Barcelona

[GerryOlds2TheReturnofGerry]

Can't miss spots? Places to avoid?

Friends recommended Estimar, so that's booked. Also thinking about taking a day trip to Girona/Figueres and a meal at Restaurant Normal, the casual sibling of El Celler de Can Roca.

[Anthony Bonner]

I would just do Girona unless seeing the Dali museum is really important to you.  

Girona is a really nice day trip from BCN.

Bummer we lost the back threads here.

Edited September 22, 2023 by Anthony Bonner

[Wilfrid]

While mourning the loss of the best Barcelona dining thread ever, I am headed there next week. I already have Hisop reserved. Is there anywhere new I should know about? By new, I mean post-2019. 

[Sneakeater]

I'm thinking of going early next year, too.

So post those recos.

[Wilfrid]

It's like I always go to Hisop, but since I haven't been in four years...

I think I will order:

sweetbreads with chanterelles and fennel

red mullet with molluscs mayonnaise

rabbit with truffle and "pilota" brioche

assortment of cheese

The amazing monkfish head and grilled pigeon are still on the menu so I might change my mind.

And a reminder that wine mark-ups in restaurants are negligible.  Tasting menu 85E, with wine pairing 110E...

[Sneakeater]

OK OK if I go I'll def go to Hisop and order sweetbreads.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Wilfrid]

Reading from the top, Estimar certainly looks interesting and is conveniently located.

[Sneakeater]

Wait are those prices at Hisop REAL?

[Wilfrid]

It's a fantastic bargain. I've never eaten the tasting menu because you can put together a series of full-size dishes for not much more. My selection above is from the carte and comes to about 100E.

Looks like I last went in 2018, not 2019.

[MitchW]

We're gonna be in Spain in a week or so - Donostia and Madrid. We wanted to go back to Rekondo but closed for vacation, as are a number of others.

[mongo]

(is there any hope of the old content coming back?)

[Wilfrid]

I took a table at Estimar. Was planning on Catalan home cooking at Can Lluis, but permanently closed. Sigh.

 

[Wilfrid]

Last time I was there I had a conversation with the owner in French. Not sure why. I can't keep up with Catalan. Did he refuse to speak Spanish?

[Wilfrid]

Bar Babula 1937 in the Eixample looks interesting. Will soon find out as my godson, currently a resident of Gracia has booked it for tomorrow.

[GerryOlds2TheReturnofGerry]

My plans got changed around and I never made it to Estimar, but I feel pretty confident that it's worth trying. Another place that I couldn't get into but you might as well check out: Berbena, which seems neo-bistro-y with an interesting-looking menu (lamb's brain, tongue, a relatively lengthy cheese selection). 

A neo-bistro that I did make it to is Besta, which has Galician and Catalonian influences. Pristine razor clams and other small plates all under 25 euro (tasting menus for 55 and 75), and they make their own gin and coffee liqueur. It also happens to be around the corner from Gresca, which you might know as it's been open since 2017. If you don't, it's a fun open-kitchen wine bar with simple but sharp cooking. The Besta people also have a seafood-focused restaurant called Batea that opened last year.

I'm having trouble finding out how old it is, but Lluritu in Gracia is great for simple, perfectly grilled seafood. Also in Gracia and seafood-focused (though slightly less simple -- think scallops and pork belly with herb oil) is Hermós Bar de Peix, which opened over the summer in the Mercat de la Llibertat. It's run by the same team behind the neighborhood's popular La Pubilla and Extra Bar.

Agreste de Fabio & Roser is an Italian-Catalan restaurant way out behind Park Güell in what feels like the middle of nowhere. It took over a former autobody shop and has pretty outstanding, polished cooking and service, plus a deep wine list. There's an 80 euro tasting menu or a surprisingly affordable a la carte (20 euro for a duck main course).

Have to say, next to Gracia, El Poble-Sec might have had my favorite restaurants. Quimet y Quimet for conservas, which is popular for a reason, but also Taberna Noroeste, a tasting menu-only joint with a good amount of Galician influence. The latter does two seatings (it's just two chefs and one server who is also the host and dishwasher). It's around 10-12 courses with plenty of wonderfully cooked seafood, a few standout meat dishes (lamb tripe with Swiss chard), and some incredible sauces.

I can't say enough good things about Casa Maians, a market-driven Barceloneta restaurant with a long list of daily specials and a menu of Catalan home cooking like red shrimp stewed with blood sausage and chickpeas, or pig's feet over saffron milk cap mushrooms and black-eyed peas, plus a number of fideuà and rice options.

Frankly, there wasn't a bad meal the entire trip. Putting Hisop on the list for next time. Bar Babula looks promising -- looking forward to the report.

Edited November 13, 2023 by GerryOlds2TheReturnofGerry

[Wilfrid]

That’s a great list. Thanks for getting this thread underway again. Casa Maians looks like a good replacement for Can Lluis.

[Wilfrid]

8 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

Bar Babula 1937 in the Eixample looks interesting. Will soon find out as my godson, currently a resident of Gracia has booked it for tomorrow.

Just occurred to me that although I have known him since he was fresh out of the womb and we have eaten together, usually at places I chose, I have no idea if he knows a good restaurant. 😂

But this place does look fine. 

[Wilfrid]

Grumpy to find more beloved places closed, and there’s a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Starbucks in La Boqueria FFS.

But then there’s also this big shitter store I haven’t seen before. 

[Wilfrid]

The sad day pacing around and seeing  what has closed. El Gran Cafe, Bar Mundial, Pura Vida Cocktails, other places I recall vividly but their names have slipped from my mind.

But there’s a grand new art space in an old building on Carrer Ample, Palau de Martorell.

[Wilfrid]

I write from a bar stool at Xix gin bar in Poble Sec. At least it’s still here but the gin collection is thinned out like the book collection at St Mark’s Bookstore before it closed.

One of the many great things about being in Barcelona is that I tell everyone “Soy de Nueva York” and I don’t get annoying replies like, you sound Australian.

[Wilfrid]

Oh, good experience at Bar Babula last night. Bustling but not too noisy. I’d say Catalan food but with some kind of Japanese aesthetic brought to plating and some accents.

All plates for sharing. Terrific raw shrimp tiradito with a touch of wasabi in little tuiles. Good scallops with rather bland pumpkin relish. Tacos stuffed with excellent roast pork panceta, fatty as it should be, topped with pickled onions; bright green, spicy (kimchi-based) sauce on the side. A pressed block of ox cheek with little spring vegetables; could have used salt and pepper.

But I am picky. Nice meal, a classic martini (eschewing the fantasia of signature cocktails), then a garnacha* blend La Fosca.

Cost? I was treated. RTBC: my godson has lived here two years and my Spanish is [i]still[/i] better.
 

*Spellcheck preferred “garbage blend.”

[Wilfrid]

My godson has recently been to Cinc Sentits and liked it. That reminded me of the time I went there with the munchkin, then a child, and her mother.

Previously, at Hisop, we had ordered tastings for the adults and negotiated some child-friendly dishes for the small one. Fools. Her fork was soon in our plates.

At Cinc Sentits we abandoned caution and ordered tasting menus for three. The munchkin licked every plate clean and the servers were so impressed they took her (not us) back to the kitchen to meet the chef. 😅

[Wilfrid]

I planned a hearty lunch today but the Miro-Picasso show up Montjuic was vast, it’s 3 in the afternoon, and I have dinner at Hisop coming up. So oysters and cava at a familiar place.

The boquerones are interesting, marinated in orange juice with some kind of fresh cress, I think, garnish.

[Wilfrid]

Salon de Tinell is now an “event space.”

[Wilfrid]

Another unimpeachable meal at Hisop. Details will follow.

In the small dining room, only I ordered from the carte. Other tables, all first timers I guess, ate the tasting menu (as I did first time).

Three young Japanese diners opposite were delighted photographing their plates until I had a scorpionfish put into a big duck-like press table side. I waved on their photos. Then I had truffles shaved tableside over my rabbit and I felt I was spoiling their evening.