

My family and I visited La Barchetta during our summer holiday with high hopes, as I'd read positive things about their food. Overall, the experience was a mixed bag.

Let’s start with the food: the pizza was quite good, with a delicious, well-balanced flavor. The pasta, while not extraordinary, was still enjoyable. It's clear that the kitchen knows how to deliver on taste, and the dishes were satisfying.

Unfortunately, the service left much to be desired. Upon arrival, we were seated at a dirty table, and we had to ask the staff to clean it. This wasn’t an isolated incident—throughout our meal, we noticed that the table next to us, vacated by previous guests, remained dirty the entire time we were there. It gave the impression that cleaning tables after customers wasn’t a priority here.

To make matters worse, our waitress seemed unmotivated, lacking warmth or enthusiasm. While I believe great service is just as important as great food, sadly, we didn’t experience that combination at La Barchetta. The quality of the food was overshadowed by the lack of attention to detail and care in the service.

Would I return for the food? Perhaps. But if you're looking for an enjoyable dining experience with both delicious dishes and attentive service, you might be...

This restaurant is located in the tourist area of Candelaria, right next to the main square. The atmosphere is cozy and welcoming, with nicely set tables and tablecloths creating a slightly more elegant touch.

As soon as they realize you are not local, the staff easily switch to English, which makes the experience comfortable for visitors. Our waiter was fun and made lots of jokes — definitely made the evening more lively and enjoyable.

We tried bruschettas with tomatoes and jamón, ravioli and lasagna. The bruschettas were fresh and very tasty — a nice start to the meal. Ravioli came with plenty of sauce — maybe a bit too much, but still flavorful and hearty. Lasagna was super cheesy. Seriously, very cheesy — so if you’re a cheese lover, you’ll enjoy it, though for us it was almost too much.

In general, it’s a good place for a filling Italian meal, with friendly service and a...

Disappointing. Not authentic Italian food. We ordered Calamari a la Napolitana. We have already ordered this before in Italian restaurants and this should be served in tomato sauce with herbs and spices. What we got was fried calamari with fries! We were actually shocked. Nothing Italian about this dish. The fries look pathetic on the side. Not sure if they are trying to please everyone by "Americanising" the dishes but not great. Service was slow but the place was busy, so this is something we can forgive. A lot of people ordered pizzas and what we noticed is that most of the pizzas were almost untouched or half eaten. Not a good sign when we noticed that. Maybe this place needs to review their menu, improve quality and...