Arcs Restaurant — Restaurant in Tarragona

We have just returned to the UK after a week in Tarragona and while we were here it was our wedding anniversary so we had to go out for a more formal meal somewhere. After looking at the many restaurants in the city we selected Arcs and booked our table ahead of our visit. The booking system is simple, and does issue a reminder when a few days before it requests a final confirmation for your booking.

The outside is a typical 'Alt' old town, a very solid building of stone blocks and inside it opens into a large space seperated by arches and is very atmospheric. The lighting is good and is at just the right level, we really hate places where it intrusively bright or just that little too dark to see what you are eating! The service is discrete but present when needed without having to find someone. The food itself was very good, well presented and tasting every bit as good as it looked. We were in a bit of a quandry on which wine to choose as I am happy to eat meat but my wife no longer does. We followed the recommendation of a local white wine taken from the wide selection available, this worked really well with our meal. We spent an enjoyable evening at Arcs which is a family run business who have an obvious passion for their restaurant and take care of...

Our favourite restaurant in Tarragona for a nice dinner to treat yourself

This is a hidden gem, not very visible from the street, but oh my. They have a really interesting menu that offers traditional dishes with interesting twists. The restaurant gave us an aperitif of an olive cream with turmeric and curry. For starters we had 2 half portions of a mixed salad with langoustines in a crispy wrap and a Parmesan ice cream and then an escalivada with tomato carpaccio, olive oil caviar and a twist on sardines and tapenade. For the mains we had the fish of the day that was corvina with patatas panaderas and confit peppers and then rabbit shoulders cooked on a mustard stew with barley. For dessert we went for the canutillos de arroz con leche with cinnamon ice cream and the crema catalana with orange juice sorbet. Really recommend all of them, each one was amazing. The staff was also super friendly, helpful and attentive. From outside it might look closed, but...

We attended as a couple and had the tasting menu. We had very high expectations but unfortunately didn't deliver for us. I will start on the positives. Staff were very friendly and attentive, they did try their best. The inside is a historical part of town so it's worth seeing. The portion sizes were very substantial we struggled to finish. The food itself was a bit of a let down. We went for tasting menu but no one asked if we had any allergies or things that they should avoid. They do try explain the menu but between our Spanish and their English some things were still a surprise. The dishes lacked textures for us and some dishes had random bits of lettuce and tomato thrown on a plate for colour I guess but added nothing to the dish. It's not most expensive menu but certainly not the cheapest so we expected something a bit...