Lori N.
Yelp
This old school style restaurant, with waiters sporting tuxedos, is known for its seafood. It definitely has a fun, lively vibe as it was jammed pack on a weeknight, with mostly tourists, it seemed, but some locals, as well. Keep in mind, however, that there's absolutely no modern flair to the restaurant whatsoever, just plain old school all the way. I would liken it to The House of Prime Rib in San Francisco, but with seafood instead.
Clearly, the most popular dish is the cold assortment of seafood platters (gigantic lobsters, jumbo sized prawns, oysters, crab, etc.) They are ridiculously huge, but that's what served on about 90 percent of the tables.
We opted for the fish instead, as we heard they were well known for their wild fish. Hubby got the hake, and I got the sea bream. Both simply, but excellently prepared. So flaky and moist! Probably some of the best fish we've ever had, at about $45.00 per person, which are prices no different than a high end San Francisco venue like Boulevard.
Note that we were charged about an additional $5.00 for bread, potato chips and olives that were brought to the table, that we did not request. Apparently, these are brought out to all the tables. Personally, I think we should've been asked in advance if we wanted them or not, and informed of the additional charge as well. This has happened to us in other restaurants in Barcelona, but certainly wouldn't go over well in the States. I'm not sure if this is standard practice in Barcelona, or whether we were wearing tourist stickers on our forehead, unbeknownst to us.
Service was very good and friendly, until they got really busy, in which case it took a good while to even get the check.
I'm glad we came to Botafumeiro, and if I resided in Barcelona, I'd return. However, as a visitor, I'd probably venture trying out one of the other many many wonderful restaurants that Barcelona has to offer instead.