Tapes Gaudi

There was one thing and one thing only I wanted to eat while in Barcelona: paella.
While we were told by several locals that no restaurant’s paella was as good as their mother’s, the best places to get it were along the beach in this particular stretch.
I’ll admit it: we were tired, hungry, and grumpy because our flight to Rome that evening had been cancelled with no replacement or any other flights to Rome available, so we had to lose out a night at our hostel in Rome. So we already in a terrible mindset, but I’m still going to be objective. I do want to make it fair and admit this beforehand, though.
We were sat just inside the restaurant under a TV. Castle was on and dubbed over very, very loudly. We could hardly hear ourselves talk.
Our waiter was nice and served us quickly, so no complaints there whatsoever. He brought us water and a pitcher of sangria, which was pretty tasty. We ordered an appetizer platter of several tapas, and they were all really good. Those we certainly enjoyed. Then our dish of paella came out: a large skillet that smelled good and filled with seafood and a few pieces of chicken, as my husband doesn’t care for the texture of shellfish and the server said the dish was still relatively authentic in flavor.
I dug into the side which was closest to me, my sister on the side closest to her, and my husband on the side closest to him. My sister and I picked out the whole shrimp and other bits of seafood, and my husband ate the pieces of chicken. I scarfed down the rice, but my sister and husband sort of picked at theirs. They claimed it was salty. I agreed it was a little more salty than I cared for, but it wasn’t bad. Then I took a spoonful of rice from the portion of skillet they were eating from and took a bite. People, I don’t know how it happened, but that side was overly salty. Like, almost inedible. I felt really bad for them, and a little at a loss that it could have been so much more seasoned than my portion. Regardless, we had pretty much filled up on the appetizers and they filled up on meat and seafood enough that we were in a good place and decided to order after dinner coffee to chill out before we had to go fight with Ryanair to get to Rome.
For the price of the paella and the quality, it wasn’t there. The TV was obnoxiously loud, and this episode guest stared Ioan Gruffudd who I’m madly in crush with and I couldn’t tolerate it. The appetizer was good, and the server treated us very well, but none of us were happy about the only thing we wanted to eat in Barcelona.

Service by far makes this place a neighborhood gem. When I sat at the bar, I was offered drink options and seasoned dry snack mix while I reviewed the menu. Copa de Sangria (8 Euro).
Here are the options that I enjoyed since my body was overloaded with the usual BCN faire of jamon y queso, I wanted fresh veggies and salad. I started with the tuna salad, asparagus, & grilled veggies (eggplant, bell peppers, potato, grilled tomato, zucchini, with a zesty creamy dipping sauce). The balsamic asparagus was a little overlooked, I generally like mine with a crunch. Salad was similar to the French Nicoise style, but sans capers & anchovies. You will need a mint after all those onions.
The Seafood soup was AMAZING ! Perfect on a cold night, it was like a mild cioppino with mussels, clams, and big prawns. (10.50 Euro) The family ordered croquettas de pollo (4.90 Euro) which were ok, but my kids loved the albondigas (5.90 Euro). Meatballs were soft and swimming in a thick tomato based sauce which was delish.
Reasonable prices for outstanding service. You can take your time here and it’s great for kids. Modern design with flat screens pumping out pop videos. Plenty of outside seating and a great place for a large group to take over with no wait. Also, great for solo diners who want to dine alone at the bar.
I highly recommend and will probably frequent this place again since I’m in the hood and the server, Bakkali was so pleasant.