Tapas Boatella — Restaurant in Valencia

The waiter was good. We managed to order and get what we wanted (we thought). We saw this place was very busy with people a few times so we decided we wanted to try it while we were in Valencia. Last night we saw that there was a table becoming free so we jumped on it. We decided we wanted to try a few different things so we looked at the prices and chose what we thought were a few of the smaller dishes so we could have a variety, but the Spanish version side of the menu has higher prices and we didn't notice it because we don't speak Spanish. It turns out that the higher prices on the Spanish menu are for bigger "tapas" and we thought we were ordering "tapitas" - so when the bill came it was much more expensive than we thought :-( the waited said he gave us the bigger size (despite us ordering many different things between the 4 of us and he didn't ask yo clarify...). We were so shocked at the cost. They also charged us 2.20€ for a tiny beer when we could see on the menu that for 7.50€ you could have a 1litre jug. We felt like they took advantage of the fact we are ignorant foreigners.... Which was disappointing.

The food was OK. The paella had 1 mussel, 2 small rings of calamari and 2 mini chicken drummers. The chicken croquettes, meatballs, potatoes and fried fish were good but the cod croquettes were super salty and hard to eat. We thought the portions were small compared to the price.

Overall we enjoyed our meal because we were on holiday but for 70€ for a few coffees, 2 tiny beers and some food we thought it was over priced and the unpleasant shock after reading the English prices and the actual bill just...

The food was quite good (at least not bad). But our impression was spoiled by the service. We (me, my wife and a friend of ours) ordered several dishes and mejillones (mussels) among others. Also we ordered bread to dip it into mussels sauce (it's delicious).

Waiter brought us all dishes but bread and gambas al ajillo. We reminded him to bring the bread also. He didn't. We ate mejillones and reminded again. He brought bread to the tables next to us (but not to us).

We were hoping to eat bread with the sauce of gambas. We waited about 25 minutes for gambas - no luck. We called him and reminded, he said it was in progress. But obviously he forgot, because he brought it in 2 minutes after that. And no bread again!

We reminded about bread - and no bread again. We ate the gambas (with very disappointed and unpleasant feelings) and asked another waiter for bill. Our waiter brought us the bill with bread included :)

I pointed out the error and our waiter changed in face. He was really dissatisfied and he immediately removed bread from bill (so he knew he hadn't brought it to us). So we spoiled his impudent attempt to extra charge us.

So this unpleasant guy gave us unpleasant experience of this place. Probably he didn't like us because we're foreigners (though we speak spanish), idk.

All in all we won't...

A MUST visit restaurant in Valencia. This was by far our best experience at a restaurant during our stay. Unless you go before 19:00, be ready to wait on a longish line but well worth it!!! The food is absolutely amazing. Don’t get misled by low reviews! Furthermore the prices are extremely hard to argue with. If anything it should be more expensive… we hade 1L sangria, mixed paella, patatas bravas, chorizo with patatas, the typical bread with tomato (tapas size), grilled sardines (which we saw another couple order), and watermelon as a dessert… all this was 54€ and definitely an unnecessary amount of food for two people. I’m genuinely dreading writing this review right after we ate due to a full stomach with deliciousness😂.

Apart from the 10/10 food, the service was no different. I suppose it depends on your luck with waiters, but our Carlos was exceptional. His English is perfect. Took the time to explain everything we asked for despite the packed restaurant and long line. Extremely calm and cheerful.

All in all great experience and a lovely two nights.. and a third tomorrow… spent. Strongly recommend spending at least one evening there!

Please send Carlos my best wishes if you ought to have him as...