Barcelona

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

Barcelona is located in a rather quaint are of Columbus, almost in the midst of no other restaurants. The restaurant was much larger than what appeared from the inside, complete with wine bar. The decor created a lovely atmosphere that screamed Spain-inspired, but not your typical Spanish setting. I started out with the Foie Gras De Pato appetizer. For $16, this consisted of a piece of Foie Gras smaller than your palm on top of a cruncy (and tiny) salad with a sweet sauce. The dish worked well for me, even including the portion. At first my reaction was that it was much too small for the price, even if it is Foie Gras. However, towards the end (and I was sharing) I was finding myself ready to move on. Then came the main entrees. I ordered the seared bass and mussels on top of polenta with a white wine broth and my dining guest ordered the pork chops wrapped in bacon and filled with a chorizo mixture. Upon trying both, the better of the two was the pork chop. I found my dish to be disappointing. My fish was a bit undercooked and I found that the wine broth made the dinner a rather mushy one. The texture of the fish combined with polenta and broth did not provide any contrast, not to mention the fact that unless you are a diehard polenta fan, the amount of polenta ratio to fish and mussels was about 4 to 1, making the polenta mountain a bit much to handle. My friends pork chop, while better, was slightly overcooked with parts of it left dry. For a restaurant that toots its horn on having house made chorizo, it was like digging for a needle in haystack trying to find the chorizo filling. Overall, while it is not the restaurants fall what my friend ordered, I didnt find the pork chop to be anything new and exciting, but rather a dish several restaurants do (and do it better). We ended with a chocolate pudding dessert, which I must say, was out of this world. I couldnt stop eating it. A warm, perfectly made chocolate pudding filled a ramekin at the bottom, with a thin layer of chocolate bread (or cake?), topped with shaved pieces of chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream. Again, not a particularly new and exciting dish, but if youre going to have a classic on the menu, you should do it right and Barcelona gets high marks when it comes to their chocolate bread pudding. While the beginning and conclusion of the dining experience was lovely, Im afraid it is just too hard to overlook the huge gap in between that was lacking at Barcelona, which is why I give a final rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

HO

Howard Luken

I suppose its location and time of day but this place was empty on a Monday afternoon around 1 oclock. The lunch was excellent. A chicken salad sandwich with fresh fruit that rivals the one they have at the Granville Inn which is in turn a take on the original chicken salad sandwich at the Lazarus chintz room. Unfortunately those days are gone when Lazarus had a couple excellent restaurants and was the go-to place for shopping in Columbus. Ordered a nice bibb lettuce salad instead of the choice for soup on their $14 Prix fix menu. Nice hot coffee and excellent service but I suppose it helped that I was the only one there basically. Shouldve been a 5-star review but there is always that catch-22. About ten or fifteen minutes after I arrived I begin to get that faint whiff they call the Malibu stink in Malibu California. This is German Village in some areas still have a century-old sewage system and this building itself is a century old. Apparently they have the same problem you find elsewhere that without revamping all the sewage pipes under the building and streets you catch that ever-growing stench of human waste. Again I hate to say it because the food is so good but the smell grew progressively worse until I had to abandon the restaurant after quickly paying the bill. Folks there obviously are used to it or try to ignore it and the waitress and management acknowledged it. In the entrance areas theyre using some pretty strong air freshener so you dont notice it right off and you dont even notice it in the bathroom. Its obviously coming up through the old floorboards from the basement somewhere. Since its basically a poisonous gas and I seem to be more sensitive to it then say a smoker or drinker my sinuses and head begin to hurt. Folks you have to do something about that.

PA

Pam Pallett

The interior is very dimly lit and if you are there during happy hour, it is depressing. There is nobody actually in the restaurant at that time. Instead people are clustered at the bar, because happy hour only exists at the bar. The same apps and drinks on happy hr special are full price in the surrounding restaurant seating. The happy hour deals are good though ($4 drinks, discount on apps), although the cocktails dont seem to have much in the way of alcohol in them. Ive never been impressed with the happy hrs, though they arent particularly bad. I simply dont remember what I had the first time. But I did go there for a reception with tapas recently, and it was very poorly organized. About 30 min after it started, they finally provided a couple tapas apps. However, they provided no silverware or napkins. One of the items was some kind of corn and raisin salad mixed with curried mayonnaise. Absolutely disgusting, but then again, I dont like mayo. Would have been better dressed in a curry oil. But imagine eating that with your fingers... it shouldnt have taken them that long to realize we would need napkins. And it took longer still for them to realize forks would be a good idea. The other items were hummus and pita chips (which was good, but unremarkable), raw veg, and potato salad.

A

A Private User

My boyfriend and I have been to the Barcelona restaurant about 5-6 times before, and each time it has been great. Except yesterday when we went. We were seated and everything seemed like it was going fine until the waitress came out. First off she did not tell us the specials, which is usually what I end up ordering. Then we ordered a simple appetizer and she put it on our table after saying "sorry it went to the wrong table." Then she left. We assumed the food had been taken to a table and refused since they did not order it and we started eating it. (it was a plate of olives). After we had eaten about 5 olives each, the waitress came running back and took the plate away and said that the table next to us had been eating the plate and that service was sub-par for the restaurant. I then got very sick to my stomach. I could not eat the new plates she brought out. When she brought out the new plate she said there was no harm done because the other table had been using their utensils! Then she charged us for it after we told her we did not want the appetizer anymore. I know that experience ruined the restaurant for me. I wanted to throw up in my mouth, and I will never be back. If this happens to you make sure you ask to see a manager...looking back on it now that is what I should have done.