Niño Viejo would not have been my choice of eats, since it is Mexican food and we are in Spain. However, given that this is a taco place, and Lingon loves tapas, plus it is a product of the Adrià brothers (who were responsible for El Bulli), we decided to go. The restaurant is about a 20 minute walk from our hotel on La Rambla, in a residential looking area, which was less crowded and crazy. That was kind of nice. It shared a shop front with Hoja Santa, another Adrià creation, which was more refined Mexican food (thanks for asking, Lingon!). It seems like this trip seems to be an Adrià culinary tour, since we have Tickets and Pakta lined up!
They gave us some olives and sunflower seeds to start. We decided to let the server select some food for us. He picked pretty much all the starters. Mango, guacamole, queso fundido, fried chicken and ceviche. I must say none of these were particularly outstanding. Everything was very serviceable, but super normal.
Then, we got to the main part of the meal. First, the tuna tostada (no idea why on the English menu it says octopus). The tuna was like, wow, toro ish quality. I'm salivating thinking about it. Then we got the al pastor taco, which really I have no idea what al pastor is but it seemed like beef meat and they better not have served us rare-ish pork. Loved the flavour and thought it was amazing. On to the pluma ibérica (feathered lion in the English menu, lol) taco, which I personally thought was dry and not as tasty as the al pastor, but Lingon preferred this one. Lastly we got a grilled chicken, which was not bad but I don't know, something about that Limon chicken in SF, or even Costco chicken (don't crucify me for saying that, but Costco really makes a sick rotisserie chicken!) that made this seem sad and of poor value.
Total cost was €80 with 2 red wines and one ginger beer. One tip - you can order half portions of some of the food. That is useful for greedy ones like me who like to eat everything. I would recommend this place, but only for the tuna tostada and tacos.
They gave us some olives and sunflower seeds to start. We decided to let the server select some food for us. He picked pretty much all the starters. Mango, guacamole, queso fundido, fried chicken and ceviche. I must say none of these were particularly outstanding. Everything was very serviceable, but super normal.
Then, we got to the main part of the meal. First, the tuna tostada (no idea why on the English menu it says octopus). The tuna was like, wow, toro ish quality. I'm salivating thinking about it. Then we got the al pastor taco, which really I have no idea what al pastor is but it seemed like beef meat and they better not have served us rare-ish pork. Loved the flavour and thought it was amazing. On to the pluma ibérica (feathered lion in the English menu, lol) taco, which I personally thought was dry and not as tasty as the al pastor, but Lingon preferred this one. Lastly we got a grilled chicken, which was not bad but I don't know, something about that Limon chicken in SF, or even Costco chicken (don't crucify me for saying that, but Costco really makes a sick rotisserie chicken!) that made this seem sad and of poor value.
Total cost was €80 with 2 red wines and one ginger beer. One tip - you can order half portions of some of the food. That is useful for greedy ones like me who like to eat everything. I would recommend this place, but only for the tuna tostada and tacos.
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