Tea Time: El Cangrejo Loco in Barcelona, Spain

Another Barcelona restaurant review: El Cangrejo Loco, or 'The Crazy Crab'. Now, I really have no idea why such a posh restaurant would give itself a name that conjures up images of spring break revelers drinking at a beachside shanty, but El Cangrejo Loco it is. And let me assure you that it's definitely not a beach party type of restaurant. More like a 'book a babysitter and have a leisurely romantic meal' type of restaurant. Which of course we did NOT get to do; thank goodness for outside seating! Instead of a nice sit-down meal, our lunch was more of a baby-chasing relay. Keila was a champ as usual but if anyone knows a toddler who can sit through a 2 hour long lunch, then they get baby of the year award.
Online reviews of El Cangrejo Loco rave about its views and most of the food, although many complain about the sub-par paella. Duly warned, we opted for their 25 euro daily set menu. This menu included 2 starters (1 hot and 1 cold), 1 main, and a dessert. Drinks obviously weren't included, and several of the menu options had an additional charge, so our bill came to 65 euros or something like. Not bad for a massive and long lunch! I would highly recommend this place: great views if you sit on the second floor veranda, excellent food (aside from the neigboring table's paella, which really didn't look all that great to be honest), pretty substantial portions for the price, and spectacular service (besides one of our 4 waiters, who was inexplicably cranky and frowned as us the whole time. He was attentive and prompt, just really grumpy). Oh, and most of the service staff seem to know English, in addition to the English menus. I think they also may have had Japanese and French versions too, but don't quote me.
Between the two of us, we had: flat bread with smoked sardines, roast leek, and carmelized pineapple; octopus and vegetable salad; seafood ravoli with sea urchin sauce; monkfish stew with clams; and papillote of salmon in banana leaf with vegetables and soy sauce. Plus some amazing olives and flatbread with roasted tomatoes. Dessert was panna cotta and a lemon cheesecake.
I'd have to say that my favorites were the octopus salad, the seafood ravoli, and the salmon. Keila agreed with me on the ravoli and the salmon; she never eats well on vacation, but the kid scarfed that salmon faster than I've seen her eat just about anything, ever. Unfortunately she mistook Yuki's panna cotta for ice cream and was quite disappointed upon discovering otherwise. The lemon cheesecake was good but I wouldn't call either dessert spectacular, just good. Then again, El Cangrejo Loco is a seafood restaurant, not a bakery or sweets shop. And they definitely excel at seafood.
In summary, if you go: avoid the paella, stuff yourself with some of their wonderful seafood, and tell the cranky Indian waiter that we said hi!

I didn't think I liked olives all that much until our Barcelona trip. Spanish olives are my new addiction.