Telefèric Barcelona Palo Alto — Restaurant in Palo Alto

This used to be my sister's favorite restaurant in Palo Alto, but our recent experience has made it clear that the restaurant has taken a bit of a nose dive all around. This was the last thing I ate in 2022. I expected Catalan flavors, but all I had was regret.

[TLDR] Some serious downgrades in the overall experience. The tapas are a hit or miss with generally poor value for the price.

Do not order their house bread with tomato spread and chorizo butter. Absolutely failure.

The kitchen is outright not delivering food as was requested. Some items on the menu feel like an outright lie and an affront to Spanish cooking. (Akin to going to a Chinese takeout place in Michigan named Jade Palace and expecting authentic cuisine)

Service can be spotty and management seems to be taking cheap routes when mistakes are made.

Cannot recommend under any circumstances for the time being. [/TLDR]

Maybe it was because of the hustle and bustle of New Year's Eve, but there were some undeniable shortcomings every leg of the dinner.

OK, let's go over what I ordered. Tempura mushrooms, Dungeness crab croquetas, lecon empanadillas, a mixed paella, tartare & bone marrow, house bread, a gin and tonic, and their Christmas special cocktail.

Cocktails come out, the Christmas Affair cocktail has a vodka base, but tastes almost like juice. Yes, it did have that Christmas-y cranberry flavor in the background, but it didn't have the smoothness or bite of a proper cocktail. The Miro Gin and Tonic was supposed to be decorated with an image, but it came out normally. Worse off, compared to their previous G&T that used Tokyo gin and Turkish tonic, it tasted again like watered down juice.

Tempura mushrooms come out and for a second, we're a bit confused. We thought it was a complimentary amuse bouche, but nope, it's literally just 6 tiny bite sized button mushrooms with a bit of bleu cheese and tempura batter for $16.

The empandillas have seen some serious downsizing, because it's not really an empanada as much as it is 4 small pieces of gyoza. The sweet and sour pepper sauce is great and flavor-wise, it works, but again, what's going on with the portions? The old empanadillas were actually of sharable size.

Tartare and bone marrow was OK at best. It's missing some acidity because you're just topping beef fat and beef. Too much richness in one go. We shouldn't have had to rely on some leftover lemon from the paella to get the flavor profile right.

The house bread is just an utter failure. I thought the tomato spread would come separate like the chorizo butter, but instead they put it on top of the bread so the bread's already a little soggy when it comes. Now they expect you to spread the chorizo over the tomato spread. Did the person who put this on the menu ever eat bread and butter before? How was the simplest item on the menu such an utter failure??

The paela tasted fine for the most part. All the proteins were cooked tender and was palatable. But the kitchen did not cook it to have socarrat on the bottom. I made sure to mention to the waiter that we wanted burnt rice and I remember hearing him repeat the word socarrat after I ordered it. When we noticed that it was not as we ordered, we chose to eat it anyways. It tasted fine and I hate the idea of them just taking it back and dumping perfectly decent food. Refer to the pictures for it's doneness.

So now, after finishing up, I mention to our waiter that the paella wasn't done as requested, and he goes back to check the order list and tells me that they'll comp our dessert. OK, we order 2 burnt basque cheesecake. Look at the photos, now Google basque cheesecake. Notice anything off? At this point, I was wondering if we had ordered the chocolate slice, would it have come out as vanilla?

OK, fine, whatever, maybe it's busy, maybe this is a fluke. I just wanted to leave. We get the check, look down, they comped one of the desserts. Jesus, if that was the case, we would've just gotten the trio dessert.

This dinner was just a plain disappointing...

My husband and I walked into the Palo Alto location for lunch on a hot June afternoon while our kid was preparing to compete at Stanford Stadium, across the street. With numerous large parties in the main dining room, we were given the choice between the shaded patio and the air conditioned bar. We opted for the AC, but would have enjoyed the patio just 10⁰ cooler.

Marco greeted us as we sat with the option of still or sparkling water. A recent Barcelona transplant, he warmly walked us through the menu after confirming we had not visited the restaurant before. 10/10

Ubaldo was our bartenderfriendly and knowledgeable bartender. His service was impeccable and his suggestions were perfectly in line with our preferences. 10/10

We landed on the virgin sangria, Tuna Tacos, Pulpo Telefèric, and Bruselas. The plates were small, but the portions were perfect for the two of us. The Sangria was cool and refreshing in the heat, though I would have enjoyed more depth. It was certainly more complex than the mere juice cocktail typical of an alcohol free sangria. 8/10

The Tuna Tacos were made up of marinated ahi and mashed avocado in a fried wonton shell with dollops of garlic aioli and spicy mayo. They were served with a lime wedge, and through delicious on their own, the tang of the freshly squeezed lime elevated them to the perfect flavor bombs. 10/10

The Pulpo Telefèric was a grilled galacian octopus tentacle on a puddle of potato pureé flavored with pimentón and truffle oil. The octopus was cooked to succulent perfection, but we found the potato pureé lacking in flavor when compared with the tacos. 8/10

The Bruselas were large, halved Brussels sprouts roasted in basil oil and lemon-honey glaze, topped with manchego foam and pumpkin seeds. The flavors were perfect, but we found that the sprouts were slightly undercooked for their size. The crispy bits were perfect, but the large heads would have benefited from additional caramelization and softness. 8/10

This is not a restaurant to wonder into while struggling financially. The plates range from $10-$120 and an automatic 20% gratuity is added to every bill. We were surprised that the three small plates completely satisfied us and we left at just under $100. The food and service is worth every penny and we highly recommend a visit to either the Palo Alto or Walnut Creek...

Leaving a 2 star review because my first experience at this location did not meet my expectations.

Food quality was really good but I didn't think the portion and price matched. Paella-We had the weekend special paella and I was expecting a deep dish. When my wife started to mix the plate the spoon hit the bottom of the pan as soon as she passed a single grain of rice. Very shallow from other paella dishes I've had. We also asked for the bottom to be a bit crispy but that didn't happen. Pulpo- Delicious flavor and the meat was cooked perfectly, tender inside with a bit of singe Tacos- Fresh tuna with a combo of ingredients. Put together very well. Croquettes- The slice of bacon on top seems to get smaller every year from the pictures I've seen. But it's still worth trying as it was very delicious. Iberian Oyster- Very flavorful and the presentation was unique Salmon Tartare- The sweet chips with seeds went very well with the salmon tartare. Unique flavor to land on your palate Dragon Ball- This was a chorizo covered with a fried corn crust. It sounded good on the menu but the taste was okay. The chorizo tasted salty instead of spicy. Dessert- Had a trio that included french toast, tres leches, and churros. It's probably the worst churro I have ever had, worse than the churros that came back to Costco food court. The churro was stuffed with Nutella and the outside was maybe just overcooked so it tasted a bit stale. Didn't have the classic Barcelona style where you dip it. The Tres Leches would be my pick if you wanted to go with a single dessert. Had the perfect amount of pudding, cream and caramel. Service- Felt very slow. I had to ask the server for a refill of water every time, instead of them doing the normal rounds that they did for the other tables around us. We ended up spending 2 hours throughout dinner from several plates of food which most were bite sized. On top of all this "great" service there is a mandatory 20% gratuity included on your bill. I don't feel that we got a 20% gratuity worth of service. Overall, the food was good but I won't be coming back for another round. I enjoyed my experience much more in Barcelona than this copy of...