Barcelona Wine Bar — Restaurant in West Hartford

Overall truly disappointed, this place is highly overrated, that’s the least I can say.

We reserved a table for 2 more than 2 weeks ago. When we arrived to the restaurant we were about 5 minutes late since we had trouble finding parking, the host told us that they were running a little behind on tables of 2 which was weird since we had a reservation for 6:30. We had to wait 45 minutes to finally get our table. Interesting fact, people who did not have a reservation also had to wait 45 minutes to get a table, so let me ask you, what is the point of making a reservation??

We were invited to go seat at the bar for a drink while we were waiting for our table to be ready. Bar was full so we came back to the lobby and waited patiently until our name was called. Nothing was offered to us to drink to compensate their lack of floor/reservation management. This is something that would NEVER happened in my restaurant.

Our table was right next to the bathroom 🤮🤮🤮

At this point, we were starving and already very annoyed of the wait so we did not make a fuss about it and sat down.

The waitress was nice and polite. We gave her our drink and food order at the same time since it felt like she was really busy. Food came wayyyyy before the bottle of wine we ordered. When I asked for it, the waitress seemed annoyed and answered me with a little bit of attitude. People (mostly man) were lining up outside of the bathroom and standing way to close to our table, it made us feel super uncomfortable.

Food was ok, nothing outstanding. The croquetas were cold in the middle. The gambas were not real gambas but small cheap shrimps that tasted nothing, no flavors. Super disappointing.

This place seems like they want to try to look like fine dining but it mostly feel like a cheap way of making a quick buck. Floor management is lacking competence. People who take the time to reserve should never have to wait that long for their table. It’s totally unprofessional.

We do not recommend and we will...

I made reservations on the website for 730pm February 14th. Big night for couples and dinner. The morning of I got a wonderful confirmation text to which I replied yes we will be there and are excited. I received a second text saying they look forward to having us. Then my date and I drive an hour, search for a parking spot which ended up being in the public parking lot, spent money to park till 1030pm because we thought we would have dinner and drinks and didn’t want to get a ticket for being late. As we walked up to Barcelona, we noticed a very long line of ppl waiting to get in. I thought to myself this is probably ppl who forgot to make a reservation no worries I did! But I was very wrong. Everyone in that line had done the same as I and made reservations. It’s now 745pm and we get word that people who had made 630pm reservations had not yet been seated. Now mind you it’s 9 degrees out with a wind chill of negative degrees. People are cutting line, voicing their disappointment, leaving because they are so mad at the whole situation. No other restaurant in the area had any problems. After waiting in line for an hour outside and had not made it into the restaurant, we left and ate at Chipotle across the street. Great romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. I’m highly disappointed with this restaurant. Would have appreciated at least one employee coming out to the obnoxious line and giving an explanation or even just acknowledging the problem. We might have dodged a bullet because I’m sure the wait staff were rushing guests and I’m sure the food wasn’t the best quality because I’m sure that was rushed as well. I will not be eating here again. I will not trust their online reservations system or their overall management again. In conclusion, when making reservations you can expect maybe a 30 minute wait, not a...

We booked a reservation for Valentine’s Day at 7:45. We expected and understood that Barcelona and many other restaurants in the area would be busy, but we were very surprised when we walked in. The front door and hallway to the host stand was packed between people waiting for tables, waiting to check in, and waiting for the bathroom. We were greeted and told our table wasn’t ready yet but would be sat shortly. We sit down on the bench and not even 5 feet from the host stand and maze of people waiting for tables is the first group of tables. Every table was separated by less than 6 inches between, we whispered about how we were wishing we wouldn’t be seated there. 10 minutes later we were sat in the first room of tables that had no separation from the lobby. It was nearly impossible for my girlfriend to scooch in to the booth. We were 6 inches from the 2 other couples on both sides of us. There was no privacy and it was very difficult to focus and have a conversation. We were warmly created by our server and had a fine time drinking and eating. The worst part of the night was when a party of girls above us began to chant loud enough to stop the entire restaurant from talking. I know everyone wants to have fun, but it just felt very rude and disrespectful to every other customer in the restaurant. The chanting lasted for much longer than it should’ve and just felt like a huge disruption on what was supposed to be a wonderful night. We were very disappointed with how we spent our Valentine’s Day dinner a Barcelona. The food was fantastic as always, but it was not a good experience. The restaurant was filled well over capacity, and was not an enjoyable and romantic dinner experience. We love Barcelona and have loved every other experience we’ve had there. We would just not recommend going on...