Dempanadas Barrio de El Carmen — Restaurant in Valencia

Truly appalling tapas. The worst meal I have had in 10 years of travelling around Spain.

5 of us went into Valencia following a conference looking for somewhere to have a bite to eat. We made a grave error of judgement in stepping into this restaurant which had an appealing menu and good wine list. Service was attentive and fast which was good and the restaurant was clean and well appointed. The food however was awful. The croquettes were gross, the ingredients for other dishes were of low quality. The cheese platter was heap cheese on a white plate. The Jamon was low quality and cut far too thickly, the Gambas in oil was terrible, the octopus was flavourless and had not been boiled for long enough before the grilling- the marinate was flavourless. The patatas was awful with some cheap garlic mayo on the side. The alborino wine was nice. All in all we didn’t mind paying because our companies reimburse the costs and we were very hungry. I would never return.

Avoid...

The food and service was a joke (also pricey) WOULD NOT GO TO THIS RESTAURANT EVER! I had to create an account to give my first review on TripAdvisor/Google ever because I am still mad about the quality of the food and service at this restaurant. It ruined our Valencia trip.

We ended up here because it was the only place where they took us without a reservation. Had to wait at the door 20 minutes before someone came to us to offer us a table (even if the restaurant was almost empty). Then we had to wait another 15 minutes to get a menu. We ordered 2 paellas of 2 for 4 people which were not edible. Way too SALTY, BLAND, a bit burned and small. The Sangria was also the worst we had in Spain. We ended paying 75 euros for everything.

Would avoid...

Stumbled across this cute little restaurant while wandering through the El Carmen district with my boyfriend. The waiter was lovely, super friendly and had great recommendations. We tried eight empanadas (cut each in half€ and loved all of them. You can taste they are handmade and created with love and passion. All the fillings are well seasoned and generous, a few are quite original (goat cheese and pumpkin for example) the waiter recommended us the Classico which is his favorite and was really delicious. We also loved the homemade red chimichurri sauce , I need to get the recipe haha great lunch for 15€ (four empanadas and a lemon beer each) , great value for money and also super clean bathrooms. Thank you for a great lunch,...