Catalan Mediterranean Restaurant

Reviews about Catalan Mediterranean Restaurant

• 1 / 5

  By Luc Chartrand
  The good the bad and the ugly.
  
  Let me start this off saying that I have never taken an offer from anyone to change my reviews. I have received a few offers which is nice on their part but I'm not an Eric Cartman (for you South Park fans). I have given most places a second chance but I doubt this will not be one of them. Any positive reviews of this restaurant must be paid for or these people are insane (I think we saw one of their insane customers. Read below). I have never written such a negative review but this was bad.
  
  The experience started out nice enough. It's a nice setting. We were seated at a table for four and there were only two of us for Valentines dinner. This was a little odd since we were surrounded by empty tables for two. The server seemed nice enough and we ordered a bottle of Hill sauvignon blanc and the Chef's tapas plate. Another staff member brought us bread and some wonderful pesto. The pesto was the best part of the meal. The wine arrived and they poured us each half a glass. It seemed OK at first so the evening progresses. The tapas plate arrives and it was somewhat average. Nothing to write home about or Yelp about. It all went down hill (no pun intended about the wine) from there.
  
  The main reason I chose Catalan was because I saw that they had paella. Paella is my favorite dish of all. I have driven to Orange County before just to have it. Figue in La Quinta used to have a wonderful version of paella but they are now closed. Catalan's paella is terrible. It's beyond terrible. It tastes EXACTLY like old Zatarain's big easy jambalaya 90 second microwavable rice that's been reheated. Then they tossed in 4 of the smallest clams I have ever seen (see the pictures), three small shrimp, a couple small slices of the same sausage they had on the tapas plate, absolutely no chicken (as listed on the menu), and certainly no mussels as pictured right on their website (see attached picture). As far as saffron is concerned, there was no detectable note of it. I doubt they use it because of the cost. Enough about my disaster.
  
  My wife ordered the Rigatoni & Veal Bolognese. The flavor would have been fine if they hadn't dropped an entire salt shaker into her plate. My wife loves salt but it was even too much for her. She had me try it and it actually was burn the back of your throat salty. Maybe a sous-chef or assistant spilled the salt and didn't want to get in trouble so they passed it on. I don't know, but wow! I hope no one was on a low sodium cardiac diet.
  
  The server never came back to refill the wine glasses so I took the wine out be the bucket and poured my wife and I another half glass of wine. This time We both noticed quite a bit of sediment in the wine. Some people mistake this to be crystallized sugars but in fact it is more likely to be potassium bitartrate. This usually doesn't bother me but with the next pour it became apparent that there was something wrong. I put my glasses on and then saw that there was copious amounts of sediment (see the pictures). We had to stop drinking the wine.
  
  My wife has a great sense of humor and kept laughing after each disaster followed by “Happy valentines day!” By this point we just wanted to get out of there. I finally flagged someone over and asked for the check so we could salvage some of our evening. I didn't care, I just wanted OUT! I gave the person who brought the bill my card and waited. That's when we saw what must have been one of their regulars come in (with her dog). Not a service dog (no vest, no collar), not a cute little dog. It was a medium sized mutt type poodle mix. She carried it in as they sat her next to us. She first put the dog on the floor but this made the dog unhappy so then they gave the dog his own chair. They probably eat from the same fork. This must be a health code violation. Everyone around us was dumbfounded. To add insult to injury, when they brought back the credit card slip to sign my card was missing. I had to go get it myself. Go figure. Happy Valentines day!!!
  March 12, 2017
• 5 / 5

  By Karen Orell
  A unique family owned business that has happy hours in the bar as well as a hardy mainly meat menu in the dining area. Portions are large and make an easy dinner to split such as the Paella which we ordered for our table of four.
  November 17, 2016