La Gavina

I came here in 2013 and remember it being the best meal during my visit– so I came back in 2015… Twice in three days. Excellent food. Never mind that it’s in a touristic area, it is truly quality food.

Our Concierge at the hotel recommended this place. It’s located in the touristy Port section of town. One of many seafood restaurants on the strip it proved to be not more than mediocre in food and service. We had the paella which was disappointing. There are so many great food spots in Barcelona. La Gavina isn’t one of them.

Our tour guide recommended this restaurant to us because he himself enjoys eating here. It definitely did not disappoint our palates! We enjoyed the location because it’s by the water and the location is big and clean! They have seating indoors with air conditioning and outside seating with a lot of umbrellas for shade. Just be aware that smoking is allowed at all outside dining tables. Right away you can taste how fresh the ingredients are in all of the dishes! The menu has a lot of variety to choose from. What enjoyed when we came:
1) The noodle paella: Not many restaurants have this type of paella, believe me we searched the menu at other restaurants we visited on our trip in Barcelona and no one had it. Or they didn’t make it the same way as La Gavina does. The flavors in this simple dish that consists of noodles and baby cuttlefish are delicious! The cuttlefish is cooked perfectly, not chewy at all. The lemon aioli that they give you to put on top of the noodles when you eat compliments the flavors perfectly. We enjoyed this dish so much he had to come back to this restaurant at the end of our trip one more time just to have it!
2) Galician Octopus: It’s a Catalan dish. The octopus was so fresh and they cooked it perfectly that is was so tender!
3) Blistered padron peppers
4) Filet mignon with fois gras on top: Cooked perfectly and the fois gras was nice and buttery!
5) Lamb rack: Also cooked to perfection.
6) Grilled squid: Fresh and not chewy, cooked nicely!
6) The pitcher of sangria! Better value for the four of us sharing, or that’s how we like to make ourselves feel a lot better for ordering a whole pitcher!
I definitely will come back if we make our way to Barcelona again!
Restrooms: The restrooms are downstairs. If you need assistance they have a built in chairlift to help you down the steps. The bathrooms are separate for men and women. The women’s restroom has two stalls, it was clean and stocked with toilet paper. In Barcelona they do not have toilet seat covers.

Group of seven. Average «eatable» Paella Perelada. Take a eternity to arrive, more then regular 25′. My Gazpacho good with poor resolved «croutons» followed by a very good Bacalao al ai I oli. Correct staff. Little bit pricey for the paella (scarce seafood).

I’d say the food was okay. It’s a very touristy place. The reason I gave a two-​star is because of that one of the waitress was very rude. She gave me a frowny face all the time, and taking away my plate without asking if I had finished or not, etc. Maybe she was just having a bad day? But I’d never expect a waitress like that in a restaurant that I pay more than € 20/​dish. Otherwise, I’ll give a 4 star for the location and 3 star for the food.

Good food. Shrimp, avocado, orange salad was excellent. Shared the salt baked fish with my husband. He loved it. I thought it was moist but flavorless. Catalan crème brûlée was terrible. Strange consistency. Nice location right on the marina, but being on ground level surrounded by a screen, all you see are the tops of sailboats and heads of tourists walking by.

We ended up in this place because the restaurant we were heading to was closed that day. We were positively surprised considering the last minute decision. The food was excellent and the service very attentive. We tried the paella (20 – 25 €) and it was much better than other places we tried and were recommended to us as «must-​go». Overall an excellent dinner with very good food.

Again — it has been awhile (ok…a very long time) since I dined here but here is my take:
Definitely an overpriced tourist trap. In spite of this, during my few days in Barcelona, we dined here twice — I had the seafood paella and the sole. I remember that I really liked the sole. I was surprised that when it was brought out to me, the server de-​boned and removed the fillets for me right at the table. Probably a normal thing but I was impressed with his poise and skill. Too much time has passed for me to remember if we waited a long time or not. The food and view was good — the jury is out on whether or not it was worth the expense.

Un peu cher mais bonne cuisine de produits de la mer: très bonne paella

Very touristy, but the seafood and the veggie paella is very good and if you find yourself near the waterfront, it is worth trying.
The outside seating on the water adds to the setting.

Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco
San Diego’s Ocean Beach
Any skyscraper restaurant in most of the world
Just about any restaurant inside Disneyland (Never eaten at Club 33)
These are the great tourist traps of the world. Of course, sometimes you’re a tourist. Somehow, this restaurant got onto the itinerary for the trip. Egads.
You know, the view of Montjuic is very nice from the open front of the restaurant — but the food was pricey (between 24 and 40 euros for mains), the service flustered and discontinuous despite there appearing to be plenty of staff around and the food — Meh.
It would 1 star except for the view and it’s immediate presence on the Embarcedero/​Puerto — which made for nice people viewing.
The giveway? The entire restaurant was tourists. No locals.
NEVER a good sign LOL
sigh
People were in khakis and oxfords — and lime green running shorts and t-​shirts too.
Would not repeat except for drinks and that view.

Nice place near the Barcelona harbor and close to Barceloneta (and it’s beach). Went there on the last day of my trip and ate some Paella with Seafood, was good and but could have had more seafood for the price.
Desert was amazing, took the sortie of cakes (5 – 6 different deserts, small portions) on one place with ice-​cream, AMAZING, would recommend.
It’s a bit of a tourist restaurant, employees were very friendly and helpful.

My husband and I had the paella, the seafood and the mixed. Both were delicious. The service is friendly and prompt and the location on the marina is lovely.

Was in Barcelona for a week and came here twice. We had the clams for appetizer, and tuna for entrée. Everything was delicious.
The servers were nice enough to bring my friend a dessert with a candle in it for her birthday as well.
The atmosphere is great and if you sit outside you look out over the marina.

This restaurant serves really bad food. Expensive bad food. I and my friend both ordered roast of lamb. What we got was a completely tasteless roast on top of a slathered on almost mush of overcooked and then fried slices of potato and carrots in a yellowy also tasteless broth. And it wasn’t even all hot.
Of course we sent it back. To their credit they didn’t complain. They did not seem surprised either, nor did they apologize.
We instead ordered monkfish. What we got wasn’t tasteless like the previous dish. It tasted salt. Only salt. We didn’t complain this time, realizing no complaint would turn this experience positive.

difficult to review
food portions were large; food was good
just somewhat overpriced compare to comparable in other parts of town
you are paying for atmosphere; and location; which were both nice
great for people watching, as directly at port

After perusing the menus of the adjacent restaurants, we decided on La Gavina based on their menu del dia.
The portions were quite substantial and we were actually pretty sated after the first plates (salad with foie gras, pasta with shrimp). The second plates were very tasty and again very generously portioned (lamb loin with a cheesy potato galette, and grilled tuna with vegetable ratatouille).
We finished off with chocolate mousse cake with orange sauce (light and not too sweet) and complimentary glasses of cava.
It was 25 euros/​person for the menu del dia, but well worth it for the quality and portion size.

Fun, fun times at La Gavina during a family visit in Barcelona. This place is located by the water. On the pier so to speak. The service was amazing. The wait staff was always there to attend to your need. My mom was craving paella (she was reminiscing on how my grandmother use to make hers) so we headed off to La Gavina. Anyway, we all ordered paella as well as Sangria to polish it off with. The chefs were so wonderful that they brought out the paella, still on the pan to show us how it was and how it’s coming along and headed back to the kitchen to continue cooking/​finish cooking it. The servers also gave us complimentary bottles (I stress the «s» since they literally just kept bringing out another bottle until we had to say we were done) of champagne. My grandmother even got a little tipsy, she was so cute! We had a great time with our servers, talked to them about their families and even took photos with them. Fun times in Spain. Overdue for summer trip.

Au bord de la mer…
Un restaurant au bord de la mer, sous le soleil couchant de Barcelone, un vrai comte de fée… La vue ainsi que les plats proposés n’ont d’égals que le prix élevé de la note que vous allez régler. En effet, tout est délicieux et raffiné. Nous cherchions un restaurant proposant une paëlla digne de ce nom. Nous avons trouvé a la Gavina ce que nous imaginions, une paëlla excellente et copieuse, j’ai choisis une paëlla à l’encre de sèche (paëlla negra) accompagné d’une crème à l’ail particulièrement gouteuse avec le plat. Le tout très copieux pour ceux qui ont peur d’avoir faim après je né suis pas arrivé jusqu’au bout. les desserts sont tout aussi fins et originaux. Pour la boisson nous avons testé leur sangria très fraiche et sucré. Le service est à votre écoute, limite un peu trop distingué, mais qui va de mise avec ce genre d’établissement. Le seul point noir est la note, né comptez pas vous en tirer pour moins de 40 euros par personne sans les boissons, un peu cher mais vous né’oublierez pas ce restaurant de si tôt.

On y mange pas mal mais pas trop le choix
On n’a pas trop le choix en regardant la carte car l’on trouve quasi que des pizzas même si elles sont bonnes et pas chères, moins de 12 euros.