Entrance:

Widely said to have the best (but pricey) seafood in Barcelona, this place often has fancy cars parked outside when I walk by.

Interior:

The moment you come in you see a sea of bustling white jacketed waiters and a hectic kitchen packed with cooks. It felt like there were more workers than diners and maybe this was true! I made a reservation a few days in advance and we got a nice quiet corner upstairs (although there were musicians that came in and played for the tipsy tables.)

Every table got their own waiter, but they seemed bored and unattentive.

Our waiter was chatty, and when we waved him over, a fellow waiter had to nudge him but he still had to finish his 10 seconds of chatter before he came to our table.

Bread (and olives and potato chips not pictured) €2.50 per person

Crunchy yummy bagel-chip-like bread chips.

Calamares a la Andaluza- batter dipped and fried squid rings €13.50

Light crispy batter so thin it felt like part of the soft squid.

Alcachofas Fritas- deep fried artichokes €8.00

A big plate of thin crispy artichokes with crispy edges and soft hearts. A bit oily but still good!

Arroz Caldoso con Bogavante- Juicy rice with lobster €35.00

Big pot of really “juicy” soup with soft rice at the bottom, calamari, and chunks of shelled lobster.

My first bowl.

It could just be mental, because of its yellowish color, but I thought it tasted like paella, like a yummy soup version of paella.

Mariscada Especial a la Plancha- special grilled assorted shellfish €99.00

You can’t really tell from this photo, but this plate is HUGE! My first thoughts were: “Oh no! No room for dessert! This dish is for 2?” (Menu stated this as a plate for 2 people) The lazy waiter didn’t warn us! He even laughed and said “well it’s a plate for 2 who haven’t eaten calamari, artichokes and lobster rice!” After all those appetizers, just looking at this giant made me feel full. I saw other tables of 6 sharing this plate. After an hour of nibbling, we did a pretty good job finishing most of it, but still took home a bag of shrimp and lobster.
Scallops with lots of onion, big chunks of lobster, squid, clams, big shrimp, little shrimp, langostinos (big prawn with one big long claw, I’m still not sure what these really are). Lots of olive oil and a good grilled taste.

Complimentary dessert things:

Thin crunchy almond-brittle-like cookies (I don´t know what these are called, but I´ve had them before), cold chocolatey truffles with a hard chocolate shell, ultra soft eggy sponge cake lightly sweet and slightly lemony.

Overall, the seafood was pretty good, I don’t know about “best” seafood in Barcelona though. A lot of seafood restaurants are also pretty good here, and this didn’t stand out that much for me. But it did have a nice-ish busy atmosphere, unlike what I had expected, even though many of the tables were occupied by groups of business professional looking people.

Receipt:
3 pan 2.50 7.50
alcachofas fritas 8.00
calamares 13.50
arroz caldoso con bogavante 35.00
mariscada 99.00
vinos y aguas 5.00
total+tax= €179.76 (dinner for 3)
I’m still not sure about tipping, but I gave an 8 euro tip (a bit too little maybe?)…Yay for not being forced to give 15% or about €25!

This entry was posted by chicken on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Barcelona, Gràcia, Seafood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.