Barcelona

Travelers' Takes

Rates and Deals

Gino's

More Photos
Wasatch
First Reviewer
3 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
2
Reviews
6
Photos
Sort by: Most Recent|Positive|Negative|Most Useful
1-2 of 2
Editor Pick

Resonable Pizza and Pasta in the Centre of Barcelona

  • January 12, 2009
  • Rated 3 of 5 by Slug from Huddersfield, United Kingdom
Resonable Pizza and Pasta in the Centre of Barcelona

As I was on a Barcelona vacation with five women, finding a suitable restaurant for lunch in Barcelona seemed to be a bit of a problem. Either the place was too busy, too smoky, too expensive, too grotty, looked too difficult to order food, or we found it just at the wrong time.

After a bracing jaunt to Park Guell in almost freezing temperatures, and with the sunlight lengthening, I finally tired of the food debate and steered the party into the quiet and comfortable looking environs of Gino’s Restaurant on Rambla De Catalunya. Given the restaurant mainly serves pizza and pasta dishes, I wasn’t willing to take no for an answer on this one. I also figured that it wouldn’t prove too expensive. While the cost did prove to be slightly on the high side, we had a reasonable meal.

The restaurant has terracotta tiled flooring, and a bright interior; there is a large window to the front, and the corridor upstairs to the bathroom is also glazed, meaning a lot of light comes into the dining area. The tables themselves were dressed in crisp white cotton tablecloths, and presented well. Although it was late on, the restaurant looked as spotless as if we had been the first to arrive.

Despite the restaurant being almost empty, it took a while for us to be greeted and invited to a table. Likewise, the initial order process took some time, and some of our first drinks took longer than anticipated to arrive. As one of our party ordered sangria, they said it had taken some time to prepare. Drinks were fairly expensive for Barcelona; my half litre of lager came in at around four and a half Euro ($6 +). At most other places we visited, the cost veered to the right side of four Euros.

Things got better! For starter, we decided to share a few of the different garlic breads on offer. Unfortunately, at this time in the afternoon, they only had one type (the confusingly named pizza bread), which was a very thin pizza base spread with slightly sweet but tasty tomato sauce. It arrived very promptly and devoured with rigour.

I was a little disappointed with the limited choice of pizzas on offer, but I ordered a bacon pizza, which although a little too browned was very tasty, if not exceptional, and on a nice fresh base. My beloved’s Vegetable pizza looked very fresh and laden with different vegetables. Unfortunately, she sank every piece without allowing me a sample (for research purposes only of course). The pizzas were around 9 Euros, which appears standard for Barcelona.

Others in our party ordered pasta, and there was a better choice on offer on the menu. While they looked a little anaemic (I always like tomato sauce with my pasta), they were very tasty and went down well.

The highlight of the meal probably came with the sweets. While I declined one, I was casting lustful glances at my opposite dining companion, or to be more correct, it was her chocolate mouse and ice cream sweet that had me captivated. The ice cream looked perfect, and the soft centre of the chocolate melted my heart. The panitone with ice cream and chocolate sauce looked equally inviting.

My portion of the meal came to around 15 euro, which was filling enough to the point that I only needed a small snack later that day. Despite our slow start with the service, and the slightly over high price of my beer, I found my shared starter and pizza enjoyable and reasonable value, and the restaurant pleasant.

From journal Barcelona Bar Hopping

Editor Pick

Good Italian in Spain

  • June 10, 2008
  • Rated 3 of 5 by Wasatch from heber ctity, Utah
It was raining pretty hard when we arrived in Barcelona. We first checked the menu at the restaurant at our hotel, Melia Barcelona, so we wouldn't have to go out in the rain (it has a good reputation), but it was expensive, didn't open until 8:00pm, and the menu was not very appealing, so we asked the desk if there was a restaurant nearby that opened early. They said, Gino's, only two blocks away. Gino's turned out to be pretty good Italian restaurant. We ate there three times.

For dinner the first night, I had a good veal dish, something like Wiener Schnitzel with a small side of perfectly cooked pasta. She had a very good Pizza Marguerite, the Neapolitan classic. With a bottle of wine, tax, and tip, $50.

Next day, we went back to the hotel around lunch time for break, and since Gino's was close and had good pizza, we went back for lunch. We split a Pizza Margherita and, with a bottle of wine, a filling lunch was $29 total.

For diner that night, we both chose veal with cheese sauce, not the best choice, for the sauce was made with a strong blue cheese which is not our favorite. Oh well, live and learn. The veal was again nice, but not as good as what I had in Paris, and the pasta was again perfect.

When we reached the south of France, rose wine country, we went on kick of drinking roses with our meals. We continued it in Spain. Gino's had three different roses on their wine list, and we had a bottle of each over the course of the three meals we ate there. We preferred them in the order of price, the more it cost, the better was the wine, but the cost range was only a couple of dollars, $12-16.

Gino's décor was on the plain side, but attractive, bright, and clean, with large windows on the street

Service was not what you call polished, but they got the job done. It speeds things up if you wave a staffer over when you are ready to order. Staff-- at least there people were involved in ordering, serving, and getting the check-- had a sufficient command of English so no problems were encountered.

Four nice bread sticks were $1 extra.

Sort by: Most Recent|Positive|Negative|Most Useful
1-2 of 2

Compare Barcelona Rates

1. Enter travel information

City

2. Select websites to compare rates

Each selected website will open a new window.

Helpful Barcelona Links

Barcelona Travel Deals