El Farolito — Restaurant in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat

SCAMMING TOURISTS ON CHRISTMAS DAY, HOW SAD, AVOID!

This is a difficult review for us to write but we always review honestly. First day in Spain and Barcelona we are looking for somewhere to eat on Christmas Day.

The restaurant has wonderful reviews and we know that Barcelona and Catalunya is famous for its 🥘 Paella so we decided to make a reservation.

We arrived 40 minutes later, nice inside and we are brought to a table inside before being told that those seats are already reserved but there is seating outside. We made no complaints about this but this is why we are leaving only one star because it's Christmas Day and we wanted to celebrate with the atmosphere of others instead we sit outside with a few people.

This is where the problem arose. We asked for the the normal menu to try the Paella that was well reviewed and we're told "it's not available as it's a Christmas menu only inside but we are outside and we're still given the Christmas menu.

We thought okay, it is what it is. Suddenly people to the left and right of us ordered Paella and got it and we were thinking how is this possible as we were denied this opportunity.

As we had already ordered our food we couldn't challenge the owner but we asked why we were denied the normal menu and they said it was a mistake from the owner.

They were surprised that we were making a big deal of it but we were very angry at being forced to pay a lot of money when we were given no choice.

The manager came out and gave us a bottle of Cava which was said as an apology from the chef/owner. A discount would have been the best option we felt and we ended up paying a lot of money for something we didn't go there for.

The staff were lovely and kind and answered all of our questions and apologized on behalf of the owner.

The food was basic, very cheap food you can get anywhere in Spain, nothing festive or Christmas about the menu but they think foreigners won't know the difference, nothing amazing for what we paid.

Tell me with the food in the pictures that it is worth 90 euros.

I welcome the...

During our stay in Barcelona we happily returned to El Farolito about 4 times to try each time another item from the menu. We were nothing short of amazed by the food cooked in this little piece of heaven.

We have tried some of their tapas such as the patatas bravas, cured iberic ham or aubergines with soy sauce and honey and all were a delight. Their pizza was also quite tasty, made with a soft fuzzy dough and quality ingredients.

After seeing how good the food had been in our previous visits, we’ve decided to try the Seafood Paella and let me tell you that it was a feast! Fresh, colourful, tasty and plenty, just to describe it in a fee words. Sadly we didn’t took any photos of it because we were hypnotized by the way it looked and smelled that all we could think about was to taste it faster.

I know everything I wrote above sounds good but I haven’t even told you about the best part yet. During our visit we wanted to experience an authentic spanish veal steak and since El Farolito hasn’t disappointed with our previous meals we thought to give a try to their Entrecote and Solomillo a la brasa. All I am going to say is that they were exquisite. Perfect flavour and texture, with a rich taste, it was a steak we’ll not forget anytime soon.

Later in the week we even tried the same steaks in another specialized restaurant with stellar reviews and considerably higher prices and let me tell you that they weren’t nowhere near the level of quality or taste offered by El Farolito.

Make sure to also try their fresh Sangria or even their selection of draft beers which will be served in frozen glasses for a much needed cooling during a hot day.

Kudos to the friendly staff as well for entertaining a cheerful atmosphere all around the venue that make you experince to the fullest a...

I chose this restaurant based on all the glowing reviews.

Big mistake.

Someone praised the paella - exactly what I came for. So I ordered the seafood paella for one person.

What I got was an absolute insult.

One prawn in the shell with the head still on. Three sad little mussels. Two scallops. A few tiny cubes of squid — literally 3 or 4 pieces. That’s it. For a "seafood" paella.

Not a single proper shrimp apart from that one lonely prawn. Seriously?

The rice was drenched in oily tomato sauce. Not even close to real paella - just a sloppy, greasy mess made for clueless tourists.

It felt like they couldn’t care less.

And all that for €17.50. An oily plate of disappointment for nearly twenty euros.

Add a €6.50 pint of Estrella, and you're at €24 for one of the worst meals in Barcelona. That’s not restaurant pricing — that’s a straight-up tourist rip-off.

Just to compare: the day before, I bought a paella from Mercadona for €5.50. It had more seafood and more flavour.

That says it all. I’m just glad I ordered the paella for one - otherwise, I would’ve paid double the price just to fill up on oily, tomato-flavoured rice.

I wouldn’t mind paying a proper restaurant price if it meant getting real paella!! — with actual prawns, squid, mussels, maybe some fish. But this? This is not the place.

Photos attached — no...