Wow, this place was absolutely wonderful! The reviews had me skeptical at first, but we enjoyed every single thing that we ate here. The seafood was scrumptious as was the dessert. Came here with a group for lunch before taking a dip in the beach and we had a fabulous time! The restaurant is just steps away from Playa Llafranc, so you can imagine how gorgeous the beach views are. We sat outside on the patio and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenic views. Service was excellent from beginning to end. We ordered a variety of items; some were split and others were single person entrees. We ordered the following: *Green salad: This salad as so friggin' good! I mean, it's just a green salad but the flavors were amazing. Not your typical green salad as it had jicama, corn, olives, and red bell pepper in it. It was almost like a tropical salad without the fruit. Very fresh and I loooved the dressing! It was delish. *Mussels: SCRUMPTIOUS!!! Couldn't get enough of these babies! Felt like they had literally just got them out of the sea. They tasted that damn fresh!!! Mmm, mm, mmm! I can still taste them. These were a hit at the table. *Deep fried calamari: I didn't try this since I don't like calamari (don't judge me), but my group devoured them and even ordered another basket. They smelled really good though. *Seafood paella: So tasty! The rice kind of reminded me more of risotto since it wasn't as crispy as I'm used to, but the seasonings in that thang were marvelous! The shrimp and mussels were the best part! Absolutely delish and a nice hearty portion too. A few others in my party got this dish and loved it. *Crema de Catalunya: AMAZING!!! So creamy and flavorful. This is what you'd call Creme brûlée in the states, but they make it so much better here! I don't know if it's nutmeg that they add or maybe allspice or cinnamon?! Whatever it is; it gives it SO much more of a robust taste. Creamy but not overly sweet, and it came perfectly torched too. Wished I could have eaten 5 of these. It was delectable. We also enjoyed a few glasses of wine. I had a very light and crisp rosé which I thoroughly enjoyed. Can't give the exact deets on it, but it was tasty and paired wonderfully with the seafood. But yea, La Vela definitely impressed yours truly. Not sure about the negative reviews, but my group and I had an excellent lunch and I would happily come here again. read more

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We stopped here for lunch with our tour. The restaurant has a fresh out of the sea menu. Skip the water drink the Cava forget about your diet. read more

La Vela - Grilled Squid - Arroceria / Paella Near Me - Calella de Palafrugell, GI

Tour guide kickback ripoff hot spot. Lousy food, worse service and extremely high prices. If you paid for a tour and your guide ends up taking you here, you're about to get ripped off with frozen potatoes, microwaved week old paella, a Cesar salad out of a bag drenched in some strange cheese and no dressing. Combine all of this with sparse, SLOW, inattentive service with very high prices and you'll wish your tour guide was not getting a kick back from this restaurant. You'll wish you were eating literally anywhere else. read more

Horrible!!! Not only did they not have servers....the food was awful. The potato bravas was just plain frozen potatoes with mayo. The calamari was over cooked and chewy. The expensive paella......2 of my 3 mussels were dead and not even opened. The 1 shrimp was over cooked. There was a disgusting hard little sausage. Had to ask multiple times for bread. This region is known for olive oil and what they served was little containers of the most bitter and awful olive oil I've ever had in my life. Such a shame for a place known for olives. Not once did someone come by to see how the food was or anything. There was constantly dirt and leaves from the trees falling in my food and wine. Would never eat here again. read more

Dining at La Vela is literally like eating in heaven...no kidding! La Vela is located right on the ocean in Costa Brava. Make sure you get a table outside so you can get that beautiful view of the ocean. Prior to eating at La Vela, I had tried a few other paella's that just didn't hit the mark for me. So I guess you can say I was on a quest to find the best Paella in the Cataluyna region! The seafood paella at La Vela was probably one of the best top 5 things I've ever eaten in my life! It was perfect! There was so much authentic flavor, and the fresh seafood just took it took it up a notch. The rice was cooked at the perfect al dente, and had a little bit of that squid ink, so it was darker that most paella's. The service was also outstanding. There was a little bit of a language barrier, but that didn't stop our servers from doing an outstanding job! read more

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After a 3 hour hike along Costa Brava, we were in need of food! We drove about 15 minutes to find this cute little beach village restaurant. We decided on La Vela due to the salad menu we were craving! The restaurant wasn't crowded like the other restaurant across the walkway, but it was good as we didn't want to wait for service. Our server was friendly and seated us right away. We got our drinks promptly. Our food arrived beautifully fixed. The salads were just what we wanted! Light and delicious! The calamari was delicious! The patio area offers plenty of covered seatings. The scenery was perfect- beach front views! Just a few steps to the beach! I would definitely try La Vela again if I'm ever in the area! read more

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This place has some really bland, bleh food. Flies buzzing around your head constantly probably pooping on your food. I ordered the Caesar salad and it was nothing close to a Caesar. The bacon and chicken in it were very low quality, tasted like something out of wal-mart. The greens in my salad were wilting. Not many options if you do not like seafood. Service is strenuously slow. And for what? Something I can go buy at the super market for a much lower price? Definitely a tourist trap. Unfortunately my family and I had to eat here because it was scheduled as part of a tour of Barcelona. My family also had the potates bravas and they are NOT the same as the ones you get anywhere else. This place reaches for the bare minimum for tourists. Most likely not where the locals wine and dine. Can not get over how annoying the flies were too!! Management needs to try much harder. Slow service, bad food, no flavor. Only plus is they have working wifi. Lolll you know something is wrong when the only plus is wifi read more

Service was good, which is to say it's relatively fast for Spain. Ordered the mussels marinera and the entrecôte. Definitely get the mussels. The entrecôte was very large and came out medium in the center, med-well to well done at the edges. It was fine by me, my dining buddy would have preferred med rare (which I doubt would have been an option) Recommend sitting inside if you don't want your neighbor smoking while you're eating. Everyone else ordered the paella. They have this interesting habit of showing you the paella pot before taking it back and serving it. One serving would have sufficient fit for 2, but it was a min of 2 orders, which would have been too much food for us. those two mains, 2 beers, one large, one small and water came to $36€ read more

Overpriced and bad food. Patatas bravas: fried patatoes with mayonaise and ketchup. These are NO patatas bravas, not at all! Calamares al la Romana: €13,15!!! These are only normal regular cheap calamares. These twi stars are for the staff: friendly and helpfull read more

Heavily geared to tourists (i.e. meet the bare minimum requirements for non-repeat clientele) . Extremely overpriced food even considering its prime location. The mixed salad was a good size but bland and basic. Grilled shrimp appetizer was very small and of poor quality. Ordered other dishes that were just as plain. read more