[pim]

go there. it's good.

[pim]

More can be found on my Flickr.

Also a few from Gaig..


Forget espresso, Trifásico is the way to end a meal. It's like a Carajillo, an espresso spiked rather liberally with Brandy, but with a layer of foamy milk.

[cabrales]

Sorry -- Double post.

[cabrales]

I agree. The "diners' choice" menu of six courses is inexpensive. And they have Selosses Cuvee Substance at reasonable price on the wine list.

cabrales, on Sep 13 2004, 03:02 AM, said:

Wilfrid -- If you haven't yet completed your latest trip to Barcelona, I'd suggest booking Alkimia. It's not far from the sagrada Familia, and Jordi Vila is cooking well. For 40 euros, one gets either (1) a chef's tasting menu "surprise", or (2) a choice from the menu of 2 appetizers, 1 fish dish, 1 main course and 2 desserts, with cheese being a possible substitution for one of the desserts). Nice dishes included: Anchovies with a fresh tomato, onions al dente, recuit (spanish cheese ice cream salad; sauteed ceps with fatty pork neck meat.  Dining room team assistance was appropriate; white minimalist decor; short, but appropriate, wine list.

[Kikujiro]

I was a little disappointed by Alkimia. Perhaps it's unfair after EB, and it's undeniably good value (tasting menu €48), but then in between the two I ate even less expensively at Espai Sucre, which impressed me more. I'd been craving the stuff in Pim's photos, particularly this:



... but we didn't get it.

Service was fine though didn't attempt to make any concessions to the fact we clearly weren't Spanish, which was either highly complimentary or a bit aloof -- I can't decide. Started with what is evidently the signature amuse, the reimagined sausage with pa amb tomaquet that's the first of Pim's pics. (They've since adjusted how they present the sausage slice, which is now sort of hooked into the glass like that trick where you pick up a bottle with a piece of folded paper.) This was good and smart, and boded well. A second amuse has rather blurred in my memory, but I remember it was fairly rich and involved something creamy and something rosewatery. This was fine but less interesting.

It was when we hit the courses proper that things seemed to get a little dull. It was all fairly well done and enjoyable, but a couple of times a bit wide of the mark. For example, a dish of octopus with a strip of basically mashed potato and something else I forget was marred by the use of great slices of tentacle of diameter greater than a golfball. They were cooked perfectly well but they were repetitive and dull, and a real trudge to get through. I'd had much better octopus at a cheap tapas bar the night before. Later, some decent red mullet was served; my piece was small and just slightly more cooked than I'd have liked, while the others' were larger and in large part downright raw. A chicken canneloni in a rich (almondy?) sauce was more successful, and came with an excellent little salad of apple, cucumber and mint; and there was some very nicely-done pork with a demi-glace that another member of the party hugely objected to. Apart from the pasta though, all of these dishes were hunk-o'-protein-plus-accompaniments, which is exactly what one didn't get at EB, and seemed oddly uninteresting in that context; though more delicate octopus and more accurately-prepared fish would have improved them considerably (in fact fixing those would have just swung the balance for me).

I forget one of the desserts. The other was by far the best dish of the meal, involving cake soaked in a very intense lemon and honey liquid, with rosemary cream, almond ice-cream (very good raw almonds featured almost all the way through the meal, which was kind of cute) and apple in some form or other. Really good.

Decent bits and pieces with coffee. We drank a 1999 Finca Valpiedra reserva because we'd had and much enjoyed the '98 at EB -- the year made a surprising difference, this seeming a lot cruder, although also €10 less.