Canalla Bistro by Ricard Camarena — Restaurant in Valencia

I am the first person to write a 5 star review when it is deserved (which is often prompted for here in Spain) but this is the most appalling dining experience I have ever had in my life.

I made a reservation for my mother’s birthday and the morning of, the restaurant called to confirm both that we were going to show up and that it was a special occasion which I appreciated.

Upon arriving, the staff seemed distracted and almost like we were an inconvenience when we got there. It was some time before someone came over to take our order at which time we both ordered the tasting menu dinner with the suggested cocktail to kick things off. We decided ahead of time that we would order the tasting menu to make things a bit special as we had an amazing experience with a similar style menu at El Almacen the week before. Unfortunately, things kicked off in a way that was not only unsatisfactory, but was a serious health and safety problem…

We waited quite some time for our cocktails and what we assumed were ours were delivered to the table next to us who sat down after us. They looked a bit confused but took a sip to try them and confirm that they were not in fact what they ordered (concerning in itself as we later realized that one of the people at that table does not drink alcohol and was served an alcoholic beverage). We are watching all of this occur and as the other table notifies the server, instead of acknowledging the mistake she does not take away the drinks right away and starts arguing with the other staff about who’s fault it was. Then finally accepting that the drinks were not correct, she takes them away and puts them on the bar top and continue to engage in a heated argument with the bartender and other server about the correct table numbers and trying to justify her mistake (while all other patrons are watching and can see what is going on…). Instead of focusing on the guest experience and just making new drinks they spend some time arguing and then she takes the drinks behind the bar (but from our seated angle we can still see what is happening at the bar well) AND TAKES THE SAME DRINKS THAT THE TABLE BESIDE US HAD DRANK OUT OF and brings them over to our table to serve to us. We can plainly see no new drinks have been made. She hasn’t even changed the straw… I can see where the straw was bitten and drank out of. When I asked her if these were the same drinks just served beside us, she raised her voice and talked over top of me as I was trying to inquire and walked away dismissing me.

In retrospect, we should have left at this point but when you are celebrating something special and are caught off guard like that in the moment sometimes the right thing to do feels like to just smooth it over and make the best of it. I am not going to go into such detail about the rest of our experience but it was unsatisfactory on all accounts. After her error it was clear that our server was avoiding us at all costs. Every table around us got top service and we were ignored. I ordered a bottle of wine for the table and it was ONCE AGAIN delivered to the table next to us until the server screamed across the restaurant for the person delivering the wine to give to us instead. While the man who delivered it did an amazing job and was very knowledgable, our glasses were never topped up, everything that was needed throughout the night had to be waived over for despite me trying to make eye contact. The food was just okay… and for such a special occasion and my mother’s last birthday on her last night visiting me in Valencia I could not be more disappointed. A birthday dessert was brought over at the end but honestly at that point we didn’t even want it. This is the only bad experience I have had since moving here and it is probably the worst I’ve had in my life both because of the health issue with the drinks and how our server specifically treated us throughout...

This was a very disappointing experience so I would suggest that Ricard Camarena visit his restaurant to try out these very boring bland dishes. I have been aware of this restaurant for some time and had read great reviews online so I decided to try it out with a friend who was visiting me in Valencia. We went last night, we had a table booked for 8 pm and arrived punctually. As the restaurant is called Canella 'Bistro' I did expect a cosy intimate environment however we were taken through the smaller dining area to a very large empty dining room which does have interesting pig head sculptures on the walls. Myself and my friend had already agreed beforehand to have the Sharing Menu for €36 a head and were looking forward to trying out each of these 6 tasting dishes which have an asian fusion element to some of them. We ordered a nice bottle of wine and were immediately served with two small puff pastry cones with a cold bland filling and 2 or 3 roe eggs on top, described on the menu as salmon tartare, avocado and wasabi. We both felt it was just OK, but did not get any of those flavours. Anyway hoped the next dish would be more interesting which was brought before we had even swallowed our last bite of the cone. Sadly this dish had no discernible flavour. It was described as Mozzarella filled with octopus, seabass, green curry and fried rucola. It was edible, but left no impression on us. We were still hopeful that flavours would improve. Almost instantly the third dish of luke warm tender onions roasted in a butter, dashi and katsuobushi sauce was put in front of us. My friend commented 'this just tastes like onions in a creamy onion sauce' and I had to concur. Again edible but nothing to write home about. At this point we realised things were not likely to improve as clearly the standard of these quickly dispensed dishes was mediocre. Next up (immediately) was the Pizetta Diabla (She Devil Pizza, I think) which the server said 'has a light touch of spice' ....we were left waiting for that spice! My friend commented on that fact that the edges of her slice were quite burnt, she left half of it. Actually the couple at the table next to us sent theirs pizza slice back as it had no chorizo topping. It was a total disappointment. The fifth dish then arrived which was pork dumplings in a sauce. They were fine, but I have had them many times in Asian restaurants so nothing different here. The last tasting dish arrived which was a steamed bread bun filled with pork pekin which was strips of thin meat in a sauce which was univiting and salty while the bread buns were thick and tasteless and we concluded that it was the worst dish of all. We were both really disappointed now, especially as it was going to cost us much more that any other meal we had enjoyed in the last few days in the city. We told our server that we had eaten the food because we had arrived hungry but that we did not enjoy it and would not be coming back. He apologised but obviously he could do nothing about that. The overall experience was flat...6 flavourless dishes served at Fast Food speed in a non-cosy environment. On the plus side the servers were efficient and polite. Bill came to €100. As we left, I could not help but notice the number of people having the burger and chips, perhaps that would have been a...

Something happened with the food lately. Pastrami sandwich with a new type of bread: deep fried. And too deep in my opinion. The oil left on the bread smelled not good and all in all the taste of the sandwich left an aftertaste of regret from ordering it. The sauce was too salty, the salad which it has aside looked like it was cooked 3 days ago and has been in the fridge since than and it had too much pepper and onion in it like an attempt to save and hide the taste of oiled fried bread, over salted sauce and sliced in a bit fat pieces pastrami.

We also had a crab-prawn bao with pan cristal. Again, another disappointment. Crab fried so deeply, that you had to fight through this breading to get to the crab meet. And again too much sauce and the bread deeply fried. Seems like there was an expert on breading machine who said “Today we gonna fry everything. Even think that has no need to be fried”

And the last of it: deep fried vegetables. Those we have ordered because I knew it WAS good. Cause I had it every time I came there. And it was the best dish ever. This time….i wish I haven’t ordered it. It used to be slightly deep fried vegetables with light kimchi sauce (not too liquid, neither too tick. Just perfect). However, what we were served with was a victim of the war that happened in the breading machine. Like vegetables and bread were the soldiers who were left in the boiling oil for an hour after everyone else were able to escape. And to spice it up the sauce of consistency of the paste were added. Maybe as an attempt to save the dish somehow.

At first I thought that it could be just some onetime mistake and we were unlucky ones to have this because someone was in a hurry on the kitchen and forgot about our food. That could happen. Unfortunately, the whole restaurant was served with this cholesterol feast. Which didn’t feel like a restaurant managed Michelin star chef

It’s a pity that a restaurant for me from the category “one of the best” turned out to be a disappointment. We ate everything but not because it was good, because it costs like 30eur/each

Although, have to say, the service and the staff...