Espaivi — Restaurant in Tarragona

Espai Vi – Sometimes a place really pleasantly surprises you. This was Espai Vi for us.

Visiting from NYC, we were a group of 7 who, at the last minute, decided to cancel our other fancy lunch reservation because the weather turned out to be absolute perfection, and we wanted to eat outside. The Plaza del Fòrum is a charming little spot, and thankfully, Espai Vi was able to accommodate us for lunch.

At first, I was a bit skeptical because of their TripAdvisor rating. But after reading a few of the 1-star reviews, you quickly realize they’re pretty unjustified. Someone even complained that they don’t have a wine list—are you kidding me? That’s actually part of the charm! They have a little wine store where you walk in, pick your bottle, and they serve it for you. Don’t trust reviews like that.

Now, the food: really, really good. The tuna tataki and the carpaccio were exceptional. We also had two of the arroces, and they were excellent (and this is coming right after visiting Valencia, so we had a solid point of comparison!).

Like I said, sometimes you’re just really pleasantly surprised—and this was Espai Vi for us. A truly memorable, unexpected lunch...

It was my third visit to this restaurant, and unfortunately, for the first time we were a bit disappointed.

The food was - as usual - outstanding. Prices are really acceptable. You can choose a bottle of wine from their wine storage (it isn’t really a cellar, but still very fun to experience).

Apart from two members of staff, who were really kind and had a smile on their face, the waitress responsible for our table was the opposite. She didn’t understand a single word of English (we can translate our questions, so it’s fine) but she was really impolite. She opened our bottle of wine in such way that the lead from the cover fell into our wine, she put our plates on the table and completely ignored us when we asked for something else.

I’ll definitely come back, but the service this time was a real downgrade compared...

Disappointing meal. We ordered the prawns starter (about €20) and it was four prawns. The first two were tepid and the third was ice cold, we sent it back as we were worried it would make us sick. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever sent a meal back. The waiter said they were good because they’re cooked very high over the flame but I wasn’t convinced - the coldest one felt defrosted it was so cold. Also we ordered a dorada for main, priced by weight, and I asked how big the fish would be and tried to ask that it wouldn’t end up being too big and therefore very expensive, and didn’t get a clear answer from waiter. The fish was enormous and cost €50 for one main course, luckily we were sharing it. It was huge - they really could have warned us. A disappointing meal and wouldn’t...