Initial Thoughts on Barcelona Trip - Part 4: The Food (1 cent)

The last time I was in Spain was in 1972. I remember the food as consistently the best I tasted anywhere, in quality, variety and quantity.

I did not have the same reaction this time in Barcelona. I thought we had good meals, but most were not spectacular. Of course, we did not search out spectacular restaurants, but I did not do that in 1972 either.

Here is a rundown of our meals. Restaurants are either rated with a "thumbs up" (which means I recommend it), "thumbs down" (the opposite), or "no thumbs" (eat there only if you're hungry).

Cafe de Francesca. Our breakfasts were similar to those I remember from that first trip. Coffee and pastries. As I earlier reported, we had breakfast virtually every morning at Cafe de Francesca, just down the street from the Hotel Majestic. This is part of a chain (I saw at least two others). It is more atmospheric than a Starbucks (and yes, Barcelona has Starbucks). It has two rows of outside tables on Passeig de Gracia under umbrellas, small tables inside in a front and a back room, menus of various sorts on the walls (all in Catalan), and a long bar with inviting stools on your right as you enter through two arched doorways. Hint: service is much quicker at the bar.

Because of language, it was hard to know all of the choices we had. The standard coffee was espresso, of course, and you could get all of the varieties you could expect. It was quite good. You could also get coffee americano, which appeared to be two shots of espresso diluted somewhat. It was also quite good, and stronger than typical American coffee. There was a large variety of teas. H. had jasmine oolong most mornings. There were also wall signs saying that Jamaican (Black Mountain) and Costa Rican coffee was available, but I didn't pursue and don't know how that would be served; I did see that there were separate coffee makers for each. There was fresh squeezed orange juice, processed with a large juicer (which seemed to be standard in a number of restaurants in the city; why don't we have those?).

The pastries were of high quality, as well. Croissants (chocolate and plain), palmiers, muffins (magdalenas) and others which were familiar. And some not so familiar, such as a tartaleta musico, which had nuts and dates and raisins, as well as a little custard in a pastry shell, the pastis de poma (sliced apple over custard in a square phylo-like dough pastry), and the canya crema (elongated cream filled pastry).

At night, the cafe turned into a bar, with among other things, a variety of grappa flavors and limoncello, a lemon liquor from Capri. We stopped in one evening before going back to the hotel. There was a torrential rain that night and we were trapped in the cafe for more than an hour, along with many others (including friends from DC. Grappa never tasted so good. THUMBS UP

Agua. Agua is a beautiful restaurant right on the Mediterranean. There is a broad boardwalk over looking the beach, well north of most of the beach front restaurants in the former Olympic Village area. Agua is actually located under the boardwalk. There is a small modern, glass enclosed entrance at the boardwalk level, perhaps measuring 8 feet square. Just big enough to enclose the stairway going down. The main dining room is spacious, divided into a bar area and an eating area, with glass windows overlooking the water. Outside is a terrace that is, in effect, right on the beach. The guidebooks all say that reservations are needed, but we were able to get a table at an early hour (for Spain that is, about 8:30 p.m.), "as long as you will be finished by ten". In fact, we were not quite finished, but no one seemed to care. Two of us ordered the tuna, and proclaimed it to be about the best ever had (but they had not yet been to Bar-Mut - read on), one of us had a monkfish brochette, and one had a codfish confit (simply cooked, served on a spinach base). We were all very satisfied. As for as starters, we had a very nice mixed vegetable medley, fried artichokes, a tomato/pepper salad, and a standard arugala salad with shaved parmesan cheese. We shared two desserts, a Greek yogurt with strawberries, and figs with marscapone. We also shared a very nice red wine, Belezos Acuarela 2005. All the Spanish reds we had were good; this was one of the best. It was a tempranillo, from Rioja. [www.aguadeltragaluz.com.] THUMBS UP

Agua was an expensive restaurant, as you might expect. About $40 per person.

El Puchero de Baralantra. We stumbled upon this restaurant early in the trip. It is located a few blocks from our hotel in the L'Eixample section of the city. We had tried to eat first at Cervesaria Catalunya, a restaurant perpetually crowded (it must be the Lauriol Plaza of Barcelona) and then at a nearby Italian restaurant, but both were overflowing with tapas minded twenty-somethings, so we found a nearby restaurant that only had a few other tables filled.

The service was very nice and, speaking about grappa, we each got a glass on the house (two kinds, killer and potable) after our meal. The food was adequate, but this is not a restaurant that one would rave about. El Puchero promotes itself as a restaurant serving traditional food, using natural produce, and not following the latest trends ("because some things never change").

We had two main courses, a tuna in a pepper sauce and an Andalusian baby squid, along with gazpacho, and several plates of tapas: olives, two kinds of omelettes, a cheese tapas, potatas bravas, and others. THUMBS DOWN

The cost was a little over $30 per person, including wine. www.elpurcherodebaralantra.com

Ugarit. Ugarit was a very pleasant surprise. It is a Syrian restaurant (I think there are three branches) located in the Gracia section of the city. I had passed it one afternoon about 4 p.m. and it was filled, so I thought it must be good. We had a little trepidation about going to a Syrian restaurant out of this country, it must be admitted. Our waiter spoke English pretty well amongst other languages. I told him that his English was much better than his Arabic. He laughed. I am not sure he knew a word of Arabic (he was from Bangladesh).

I wish I could tell you what we had, but the receipt is in Catalan-Arabic, and my memory is not helping me. The food included fattuch salad (with tomatoes, lettuce and bread), fried eggplant with tahini, and shwarma. Perhaps some of my dinner companions remember more.

This was an extremely crowded restaurant. The price was under $25 per person. THUMBS UP [www.restauranteugarik.restaurantesok.com]

Sedna. Sedna is a restaurant in the harbor area, but not right on the beach. It overlooks a marina in the enclosed harbor across the street in the area that is known as Porta Vell. It turned out to be our most expensive meal, and although it was very good, we probably did have better at some of our other choices. The main courses were turbot, salmon, duck and scallops. We had wine and sangria to drink. We had three desserts, two tarts (one apple, one apricot) and an Italian creme (tirimasu). The meal cost just over $50 per person. NO THUMBS [www.restaurantesedna.com]

Celler del Trabucaire. After visiting Gaudi's Church of the Holy Family, we had lunch at a small restaurant nearby. E. had anchovies on toast, H. had tuna on toast, and M. and I split a large assorted plate of hot tapas, which included baby octopus, sausages, olives, salads, mushrooms, patatas bravas, skewered chicken and more. About $20 a person. NO THUMBS

Can Majo.
The last time I was in Spain was in 1972. I remember the food as consistently the best I tasted anywhere, in quality, variety and quantity. Can Majo is an old, well reputed beach front restaurant, where we had dinner with our friends, the K's, who were also in Barcelona. Altogether there were 11 of us. The food was very good, the outside table with the strolling magicians very comfortable, and a good time was had by all. About $45 per person. I had hake or, as it is known in Spain, merluza. THUMBS UP

Wembly. Wembly is a neighborhood restaurant where M and I had lunch. The average age of the customers was about 80, it seemed (M asked me if we had wandered into the dining hall of an old age home). The food was not great, but for what it was, it was just fine, and the quantities were substantial. We had fixed price meals at $20 each. I had lamb, M. had cod. THUMBS DOWN

La Polpa. La Polpa was a find. E., M., and I went there on a Saturday night. It is a very trendy restaurant in L'Eixample. They have two courses - no tapas. The walls are filled with bottles of wine and chic chachkas. We had cod, dorado, and chicken brochettes for our main courses, a vegetable tart, a cheese salad, and a tri-color salad for our starters. We split one dessert, a date and nut bread/cake topped by unsweetened Greek yogurt. Doesn't sound that good? It was perfect. The very nice wine was the restaurant's private label. About $25 per person. THUMBS UP

Farga. Farga is a combination restaurant/tapas bar/geleteria located just off the Diagonal, near Passeig de Gracia. We had dinner sitting outside (where they add 20% to the price), and had merluza and salmon, ravioli with spinach and chopped meat, and duck with hundred-year old sauce, along with gazpacho, and pumpkin soup f0r a starter. The wine was Cresta Rosa, a rose. The dessert was an appealing selection of small cakes. It was about $35 per person. THUMBS UP.

Bar Mut. Bar Mut was our last restaurant. We stumbled on it, and went inside. It is really a wine bar with only about 8 or 10 tables, plus seats at the bar. And the tables are small. And there is no outside seating. But this was perhaps the trendiest place of them all. With no end of bottles of different wines climbing every wall. There was no menu, just blackboards with offerings and prices (of course not in English). The servings were a little larger than standard tapas size, but not full meal size. We over ordered. We had absolutely delicious tuna. We had a spinach salad, we had a delicious steak with foie gras, we had large prawns, we had chicken with pesto. And we have wine by the glass. This is a well known establishment, it turns out, and the reviews all say that same thing. Extraordinary food. But, oh, those prices. Our tapas-like meal cost us $45 per person. THUMBS UP

Restaurante Quixote. This is a typical restaurant about two blocks from the hotel. We ate here the first night. Again, the food was not bad, but there is no reason to go back. Actually, I don't remember what we ordered, except that E., who was tired from the trip, just had a saladTHUMBS DOWN.

El Zorzal. El Zorzal is an Argentinian restaurant, also known as Gaucho. There are a surprising number of Argentinian restaurants (and Argentinians) in Barcelona. We had lunch there, and discovered that they served fish as well as beef. The decor was very understated; it looked like a place for workers, not tourists. It was a nice place for lunch. NO THUMBS

La Marona. When we got to Barcelona, it was about noon, and we asked the concierge at the hotel (well, actually, one of the clerks; there is no official concierge) and he recommended an upscale seafood restaurant in the Gracia section. We took a cab, and upon arrival realized that it was too upscale for lunch for four tired travelers, and passed. We started walking back and found La Marona. I remember that I ordered as an appetizer a dish called judias verdes. I know this means green beans, but I think it may also mean green Jew. Is that possible? E. had gazpacho and large sardines, which I tasted and thought only so-so. NO THUMBS