Short story: Stay away, this place looks great, has a smiling staff and stylish guests, but I got food poisoning here that put me down for several days.
Long story: I am a very well traveled person who eats carefully, but diversely, and I've rarely had any problems with food poisoning, or something not agreeing with me -- my point, I've got a tough stomach. But my body was no match for the food poisoning at this place. I'm still so angry, despite the fact that this happened almost almost 9 months ago. Because it had such a huge impact on me, my business trip and my colleagues with me, I still can't get it out of my mind.
When you walk up, it looks like something out of a movie. Outside tables that look just as nice as the inside, server staff that are cool looking and generally nice. The host, a kind of creepy guy who was smiling so much and being so weird, to this day I wonder if the food poisoning was somehow deliberate. Anyway, I ordered the shrimp ravioli, and he suggested "no, no, this is much better," directing me to some sort of fish dish. I generally know what I want, even at an unfamiliar restaurant, but he was so insistent, and his smile and manners were winning over my table, so I said, sure, okay.
I should have done what my colleagues did and just ordered a basic beef and starch dish. My plate comes and it looks disgusting. A large fish with a huge amount of tiny bones (not the easily edible kind). I suck it up and push forward and dig in. But after 10 minutes, it's clear that this is not something that is 1. worth eating, 2. that I'll even enjoy because of working so hard at avoiding all the bones (I'm a big fish eater and I've never been served something with that many tiny, inedible bones). I call the waitress and ask to order my original choice, the shrimp ravioli. She looks troubled (I assume it's because she doesn't speak English). Soon the weird host guy is back suggesting all kinds of other stuff, but at this point I feel like I'm making a fuss and disturbing the flow of the group, so I just (assuming I'm making things simple) ask for the original shrimp ravioli choice. He says okay, and soon I have my dish. It looked and tasted great. I had no reason to be suspicious.
We left a good tip and felt like we'd had a good experience. But later that night I broke out into a cold sweat and couldn't even sleep or throw up, I just rocked in bed in pain. As morning came, I was totally exhausted with no sleep, still in pain and unable to throw up (although I know I needed to).
I had to go to an important meeting with colleagues. We get to the building and finally I can feel that I might be able to throw up. I excuse myself from my colleagues and spend about 40 minutes in the bathroom forcing myself to vomit up the horrible food from Patrón. But food poisoning isn't just a vomit and go situation, so even after that, although I felt a bit better about knowing I wouldn't embarrass my colleagues by throwing up during a meeting, I was still wiped out, weak, sweating, still queasy, and completely sleep deprived, I was a mess and it nearly ruined the most important part of my business trip to Barcelona. I somehow managed to get through it, but by the time I recovered a couple of days later, it was time to leave the country. So from a tourism perspective, my first trip to Barcelona was completely ruined by this restaurant.
In retrospect, it seems clear that the host of the restaurant KNEW something was wrong with the dish I wanted to order. Should I have taken the hint? In a perfect world, sure. But I'm in a restaurant that is high end, I'm not expecting to have to follow "greasy spoon" rules where if the waiter warns you off of a particular dish, it means that dish is a possible hospital visit. If you are offering the food to the public, it should be safe to eat.
I later learned after asking around and talking to locals that this kind of thing isn't completely uncommon in Barcelona, so even though the people are mostly friendly and the city seems pleasant, you'd do best to be extra cautious with where you eat.
Don't be fooled by the good looks of the staff and the nice decor, Patrón impacted my health and very nearly ruined my business trip. read more