The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Life beyond foams, smoke and El Bulli HOW TO EAT IN: BARCELONA
The spirit of Ferran Adrià’s iconic restaurant lives on in Catalunya, but Sally Davies finds food for every taste and pocket in this vibrant city
he winds of change have buffeted Barcelona’s restaurant scene over the past decade or so, and while some of the more traditional options have been squeezed out, there is now a welcome breadth of choice in hitherto undreamt-of cuisines.
Thanks to the game-changing legacy of molecular gastronome
Ferran Adrià, Catalunya has long had a disproportionate number of avantgarde kitchens, presided over by chefs who learned their trade as stagiaires at the stoves of El Bulli.
This sort of dining doesn’t come cheap, but those who can run to it can expect lengthy tasting menus and some amount of theatre on every plate, with foams, smoke and minor explosions (and cunning deceptions) on the tongue.
The forces of globalisation have led to crazes for gourmet burger bars, fancy fish and chip shops and even cereal cafés, and have also ushered in trends such as fermentation, raw food and sourdough bread.
Not 10 years ago, it was hard to get vegetarian food in Barcelona (until very recently, it was not all that unusual for a waiter to offer to
“pick the ham out”), but nowadays vegetarians, vegans and even the gluten-intolerant are spoilt for choice.
Brunch, too, has exploded in popularity, not just in the hipster cafés but in some of the smartest hotels, which frequently serve grand all-day versions at weekends. Ramen bars are all the rage and if you need a morning bagel or late-night taco, Barcelona has you covered.
This is not to say that the more traditional Spanish and Catalan restaurants have all been driven out. There are fewer, certainly, but the Castilian asadores (where meat is roasted in an oven or on an open grill) still do a roaring trade, as do the many paella and seafood restaurants clustered in the seaside neighbourhood of Barceloneta and dotted around town.
Little of this is necessarily out of the reach of travellers on an average budget. While local prices are now more in line with those of Northern Europe, Spain has retained its excellent custom of the “menú del día” – a reasonably priced lunch deal that normally includes three courses, bread and a drink, and generally costs somewhere between €11 (£9.40) and €15.
Bear in mind that Catalans eat late – rarely before 2pm for lunch or 9pm for dinner – and note also that lunch tends to be the big meal of the day. Here are my tips on eating out in Barcelona.
HIP AND TRENDY BLUE SPOT
In a prime position on the eighth floor of an office block at the south end of Barcelona’s beach, Blue Spot has an unbeatable view of the coast. At night time, however, the focus turns inward to the oak-panelled, fairy-lit dining room and the glamorous cocktailsipping crowd within. Unusually for a place this glossy, the food is very decent, particularly the fish grilled in an open kitchen (the turbot with creamed wild mushrooms and truffled pumpkin is excellent) and some triumphantly original little starters, such as the oyster with foamed pisco sour. At the witching hour,
DJs arrive and the lights dip as Blue Spot swings into Blue Monkey.
Three courses with wine €50/£42.70pp; Passeig Joan de Borbó 101, Barceloneta (encompaniadelobos.com).
VEGETARIAN
FLAX & KALE PASSAGE
Describing itself as flexitarian and embracing a leafy but muscular industrial chic, Flax & Kale Passage serves dishes (above) that tick all the boxes of the healthy new wave. The hefty tome of a menu is less intimidating than it first seems; pages are devoted to ingredients, allergies and labelling, with labels for raw food, plant-based, oily fish and spicy. Dishes include the vegetarian “Bao bab benedict”, topped with “BBQ pulled pork” ( jackfruit), poached eggs, plant-based hollandaise and chilli jam, and “My vegan Japanese girlfriend” – a coriander-slathered bowl with brown rice, quinoa and jackfruit on one side; plant-based “scrambled eggs” with vegetables on the other.
Three courses with wine €40pp; Carrer Sant Pere més Alt 31-33,
Born (teresacarles.com).
WINE AND DINE MONVINÍC
A starkly modernist temple to the grape, Monviníc is part wine bar, part restaurant, with an area for casual dining (tapas and so on) and a leafy terrace perfect for a summer lunch. The food is excellent – try the duck confit and turnips with pears poached in red wine, or the salade niçoise with tuna tartare, giant caper berries and quails’ eggs – but the wine list is the real draw. A fascinating and wildly diverse selection that comprises between 2,000 and 3,000 labels at any one time is made more accessible by interactive tablets that sort according to type, region and cost, with background on history and growers.
Three courses with wine €60pp; three-course lunch menu including two glasses of wine
€35; Carrer Diputació 249,
Eixample (monvinic.com).
OFFBEAT EATS FLASH FLASH
This Sixties icon has legendary status in Barcelona society, and was created by design and architectural aristocracy (whose offspring still run it today). All-white, with a stark pop-art aesthetic, the dining room is emblazoned with life-size silhouettes of Twiggy-like figures, and plays host to a selection of uptown Catalans and curious foreigners. Flash Flash calls itself a “tortilleria” and the speciality is omelettes in every form – not just the classic Spanish potato omelette, but versions with Iberian cured ham; macaroni and cheese; bacon, onion and haricot beans; Padrón peppers and spicy sausage. There are vegetarian omelettes, dessert omelettes with kirsch, orange or rum, and even the mighty “layered omelette” which incorporates four different types.
Three courses with wine €25pp; Carrer Granada del Penedés 25, Sant Gervasi (flashflashtortilleria.com).
LATE NIGHT BITE LAS FERNANDEZ
This no-nonsense crimson-hued stalwart – open until 1am, or 2am on Friday or Saturday – is hidden down a fairly insalubrious Raval side street, but it is warm and welcoming with excellent food. Run by the three Fernández sisters, it specialises in food from the region of Bierzo and thereabouts, including cecina de León (dry-cured beef) and – in winter – botillo, a sturdy nose-to-tail experience wrapped in pig intestine and not for the faint of heart. Plenty of lighter, greener dishes are available.
Locally produced art (which ranges from photographs to T-shirts) is displayed in fortnightly changing exhibitions, and all of it is for sale. You might get lucky with a cooking class or some live music – check the website for details of times and dates.
Three courses with wine €35pp; Carrer Carretes 11, Raval (lasfernandez.com).
ABSOLUTE BARGAIN LA PARADETA
Don’t be put off by the inevitable queue outside – it moves relatively quickly and is testament to the excellent value within. At the entrance is a replica market stall, or paradeta, where piles of seafood shimmer on a bed of chipped ice. No language skills are required – simply point at what you fancy: oysters, razor clams, prawns, crab, crayfish, octopus or sardines, or perhaps a chunk of swordfish, turbot or bream. This is whisked away in a paper cone to the kitchen while you assemble drinks, salad and cutlery, find a Formica table at which to sit, then, when your number is called, collect your cooked seafood from the serving hatch.
Three courses with wine
€25pp; Carrer Comercial 7,
Born (laparadeta.com).
CUTTING-EDGE COOKING GRESCA
Like most of Barcelona’s great chefs, Rafa Peña trained at El Bulli. He now runs a two-in-one restaurant, half wine bar, half formal dining room, with the two spaces sharing an open kitchen and some of the best and most inventive food in town. On the wine bar side there is an à la carte menu of sharing plates, among which the buttery calves’ brains with lemon stand out, along with the herbed omelette wrapped in a translucent sheet of ham fat.
In the restaurant itself, diners can choose between three tasting menus, ranging from “short” at
€38 to “long” at €70.
Three courses with wine €40pp; Carrer Provença 230 (no website).
Catalunya’s avant garde chefs learned their trade as at the stoves of El Bulli