Telefèric Barcelona - Walnut Creek

This is one of my favorite places to go with friends.
I love their menu, small place and ambience
Will come back here again and again !

Great experience for a sit down and surprisingly affordable tapas place! Came here as a double date with a friend and total came out to be around $120 for 4 which was not bad for tapas.

The Papas Bravas was our favorite by far! Super soft and flavorful with an extra crunch. Very loud for talking and conversing though.

I've had a number of bad experiences lately, but realized that I've also had some wonderful ones too! Telegenic Barcelona in Walnut Creek is one such experience.

I took my husband here for lunch for his Birthday back in May. We went for the Paella, but as we sat down and saw all the tapas coming out from the kitchen to the tables around us (we too had ordered a couple), we decided to just go all in on Tapas and ended up trying probably more than half of them. All of them were amazing. We also had their Sangria. I'm not usually a fan of sweet alcoholic drinks and I'm definitely not ok with anyone doing anything to my bold red wines, but I gave in and it was a really refreshing afternoon libation.

Also, sitting outside on the covered terrace with great weather is unbeatable in the Bay Area.

Go for the Paella
Order the tapas
Be happy

Paella Bomb 9/10
Chicken Empanadas w/ Spicy Aioli 10/10
Prime Wellington 8/10 - The side of potatoes were cold in the center which was a bummer. They were still flavorful but definitely missed the mark.

It was hard to flag down our server on a Friday night. We originally ordered our cocktails and asked for a few more minutes to review the menu. It took awhile for our server to come back, we had to ask another employee if they could please send him over. We had the same situation when waiting for the bill.

Have been here plenty of times and always a good time! It's one of those restaurants that I bring people to taste!

Had the paella mixta which is my personal fav - I have had all the paellas too! I also like the squid ink one as well. The octopus is really good too!

My favorite dessert is no longer part of the menu :( but it was the arroz con leche if it ever comes back!

Highly recommedn trying the barcelona sangria and spicy sangria - we loved both! This resto offered is us a cool way to try the sangria, a server came up to us and pour some in our mouth -- google it! They do this in Spain and it was unexpected but we had fun doing this and videoing each other! I prefer the Walnut Creek location over the Palo Alto because Palo Alto just seems too business if that makes any sense...Walnut Creek is comfy and it's right next the stores for shopping!

Telefèric Barcelona is always great when I'm craving tapas and paella. And I always get sangria since it reminds me of my time studying abroad in Spain!

I've been to the Palo Alto location a few times, but this was my first time at the Walnut Creek location. Compared to Palo Alto, it feels a bit more cramped. But maybe this was also because we were seated at a high top near the bar, and there was very little room between you and the person behind you since the tables were so close to each other.

I think the tapas are where Telefèric really stands out. My favorite are the pulpo, the croquetas (both the ham ones and the crab ones) and the tuna tacos. Especially the pulpo - it's super tender and the bed of mashed potato as a sauce is amazing! The brussel sprouts are also pretty good and come with a unique whipped cheese foam. I've also tried the oysters, which were not super memorable.

At this point, I've tried most of their paellas - the lobster, the squid ink, and the mixed. I feel like their paella satisfies a paella craving, but it's def not quite as good as the ones I've had in Spain. There always seems to be something missing but I'm not sure what. For example, the lobster paella that we got today was good, but it was a bit salty. Also, I normally love anything with squid ink, and when I got squid ink paella in Spain, it was superrrr flavorful, but here, I didn't feel like the squid ink added much flavor. Out of the three types of paella that I've tried, I think the lobster has been my favorite.

came here for lunch to enjoy the weather and dining outdoors. There was no wait and I was seated right away and served right away. Excellent service.

I ordered the paella Negra. I love squid ink paella with seafood. so I am always on the lookout for a good place for this paella. Of course, nothing compares to Spain, but I would say this place is decent. The flavor in the rice is excellent and definitely brings out that squid ink taste.. I do wish there was a little bit more of that burnt crust at the bottom since it adds a nice texture. unfortunately I feel like for the price, I should've gotten a bit more seafood. It was mostly rice.

I also tried the iberico oysters, I loved this. The oysters were fresh and the combination was really tasty.

I tried the la flaca cocktail. I liked that they created a bubble on top. Good cocktail.

Ambience is nice. It does have a cute Spanish feel. And I like the outdoor seating at the rooftop.

overall, a decent place for Spanish food. I would have to come back and try some of the other dishes. Having lived in Spain for a couple of months and traveled back a few times, I'm always seeking a place in the bay area to remind me of that time. I would say that Teleferic Barcelona does a decent job of that, but I'm still on the hunt. but I would come back to satisfying my paella cravings.

I really enjoy sharing tapas and paella family style at places like this. They had a wide variety of tapas to choose from as well as a decent mix of paella and entrees as well. The other thing they do well, in terms of their drinks and cocktails, is presentation; it's on point here.

If you plan to order paella here, keep in mind that it does take a while so order it ASAP. We ordered the Mindy's so it had a little bit of everything. The dish was so flavorful but not overpowering. You could really just eat a ton of it. The one pitfall of their paella to me however is that they did not achieve the crispy rice on the bottom of the pan. For me that's a hallmark of a perfectly executed paella.

It's such a vibe in this place. It's loud (but not too loud), it's busy with a lot going on. The interior is so clean and sleek too. This restaurant has the feel of a place that's super fancy without having to pay fancy expensive restaurant prices.

I think unless you've been to Spain or had top tier Spanish food, this place will not disappoint you one bit.

I've been to the location in Palo Alto twice and LOVED it so I had high hopes for this location in Walnut Creek.

It's located in downtown Walnut Creek on the second floor. The seating seems more casual and the music was not as loud at this location. I didn't get the same vibes but this location seemed to be bigger than the one in PA.

I sat down with my group and we ordered family-style. Here is what we ordered and what I thought of the flavors of these dishes:
- Cauliflower (3/5): Not as much sauce/dressing as the PA location
- Brussel Sprouts (5/5): Yum!
- Ham and Cheese Croqueta (5/5): Solid croquetta, smooth texture inside and nice crispy outside
- Patatas Bravas (2/5): Flavor was ok
- Paella Mixta (3/5): Shrimp was perfectly cooked flavor was ok
- Iberico Pork Paella (5/5): It was a little salty but flavors were balanced

About my overall experience: Overall the dishes were good - we had a group of girls take a spoonful (or two) of each tapa. As I devoured every small bite of tapa...I bit into something hard. I was eating the patatas bravas and thought the edges of the potatoes were overly crispy or something but I took it out and it was a freaking rock. My mind was worried about where this rock came from (in the kitchen), how much of the food was contaminated, and just...if this was going to happen again. I reluctantly told our server who was surprised there was a rock and offered to replace it but honestly, I was disgusted and didn't get a satisfactory answer for why it was there nor efforts to figure out what happened.

Now onto our paellas. Everything looked amazing so I hesitantly scooped some paella from both pans and carefully picked at it. Both paellas were good, but I really enjoyed the Iberico Pork one the most. I started picking at the rice - it was fine. I picked at the mushroom - it was really flavorful and food. Then, I picked at the pork - took a bite and came across another hard, "crunchy" thing. I took it out and it was another rock. I mentioned it to the server and she looked at me in disbelief that I found another rock. I was disappointed in the service - especially because I was more concerned about what food was contaminated (for us and other people).

The manager was kind enough to offer a new paella to replace the one with a rock but let's be real - by that point I had lost my appetite.

Pros:
- Iberico Pork Paella and Brussel Sprouts flavor is good
- Manager comped the contaminated foods and offered new paella. I would have been satisfied if they could figure out where it could have come from

Cons:
- It's expensive for what you get
- Disappointing in the quality of service at this location. I still think the PA location has better service.

Found out after the fact that my friend also had a small rock in her bite of Paella Mixta but didn't want to say anything in case they think we were trying to get our meal comped. All to say - I wont be visiting this location anytime soon and please check your food while you're there.

Tapas is like the Spanish version of Chinese dim sum. We ordered 5 orders of different tapas and then a paella.

Spanish Meatballs -four portions to an order
These are beef meatballs and a flavorful Canary masala sauce with manchego cheese and fried potatoes sticks. I like the crispy topping , which looked liked slivers of ham and was a nice touch

Ham Croquetas - four to an order
Not as delicious as I remember. Still worth ordering because it is a nice rendition of a ham croquetas.

Roasted Chicken Empanadas with aioli sauce - 4 to an order
Not as delicious as I remember. The curry spice in the chicken filling was prominent and the wrapper was crunchy.

Gambas Al Ajillo Gulf Shrimp -4 shrimp to an order.
Not as delicious as I remember. Lots of oil, but no flavor so the Shrimp had no flavor

Patatas Bravas with Brava Sauce and aioli
Spicy, but delicious

Iberico Pork Paella - Large Serves 4
Crunchy crust and flavor was nice. You could taste the garlic in the rice. The pork was not dry.


Mocktail
Soda, lemonade, prickly pear, honey, rosemary, lime slice, orange slice and mixed berries
The mocktail was refreshing! I enjoyed it because it was a nice contrast in flavor to the spiciness in the Patata Bravas.