Top tier paella here!! Would recommend stopping by if you're in Barcelona only for a day!! It's a great place for lunch just by the water to relax and enjoy some good food :)

It is one of the more famous restaurants in Barceloneta for paella. I ordered the paealla with chicken pork chop, beans, mussels, squid, artichokes, and sausage. Not surprisingly, it was phenomenal. The rice was perfectly charred and crisp on the bottom. The seafood was very fresh. Mussels and calamari dominated the dish. Similar to the rice, the calamari had a tasty char to it. Next, the chicken was tender and moist. The couple pieces of pork chop were good. The one piece of sausage was good too. In addition, definitely get some bread so you can dip it in the olive oil at the table. The oil was awesome. The main dining area is on the second floor. Try for a window seat because it has a beachfront view. I was also confused when I got to Barraca. There is a small door that leads up the stairs to the second floor. I confused the restaurant next to it for Barraca at first. If you are visiting the Barcelona and looking for recommendations, feel free to message me through Yelp and I can share my itinerary/ recommendations, which includes my Yelp reviews. The information for an electronic copy can also be found via my Yelp profile.

For some reason I was expecting a traditional looking somewhat touristy seafront spot that we would have trouble getting a spot at on a Saturday lunchtime. Instead the beautiful modern restaurant on the first floor looks out through large windows onto the sea and the crowd was heavily Spanish-speaking. Service started off slow with the drink order but then was very prompt for the rest of the meal. We had exceptional pan con tomate to start and then the seafood paella. The flavours had really seeped beautifully into the rice, I think helped by the shallow depth of rice in the pan. To my uneducated paella palate this seemed pretty good and ours was thankfully not too salty as others have experienced. Overall if you would like a delicious rice dish (albeit not paella per se) I would suggest you check out nearby El Xiringo, but I certainly would recommend this as a nice, elegant place to eat good paella, and it's good for large groups.

Because eating Paella on the beach is a Barcelona must-do, it was a no brainer to visit Barraca during my recent trip. Throw in a recommendation from Barcelona community manager Sharon A and I was really sold. What I love most about Barraca is the restaurant's open air feel. The second floor dining area has a massive wall of large windows that overlook the water which practically made me feel like I was eating my meal in the ocean. To start off the meal we ordered a bottle of white wine and were served a bowl of olives. If only complimentary olives could be served at the start of all my meals...sigh. For our meal we ordered the appetizer on special, fresh shrimp in garlic sauce, and a mixed seafood and meat paella for two. The shrimp in garlic sauce had phenomenal flavor. It was definitely very garlicky and strong, but too much garlic is never a bad thing in my book. I didn't love that the shrimp was peel and eat (guess I'm just lazy) but overall this was still a great appetizer choice. The paella for two was absolutely massive and came filled to the brim with mussels, squid, chicken, sausage, and artichokes and was very flavorful and well seasoned. The reason I'll knock off a star is because of the service, which was lacking. They literally forgot to bring us our paella. We began to notice that other tables around us who had sat down long after us were eating their paella...and when we asked the waitress we discovered that they had left ours sitting out, and essentially just forgot to bring it to us. Because of that, the paella was a bit burnt and dried out. And for 28 euro per person, that is really frustrating. Can you find better service and quality paella in Barcelona? Probably. But, fantastic Mediterranean views and a great vibe certainly make Barraca worth the trip during your next visit to Barcelona.