Set Portes, Barcelona

Sour staff, pretty awful food. I wanted my boyfriend to try "paella", so I took him to Set Portes, and the paella we ordered ended up being dreadful. The rice was brown instead of yellow, it was way too salted and it contained very little fish or meat. I'll never go back and I recommend people who want to eat typical Catalan food to go to any cheap bar around the area. Very bad experience!

This restaurant was recommended and booked for us by the receptionist in our hotel. It was a very worth while experience. My wife started with the baby board beans which were superb and I had the catalonian sausage - excellent as was the main course of paella. We certainly didn't experience any of the problems that others have written about. For us it was an excellent final meal in Barcelona.

We had a delicious dinner here May 4. We went early 7 pm. The four of us shared a huge plate of mussels, 3 orders of rich mans paella(shellfish out of the shell) as waiter advised servings were very large, salad, two bottles of excellent house wine, dessert(2) and coffee. The bill including service was about 100 euro's. The service was very good. We gave it a good thumbs up. It is a busy place but we never felt rushed. Am puzzled by the poor reviews because that was not our experience. Very popular with locals--when we left there were a lot of people waiting for tables. You can book on line--

i liked very little about this restaurant. the food was overpriced, poorly cooked and unimaginatively presented. very little thought has been lended to the construction of the dishes and there was no sign of culinery imagination. the service was efficient but extremely unfriendly and impersonal. i ordered canelloni which would have looked at home in a plastic tray spinning in a microwave. my partner went for the safe option of roast chicken. this turned out to be three pieces of chicken, consisting of mainly bone, 'complemented' by a bland gravy, no veg, no potato nor any other accompaniment. i would whole heartedly and for the first time recommend mcdonalds in this instance. at least the menu isn't misleading and you'll get chips with your meal!

The ambiance is great. Sitting in a 170 years restaurant feels great. But... I visited 7 Portes twice last week. First of all anticipate waiting at the front door to be seated - even if you have reservations. Second anticipate waiting for the waiter - they come late. Third the food is O.K. but not great. And finally this place is a bit pricey for its offering. After all this place should be on your checklist and it deserves a visit...

My wife and I had lunch last December in Set Portales. I had heard about the restaurant from a friend so we put it on our list. There was a short wait when it opened at 1:00 in the afternoon but we got a nice table. A half hour later it was full and there was a line at the door. Considering how many customers there were the service was good and the waiter very professional. The paella was excellent and my wife had a very nicely cooked tuna steak. I'm sorry to say we did not order the cava cocktail because it was delicious..The people at the table next to us gave us a glass to try... We had the house red with lunch and it waqs good and VERY economical. At the end of our meal the waiter gave us two lovely brandies on the house..a nice touch. This is a nice place and ranked high on our list. The customers were mostly Spaniards so that says something. If you can get a table you will enjoy yourself!

We went on a Saturday for my father in law's 60th birthday celebrations. Despite booking months earlier, we were stuck around the back, on an uncomfortably small table (there were 10 of us). None of us could understand the reputation this place seems to have. The decor is cheap and dated, the wine list is terrible and unreflective of modern Spanish viticulture, the staff seem to be in a constant daze... and then there's the food. For a 'classic' restaurant, this food is awful. It is incredibly overpriced, with a distinct lack of pride and care in every dish. My meal consisted of stale white bread (with no butter) to start, Gaspacho so bland, it was like tomato flavoured water, and a house speciality of 'garlic crayfish on the shell', which turned out to be a couple of languistines soaked in garlic and butter, served alone. When a main course costs 24 euros, and the edible component is less than a single cubic inch, one really does have to wonder. The rest of our table fared as well as I did, and crushing disappointment was only avoided by skipping desert early for brandy and cava up the road. For a city so well aquainted with good food, this place is shockingly bad. Avoid at all costs.

7 doors to the 7 seas and great food. I actually drove 5 hours from France just to try the Seafood Pailla - worth it? YES! Preices were surprisingly reasonable though I was there for lunch, not dinner. Even the locals eat here! It's that good!