Naviera

We had a terrible experience here. Got sent upstairs (like everyone else), was greeted and seated by a very nice older gentleman who may or may not have been dipping into the sherry and given menus that were nothing like we expected.
When we didn’t know what to order, the older gentleman said he’d send over a sampler of «delicious tapas, the best you’ll have» and asked if we’d like wine. We ordered a glass of wine each and water. The waiter brought us a bottle of wine… we declined and he had to send the older gent over. The older gent says, «you wanted wine, you got wine». I corrected him with, «no, we ordered a glass of wine, not a bottle.» He got upset and walked away. (Note to self: check the bill to make sure bottle of wine is not listed. It wasn’t, fortunately.)
Next came our food. I don’t like shrimp… and guess what! there were three plates of about 5 shrimp each: one swimming in garlic butter; one wrapped in a potato crust and the other in some sort of batter. There was also a plate of thinly cut ham and another of bread with tomato paste and cheese. Because I was so hungry, I ate some of the shrimp, the bread and most of the ham (my husband ate the rest of the shrimp, some bread and ham).
4 hours go by and I’m in bed shivering with the worst stomach cramps I’ve ever had. You can only imagine what happened next… I don’t know if it was the shrimp or the ham, but something did NOT sit right with me and I was essentially out of commission for 24 hours. We managed to get to Parc Guell the next day, albeit I was enduring ridiculous stomach cramps and trying not to look like I’m gonna hurl in every picture taken.
Oh and the price for all this, around 80euros. Never. Again.
PS: I’m so sad that we missed Cervercia Cataluna. It was recommended to us by locals and we ended up at this place instead. :-(

I was part of a pack of forty friends who descended on Cerveceria Naviera one evening, for a pre-​planned dinner of tapas and sangria. Earlier in our Barcelona adventure, a couple of members of our group had met and been charmed by the owner of the restaurant: a little old man with a penchant for magic tricks. Apart from his obvious ability to seduce a couple of American women into thinking his restaurant was worthy of a return trip with three dozen others, his best magic trick was filling the upstairs dining room of his establishment on Las Ramblas, charging them $ 300 Euros per table and serving nothing but uninspired (and largely unidentifiable), greasy tapas and one glass of forgettable sangria.
This was my most expensive and least enjoyable meal during my six days in Spain. For $ 30 Euros each (tables with fewer people were simply charged even more per person!), we received bread; the aforementioned, single glass of Sangria; fried calamari; oily beef strips swimming in a clear, garlicky/​peppery pool; and batter fried shrimp. I would consider this all to be the stuff of low-​grade Chinese buffets back home.
Lesson learned: do not eat directly on the main tourist strip of Barcelona, where you are more likely to have your pockets picked by a gypsy than emerge from a restaurant having had a truly great – or for that matter, an authentic – Catalonian meal. Wander off the beaten path and seek the suggestions of friends who have visited this beautiful city. It’s hard to go wrong with food in this city, but we really did with this one. I managed to not get pick pocketed in the traditional sense on my vacation, but I certainly left Cerveceria Naviera feeling as though I’d been robbed of a much better night somewhere else.

A very cute grey hair catalonian grandpa insisted sitting us down and basically did our ordering — octopus tapas and a grilled fish dish. He was very friendly but strict, made sure we were taken care of, made jokes with us, yelled at his waiter boy (who was also at least 40 years old): OMARRRR! more than twenty times. It was a very entertaining dinning experience, but I won’t go back because our meal was 70 euros! And mind you that was just a lunch.
The fish dish the grandpa ordered for us was good, but not 20 euros good! It was the most expensive item on their lunch menu. Our own fault for not asking the price, but still left a bad taste in our mouth. We haven’t even had dinner that expensive this entire week of eating extremely well in Barcelona!

The amount of tapas bites offered here is mind boggling, but luckily you can peruse the display case stretching along the bar and just point at what you want. I had no idea what everything was, so I just started pointing at whatever looked good and started munching away. Everything I tried was just okay and there weren’t any stand out dishes that I would return for.
The service is a bit hectic, as they’re located right off the metro exit towards the end of La Ramblas and people are constantly flowing in. Overall not bad, but not great.

OMG!!! First night in Barcelona and decided to hit here first! I am a tapas whore!!!
This place was packed but I managed to find a seat at the bar where everything is just happen’n. FYI, don’t dine upstairs, you’ll be bored to death… be where all the excitement is. At the bar or at least by the entrance… so you can eat and people watch at the same time.
The fried baby fish… with a hint of salt and squeeze of lemon… ORGASMIC! That is my fave there. Everything else was good, but nothing likefired baby fish. As a matter of fact, I ordered another plate when I was done with the first one. YEEEUUUMMMM!!!
Then I hit another place to eat. On to my eating adventures.
Happy Eating!

WIns «The Largest ‘Cerveceria’ Sign on La Rambla» award (
). Possibly in all of Barcelona!
Street level is a bar serving tapas and pintxos (canapés). Upper level is a sit-​down restaurant. We just got a drink and some patatas bravas in the bar and did some people watching.
A few locals, but definitely catering to the tourist market.

La cervecería Naviera es un clásico en La Rambla Canaletes… pero no precisamente por su calidad.
Dada su buena situación, los turistas se arremolinan en este bar de tapas y se ponen ciegos a calamares a la romana como si no hubiera un mañana (y rima).
Sólo he estado una vez y creo que no me van a ver más el pelo.
Las tapas son poco generosas y el precio muy elevado.
Aunque es un lugar que siempre está lleno, no verás clientes asiduos en la barra, o conversaciones entre camareros y clientes. Se trata de una mera transacción sobretodo entre turistas. Eso sí, tú vas ahí y el personal te sabe hablar en 12 idiomas, aranés incluido.
No demasiado recomendable para morros finos en el tema tapas, la verdad…