Can Ros

My husband and I came here for a seafood lunch. We ordered the grilled prawns, cockles, razor clams, and the fideua. The prawns were delicious and a steal at 8 euros. The cockles were kind of gritty and overly salty but still fun to try. The razor clams were 14 euros which is a little pricey but they were delicious and had a butter pine nut sauce on them. The fideua was very disappointing. We had been wanting to try this dish and the menu said it would contain seafood. The entire pan had 4 mussels total in it. The flavor was also very generic. It tasted like tomato and chicken broth. We also didn’t see on the menu that it said the minimum was 2 orders. Our sever did not mention this fact to us, and we were surprised when we saw our bill and the dish cost twice what we expected it to cost. This place is decent, but come for the prawns.

What a bummer…
I write this review in the hopes that I can steer at least one lucky diner away from the same mistake we made.
Can Ros may have been around since 1911, but there’s no way they survived that long serving up the bland excuse for paella we had the misfortune of consuming this evening. The waiter must’ve listed off 12 different sea-​faring species supposedly included in their seafood paella. We counted two and a half — some sad-​looking shrimp, a handful of mussels, and some sort of flavorless, textureless fish/​fish-​substitute. At the very least, they could have covered their tracks with some semblance of spice or flavor. But alas, it was nowhere to be found.
To be fair, we should have known better when we walked in at 9pm to a virtually empty restaurant. But we’d come on the recommendation of a local who must’ve still remembered the glory days of this long-​forgotten relic.
Do yourself a favor and steer clear.

Hemos disfrutado de un menú de mediodía de día festivo y la comida estaba buena, no obstante algo ha sucedido y le ha bajado la nota…
Cuando hemos entrado, hemos visto en la pizarra que el menú incluía algo de bebida pero al entrar y sentarnos, han sacado la pizarra precipitadamente y han borrado algo, entonces cuando hemos preguntado que entraba de bebida, misteriosamente no entraba nada… Entiendo que estuviera por error, pero así en nuestras narices no lo veo serio!
La comida buena, y casera! el bacalao estaba delicioso, las raciones son justas aunque te dejan lleno, pero no esperéis platos a rebosar. El menú de sábado sale a 16 (bebida y café aparte), no está mal…
El servicio como apuntan otros comentarios, correcto pero quizás demasiado rígido, le falta cordialidad. Eso si, todo muy rápido!!!
En resumen, recomendable aunque quizás en la Barceloneta habiendo otros restaurantes muy buenos… No sería mi primera opción

Not bad, not good. My wife and I got the menu of the day, she had the fideua and I had a grilled squid. I found mine a bit bland, and seemingly more sauteed than grilled. The squid was fresh though. My wife liked hers, but I think I just don’t like fideua that much. Also seems rather bland and starchy in taste. My dessert truffles with crème fraîche were excellent. Service was not so friendly, but not rude either. It wasn’t busy or crowded, so maybe he was having one of those days.

We found ourselves a bit lost looking for Can Ros, & a señor (who noticed me & my cousin trying to figure out where we were in my City Maps 2GO app) pointed us in the right direction. When he found out where we were going, he said, «Can Ros! Very good, but very expensive».
When we got there, they sat us somewhere in the back. The place, while in a pretty ungentrified corner of Barceloneta (it seemed), had a rather ‘upscale’ feel to it. I think I was wearing sneakers or flip flops that day, because my feet suffered from bad shoes. I felt that we might’ve looked too ‘casual’ for the place, & told my cousin that my theory was that ‘underdressed’ people were sat in the back. I wouldn’t shut up about this theory (I srsly needed to stop), until I got up to see what the others sitting around the front were wearing: some were in sneakers, & others had on flip flops. The place was just full. Doh.
Our first paella in Barcelona, we ordered from a tourist trap — an allegedly exceedingly franchised place, on Avinguda Diagonal. Big mistake (huge). That paella tasted like it came from a mix — like they just added water to it, stirred it for 5 minutes in the plastic cup it came in, then served it to gullible tourists that would believe it to be paella. That day, these gullible tourists happened to be me & my cousin.
The Can Ros paella was the exact opposite of that tourist trap paella. It tasted exactly as it should’ve: like seafood. As in fresh, flavorful, tasty seafood that was masterfully cooked with rice. You could literally taste the essence of the sea (that good, fresh essence, not the stinky kind) in every morsel of that paella. Yum.
Apart from the paella, we ordered an appetizer (their bread with tomatoes & olive oil rubbed onto them) & 2 orders of cava, plus 2 bottles of water (this isn’t free). Our bill came down to € 47, but that’s so far the best paella I’ve ever had in my life.

«The Road Not Taken» of Paella restaurants in Barcelona, and a great one.
A couple rules of thumb:
Avoid any restaurants along the boardwalk (in Barceloneta) in general.
AND
Definitely avoid any restaurants with the pictures of the paella on a big sign in front of the establishment.
Just because the restaurants on the main paseo may be showing the Barça game and pestering you as you’re walking by, hungry, do NOT under any circumstances, fall for their tricks. Hands down, Can Ros is one of, if not my favorite, places to get paella in Barcelona. The paella marinera is muy deliciosa, but I couldn’t not tell you about the paella negra (in squid ink). I just gotta share the Good News. If you can, get both!
Although the paella is usually our main reason for coming, the tapas are good too. Pan amb tomaquet /​Pan con tomate, bravas, jamón – the standard stuff is yummy as the wine selection.
Getting super nostalgic (and hungry/​starving/​famished/​starting to drool) just thinking about this little Barcelonista gem!

Definitely get the seafood paellas here. They were the best I had in Barcelona. The pan con tomate was just ok, but everything else was delicious.
Servers were brisk, but nice. We closed down the restaurant but never once felt like we had to leave. Great place to go to after a day at the beach!

We’ve been in Barcelona a week or so – I’d have to say the food we had for lunch here was the best we’ve had so far. It’s a local restaurant, on a side street in Barceloneta, not far off the main drag, but far enough so that it’s not so easy to stumble upon. No water view but that’s OK, the food is the reason to go there. It seems to have been in business for 100 years, so I guess it’s a bit of a local institution. Yet it was not hard to get a table in the thick of lunchtime. I am pretty sure we’ll be back there later on this visit.

Cerrado por reformas, anuncia un cartel de este centenario lugar, que reabrirá sus puertas en mayo y en el que se puede saborear un buen menú por 10 €. Las fideuás y los «suquets» son una de sus especialidades. Porque todo lo que he probado aquí está muy sabroso. Pero recomiendo fervientemente el bacalao gratinado con langostinos. Volveréis a repetir.
Otro de los encantos del lugar es su decoración marinera con barcas de pescador y redes, y que conserva la estructura inicial del lugar que data del siglo XVIII, con sus mesas que recuerdan a camarotes de un barco. Allá por el 1910 el matrimonio formado por Carme Blanch y Ramon Cid decidieron emprender el negocio, que ahora, casi 100 años después llevan sus nietos, y que esperamos que tras las obras no hayan modernizado en exceso. Porque si algo tienen de especial estos lugares, es ese sabor añejo que ha dejado la huella de los antepasados.

Con un siglo de historia a sus espaldas, este restaurante familiar (que ya va por la quinta generación) de comida tradicional catalana y marinera, es uno de los más míticos y populares del barrio de la Barceloneta. Su especialidad es el arroz a la marinera que se puede degustar por unos 15 €. En su web hablan de un ambiente familiar y acogedor pero los camareros no son especialmente amables aunque sí muy profesionales. La decoración hasta marzo de 2011 respetaba básicamente la idea original de la taberna que abrieron sus fundadores. En estos momentos permanece cerrado, atrévete a descubrir cómo lo dejarán a partir de mayo que es cuando tienen prevista su re-​apertura. Como plus, es importante tener en cuenta que si eres rápido comiendo, tienes una hora gratuita en el párking de Joan Borbó o en el de la Plaça del Mar. Te recomiendo ir en transporte público si eres de los que se lo toman con calma, el servicio no es demasiado rápido y la buena comida hay que disfrutarla sin prisas.

Ich war mit einer Gruppe von Freunden eine Woche in Barcelona. An unserem letzten Abend wollten wir gut essen gehen, auf jeden Fall was mit Fisch bzw Meeresfrüchten.
In einigen unserer Reiseführer wurde dieses Lokal als sehr gut und günstig beworben und da einer von uns bei seinem letzten Barcelona-​Aufenthalt dort schon mal sehr gut gegessen hatte, entschieden wir uns für das Can Ros.
Es war schrecklich. Das Essen war überteuert. Die angebliche große Tapasauswahl existierte nicht (zumindest nicht in den deutschen Karten, die natürlich auch höhere Preise auswiesen, als die spanischen). Das Essen war mittelmäßig (Fischplatte) bis bäh (Scampi, total ölig, ohne jegliche Beilage) und nach dem für uns Studenten äußerst teuren Hummer hatte ein Freund zwei Tage Durchfall.
Der Service war praktisch nicht existent.
Das war eine harte Probe für unsere bis dahin glänzende Urlaubslaune. Nie mehr!