Can Roca — Restaurant in Girona

We were at Can Roca on Mon 7am hoping to get some Catalonia food for breakfast. After a 30mins walk on a cold morning to Can Roca, the gentleman told us that food is only available after 1pm. Items available for breakfast are sandwiches. We ordered our coffee €1.20 and left the restaurant shortly. We won’t expecting the coffee to taste good but it did. We’ve read the reviews on Can Roca and were looking forward to trying the food. We decided to delay our departure to Platja D’aro in order to come back for lunch. We took another 30mins walk back to Can Roca and arrived at 12.15pm. The gentleman recognised us. We got our beers and waited patiently for lunch to commence. There were many locals there at 12.15pm. They were helping themselves to the buffet food available at the counter. The buffet food looked tempting but we knew we could not finish the buffet lunch and have the set menu at 1pm. So we waited. It was very well worth the wait. We started with salad and soft boiled eggs with fries. Most Catalonia restaurants we went to do not have fresh salad on their menu. Hence this was a pleasant surprise for me. The soft boiled egg is a staple breakfast back home which we missed dearly. Glad to have it on a cool day in Girona. The touch of the fries gave the eggs a refreshing twist. We had noodles and cod with chickpeas broth for first course. Second course was veal with mushroom and roast pork cheek. Desserts were pannacotta and coconut pudding with pineapple. The ingredients were fresh and food was home cooked. Veal was tender, Fideus was fragrant. Desserts were just right. This set lunch is value for money at €14 per pax. We rate cod with chickpeas broth as the best dish we had in Spain. No regrets to delaying our departure and making the 2 hours walk in total to and...

We are completely confused. This restaurant is well-reviewed and the owner has published two cookbooks, so our group of 4 were all shocked to be served what could most accurately be described as hospital food.

The starter salad was not fresh and not seasoned.

The vegetable of the day was overcooked boiled potatoes and green beans with no seasoning.

The soup of the day was as thick as glue, and again, under-seasoned.

The fresh hake was deep fried and overcooked.

The "steak" was a cheap cut, maybe 3mm thin, and looked like something that would be served at a prison.

We sat at the restaurant looking at online photos from positive reviews, wondering if we had shown up on the chef's day off. We do not speak Catalan, but when our waitress came to clear our plates, and saw that we hadn't eaten some items, she made it clear that she understood why.

We had a dozen items. The pork cheek was decent. The ice cream was fine. The crema was fine. Nothing else. This was easily the worst meal we had in a MONTH...

Superb value menu del día (16€) with excellent choice of starters,mains and especially deserts. It's customary to also order as a supplementary dish the fried squid (10,50). The appetizer of egg and fries set the tone as it was delicious. This was followed by a creamy pumpkin soup to die for! The main a stewed lamb was also perfectly cooked. The best was saved for last a Michelin star quality pistachio flan!! Ohh almost forgot the fried squid a scandal it was so good!

Suggestions for improvements. The food was paired with wine that did not match the quality of the food. The white was ordinary, the red marginally better. I would change both house wines and raise the price slightly as the current wines fall short of acceptable. The waitress was fantastic but needs to be briefed by the kitchen team on how each dish is prepared to avoid waisting a...