Vinya Roel, 190-192 Carrer Villarroel

A typical night in Barcelona......a drink with a Dutch friend turns into two, turns into three and then spills onto dinner and drinking to the small hours. During drinks we are joined by a Mexican doctor Salvador, who used to work in Barcelona for several years but now works in San Francisco. He is only in town for a couple of days so he takes us to Vinya Roel where we are met by a mixed group of South Americans, also all doctors ! Now Salvador seemed the type to be able to sniff out a good restaurant so I had full faith walking into Vinya Roel where the first thing you notice is the hundreds of bottles of wine and swanky dining atmosphere. Now this place does not look cheap and the food a million miles away from what I was going to have for dinner, pan y pate ! The restaurant was packed with business people but I assume this wasn't truly representative of a normal night as the Mobile World Congress was being held in Plaza Espana. Nonetheless they must have have heard about the restaurant somehow as it wasnt exactly next door to the Congress. Anyway I digress, onto dinner which we start at 10pm, normal South American dining time. I put my first course order in the hands of two Mexicans as we decide to share a mix of starters. Pan con tomate is a given but alongside we order croquetas de jamon, fried artichoke, boquerones, olives, and chorizo. For main course I ordered steak tartan which was served with mantequilla and MORE bread but this accompanied the steak well. Others ordered tuna, lamb, arroz negro (black rice), fillet steak and cannellonni all of which looked good. My only complaint was that the portions were not huge and service was not amazing. When asking the waiter for example what he would recommend, his reply was, well what you like of course, Spanish customer service at its best ! If you can ignore this detail then its a great restaurant and one I would recommend especially for wine connoisseurs. Desert was great but again fancy, which is I guess ok once in a while !  Also recommend going with a group of South Americans, great company...