Arrocería la Valenciana

Paella! Our group of four was so excited to try paella here in Valencia because (1) none of us had eaten it before, and (2) what better place to try it than at in Valencia, its birthplace? I'm glad to have gotten it out of the way because I don't see myself eating it again for a very long time. It's not that the food was bad, but it's a lot. We shared the seafood paella and the traditional paella.

I mostly had the seafood paella but I did try a few bites of the traditional one with rabbit and escargot. The seafood was fresh, and there was a healthy amount of prawns and squid. If you're not really into seafood or can't stand too much of the aroma or essence of seafood, do NOT get it because it is strong. After a while I got sick of the seafood flavor, which isn't a knock on the food, but a lesson that paella simply needs to be complemented with other foods.

The traditional paella was quite good as well, and neither had rice that was too burnt (which I liked). I also didn't think the escargot and rabbit were particularly special. Again, portions were tremendous and I think we all left very, very full.

Keep in mind that you need at least two people ordering paella in order to get it. It runs at about 18€ per person for any paella, which isn't on the low end, but you do get filled up since it's all rice.

This restaurant is nice and has a very professional atmosphere. They serve very good Valenciana pallea. My family tried the Valenciana and the Seafood, my favorite being the seafood. They are served family style which I do particularly enjoy. It is a little expensive but the food is good and it is in a convenient location. There wine selection is also pretty good in my opinion, I do know they have some local options.

I didn't eat at the location so I can't give them a full five stars, but will say that it can be difficult to find a place in Spain (let alone Valencia) that serves paella for one person (many have a two person minimum). After venturing to a couple of other restaurants, I was referred to La Valenciana by one of the restaurants as a place where I could possibly get a single order of paella.

I went into this location of La Valenciana but they informed me they could only do paella for a minimum of two people; however, they were kind enough to call their other location to see if that location could do it for one person which they said they could. So I was given a business card which included directions on how to get to their other location which wasn't far away. Customer service plus!

The other location (Caballeros, 21. 46001) was just as lovely. I was warmly greeted. In fact, they expected me and showed me to my seat right away! Oh, yeees with the special treatment. Ha! Anyways, I thought of ordering the vegetable paella but went with the seafood paella to get a more traditional taste. It did not disappoint! Check out the photos and you'll see EXACTLY what I mean. Delicious! (I imagine the locations are consistent in both service and taste.)

For starters we ordered shrimp croquettes - the bomb! And calamari - great as well. We also got the Valencian paella with duck per a tour guide - contained chicken, duck, rabbit, and rice. The meat in the paella was delicious, but can't say the same about the rice. I expected the rice to be a little softer.

All in all a pleasant experience, however will be searching for another paella place to really get the delicious taste.

2.5 stars...
Modern course style menu for price fix...

Standard paella but all other courses had their own spin....

Good enough for the average traveler, but didn't leave us wowed...

They have 2 locations, the address on Yelp is closed because of the pandemic, their location. It was amazing.

Food: 4.0/5.0
Service: 3.0/5.0
Value: 3.5/5.0
Decor: 3.5/5.0
Overall: 4.0/5.0

Very genuine service but they had only two people handling 10-15 active tables during dinner service split between indoors and out on the street. The food was quite good, with the paella valenciana being the highlight. I would say the valenciana was in the same ballpark as the other paellas I tried in town but not quite the best. The arroz negro was mediocre. Pricing was reasonable and the restaurant honored a TripAdvisor discount which made the meal roughly the same value for money as the Eur22 tasting menu option except you get to pick your starters this way. The place stays busy and it's easier on the restaurant so definitely get a reservation. Glad I stopped by.

We came here with six other people to try their Valencian Paella cooking class. It occurs over a 4-5 hr window, where teams of 3-4 actually create their own paella from start to finish under the guidance of the head chef, sous chef, and manager. It takes about 2 hours of actual cooking, so you'll have plenty of breaks to sip wine, eat appetizers, more wine, eat your (and sample your team mates) paella, and finally dessert and more liquor. We got to keep our chef apron and hat, got diplomas, and then nice photos with our head chef. What's truly amazing is that while we are taking the course, the restaurant is still serving customers in the same tiny kitchen. Amazingly everything seems to flow so smoothly.

Since I'm rating food that I helped prepare, I'm giving my team 4 stars for my Paella. Rice perfectly cooked but we over-seasoned it and didn't squeeze enough juice from the tomatoes. Rabbit (tastes like chicken) was good, as were snails. The manager and head chef tasted our food and said we did fine, especially on the rice. The other dishes by the restaurant, friendly service, fun experience, and wonderful staff (Nacho the manager, Sonia the head chef, and Alejandro the sous chef) were 6 stars, so an average of 5 Yelp Stars for our overall experience.

The main course of Valencian Paella uses rabbit, chicken, and snails as the main proteins, fresh tomato sauce, three types of beans, paprika, salt, rosemary, bomba rice, and a bit of saffron (about $2000/lb!). Each team gets a meat captain and a veggie captain.

The restaurant provided additional dishes like Spanish omelet, Mussels boiled with lemon and chile pepper, and an amazing dessert that's somewhat a combination of rice pudding and creme brulee, but without rice or egg yolks - almost like a cream dish with cinnamon kick and sweetness from a caramel crust.

Food poisoning warning!

My husband and I were traveling in Spain for our honeymoon. We stayed in Valencia for a day and planned to go to Barcelona. March 9th 2017, 3.30pm, before we left Valencia we went to this restaurant for a late lunch. This lunch ended up ruining our trip in Spain.

We chose the 22€/person menu with some sangria. The clam dish in the tapas was full of sand and obviously not fresh. I spit it out immediately and asked the waiter to take it back. Unfortunately my husband ate some. The waiter apologized and asked us if they should replace it with a new one and we said no need. The size of the rest of the food was huge so we didn't have any dinner or other food afterwards that day.

On the early morning of the next day, my husband started to have horrible food poisoning. He vomited everything up until he was dry heaving 7 separate times over a few hours and was diagnosed with gastroenteritis and hospitalized for an entire day. He got multiple IVs and we spent the rest of our trip in Spain suffering in the hospital and hotel, not to mention the hospital bill, which wasn't cheap.

We called the place and the staff who answer the phone just told us "everything is fresh", which is not true. We pointed out their sandy bad clams to their face that day. Then the staff told us they'll call us back later and never called.

I can't believe this kind of business exists and gets good reviews. We were lucky that we only had a trip ruined and got hospitalized. Bad seafood poisoning can kill. Warning to travelers!

¡Advertencia de intoxicación alimentaria!
 
Mi marido y yo viajábamos en España para nuestra luna de miel. Nos alojamos en Valencia por un día y planeamos ir a Barcelona el próximo día. En el 9 de marzo 2017, 3.30 pm, antes de salir de Valencia, fuimos a este restaurante para un almuerzo tarde. Este almuerzo arruinó nuestro viaje en España.

Elegimos el 22 € / persona menú con una sangría. El plato de almejas en las tapas estaba lleno de arena y obviamente no estaba fresco. Lo escupí inmediatamente y le pedí al camarero que lo devolviera. Por desgracia mi marido comió algunas almejas. El camarero se disculpó y nos preguntó si deberían reemplazarlo por un plato nuevo y nos dijeron que no necesitaba. El tamaño del resto de la comida era enorme, así que no comimos ninguna cena u otra comida después en ese día.

En la madrugada del día siguiente, mi marido comenzó a tener horrible intoxicación de comida. Vomitó todo hasta que estaba seco 7 veces durante unas horas y fue diagnosticado con gastroenteritis y fue hospitalizado durante un día entero. Él consiguió múltiples IVs y pasamos el resto de nuestro viaje en España sufriendo en el hospital y después en el hotel, por no mencionar la factura del hospital, que no era barato.

Llamamos al restaurante y el personal que contestó el teléfono nos dijo que "todo estaba fresco", lo cual ciertamente no era verdad. Le señalamos las malas almejas llenas de arena en persona ese día. Entonces el personal nos dijo que nos llamará más tarde pero nunca ha llamado.

No puedo creer que este tipo de negocio existe y que obtiene buenas críticas. Tuvimos suerte que sólo tuvimos un viaje arruinado y nos dieron hospitalizado. La intoxicación por mariscos malos puede matar. ¡Advertencia a los viajeros!

Arrocería la Valenciana is located near the Cathedral de Velancia and off the plaza. This is a cooking school/restaurant and was recommended to us by our tour guide, Elena. We really enjoyed the food we were served here and everything tasted great. Sometimes recommendatons can be off when you travel, but Elena was spot on! We did the tasting menu + paella (22 Euro a person) and this was one one of our favorite meals in Spain. Note that the location does get busy during lunch, especially after 1 pm. Every table was booked while we were there! Paella is traditionally eaten at lunch so make a reservation if your time in Valencia is limited.

The staff were all kind and although they were quite busy, they did a good job pacing out the items so we didn't have to wait too long for any part of the meal. The starters were a bell pepper soup, fish puff pastry, wild rice and prawns. Other tables got different items, but we just let them pick and everything tasted amazing. The paella was good and in a generous portion. I haven't had rabbit before, but it was tender and well-seasoned. I didn't find it gamey at all. For some reason, they didn't add the traditional snails (maybe they thought we didn't want them) and unfortunately didn't have the extra crispy rice at the bottom of the pan that I like. However, the dish was still exceptional given that we had come from Barcelona where we ate subpar meals the whole time there. In the end, it did take us a while to get and settle our bill, but other than that we enjoyed the meal. I got to start with alcohol (vermouth) and end with it too (dessert wine), so that was an extra perk in my book!

I recommend this locaton in old town and you can also take a paella cooking class here. If that is up your alley, check it out: http://arrocerialavalenciana.com/en/home/