Well, here we were, finally, after being shut out of the restaurant because we visited during the holiday period last year and the place was closed down for the season. I think I had hyped this place up so much in my head. Tickets.
So generally, one has to make reservations online 60 days before to ensure availability and to get the desired time slot. I messed up with my dates, so I had a reservation for this coming Saturday, which wouldn't have been the worst thing except there was a FC Barcelona match at Camp Nou and I know Lingon really wanted to go to this. I checked the website everyday for possibly a month, but nothing came available. I emailed them too but never received a proper response.
What does one do when one is desperate? We decided to pay the restaurant a visit, live, where they were unable to ignore us. When we got there, there was a guy sitting at the ticket counter in front of the computer hanging out with his buddies drinking a beer. Yes. Unbelievable. And he couldn't respond to my email, why?! Anyhow, gripe as I may, we actually managed to get an early same-day reservation at 6.30pm. So, for those who have lost hope, don't, go to the counter early in the day and hopefully someone can help you! (Having said that, it was a Tuesday, so I don't encourage the same amount of aspiration for busy periods or weekends.)
The second Adrià restaurant on the same day. El Bulli olives. I was so excited.
The restaurant decor was interesting. I guess it is some kind of circus or carnival theme with different bars/counters. We were seated at one of the bars, not a table, which actually I prefer because I like to see the action. Wonder if it was because we made our reservation so late, and that was considered a crappy seat, but anyway I was happy. They had a gazillion of those Chinese cats with the waving hand, wonder why.
They present you with two options. The first is the "surprise" menu, which is pretty much some kind of tasting devised by them. I looked around and realized people got different things from us, and wondered what the proportion of people choosing the "surprise" menu was. The other option was just plain ol' a la carte. Anyhow, random thoughts.
Here is what we got, together with some thoughts:
-I could not find this on the menu, but it was some kind of deconstructed fish and rice reconstructed to make a cracker. I found this quite tasty and liked it.
-"Fruit impregned as a refreshing solid cocktail" - I think it was apple and fairly unremarkable.
-"Tickets' olives" which is more like El Bulli olives. These are liquid olives, and apparently there is a video that will show you how they are made, but my bandwidth at the hotel is too low so I will just include a link.
-"Anchovy in crostini with tomato seeds" - love anchovies, loved this.
-"Manchego cheese foam with its mini airbag" - people raved about this on Trip, I liked it but was not in love.
-"Rubia Gallega en un airbaguette" - I think this must mean some kind of ham, with a baguette that was hollow inside. The meat was great, the baguette was dry but the ham definitely helped.
-"The egg and the truffle with its sell" - I think they meant shell here. I liked it. Egg and truffle somehow reconstructed into a nice creamy mixture and put into a perfectly cut out egg.
-"Tuna in tartare with a nori mille-feuille" - this was innovative, tasted very Asian, and I liked it.
-Again, I can't find the next one on the menu, but on the bill it was called "nordico zanahoria". Now when I ate it, I thought of my meal in Iceland that I found inedible. This was not as bad, but somehow had that same Nordic feel about it. When I saw the item on the menu, everything made sense. It was beautifully presented, which excited me, but otherwise was my least favourite dish of the evening. It was some kind of cured beef (I think) on some kind of crostini and beyond that I think I'm trying to phase that taste out of my head.
-Oysters - they were good, but I've had better.
-"Snow crab in avocado cannelloni" - the mix of crab and avocado is pretty standard, the dish itself was delicious, but rather unspecial for such a place.
-"Crunchy octopus with pak choi" - the octopus was delicious, super fresh, and whatever created that crunch was fabulous.
-"Roasted chicken with its broth" - it was a thinly sliced escalope (I think that's how it was presented to us), and the bottom of it had what I believe was its skin fried to a crisp. The chicken itself was unremarkable, though the skin was delicious and the broth was very flavourful. I felt like it was tea time. The tea cup had a tea bag with herbs and lemon of some kind in it, I thought that was clever.
I forgot to get a picture of the dessert menu, but here are my poor descriptions. Mushroom was not impressed.
-Cupcake, and we could eat the wrapper
-Apple strudel ish with ice cream
Well, glad to get this off the bucket list. We had 3 waters, and the meal total was about €150 for us both. I don't think I would give it an outstanding endorsement, but it was an interesting place, and I believe one of the hottest restaurants in Barcelona at the moment, so I'm glad we went. Could have done with less calories though.
So generally, one has to make reservations online 60 days before to ensure availability and to get the desired time slot. I messed up with my dates, so I had a reservation for this coming Saturday, which wouldn't have been the worst thing except there was a FC Barcelona match at Camp Nou and I know Lingon really wanted to go to this. I checked the website everyday for possibly a month, but nothing came available. I emailed them too but never received a proper response.
What does one do when one is desperate? We decided to pay the restaurant a visit, live, where they were unable to ignore us. When we got there, there was a guy sitting at the ticket counter in front of the computer hanging out with his buddies drinking a beer. Yes. Unbelievable. And he couldn't respond to my email, why?! Anyhow, gripe as I may, we actually managed to get an early same-day reservation at 6.30pm. So, for those who have lost hope, don't, go to the counter early in the day and hopefully someone can help you! (Having said that, it was a Tuesday, so I don't encourage the same amount of aspiration for busy periods or weekends.)
The second Adrià restaurant on the same day. El Bulli olives. I was so excited.
The restaurant decor was interesting. I guess it is some kind of circus or carnival theme with different bars/counters. We were seated at one of the bars, not a table, which actually I prefer because I like to see the action. Wonder if it was because we made our reservation so late, and that was considered a crappy seat, but anyway I was happy. They had a gazillion of those Chinese cats with the waving hand, wonder why.
They present you with two options. The first is the "surprise" menu, which is pretty much some kind of tasting devised by them. I looked around and realized people got different things from us, and wondered what the proportion of people choosing the "surprise" menu was. The other option was just plain ol' a la carte. Anyhow, random thoughts.
Here is what we got, together with some thoughts:
-I could not find this on the menu, but it was some kind of deconstructed fish and rice reconstructed to make a cracker. I found this quite tasty and liked it.
-"Fruit impregned as a refreshing solid cocktail" - I think it was apple and fairly unremarkable.
-"Tickets' olives" which is more like El Bulli olives. These are liquid olives, and apparently there is a video that will show you how they are made, but my bandwidth at the hotel is too low so I will just include a link.
-"Anchovy in crostini with tomato seeds" - love anchovies, loved this.
-"Manchego cheese foam with its mini airbag" - people raved about this on Trip, I liked it but was not in love.
-"Rubia Gallega en un airbaguette" - I think this must mean some kind of ham, with a baguette that was hollow inside. The meat was great, the baguette was dry but the ham definitely helped.
-"The egg and the truffle with its sell" - I think they meant shell here. I liked it. Egg and truffle somehow reconstructed into a nice creamy mixture and put into a perfectly cut out egg.
-"Tuna in tartare with a nori mille-feuille" - this was innovative, tasted very Asian, and I liked it.
-Again, I can't find the next one on the menu, but on the bill it was called "nordico zanahoria". Now when I ate it, I thought of my meal in Iceland that I found inedible. This was not as bad, but somehow had that same Nordic feel about it. When I saw the item on the menu, everything made sense. It was beautifully presented, which excited me, but otherwise was my least favourite dish of the evening. It was some kind of cured beef (I think) on some kind of crostini and beyond that I think I'm trying to phase that taste out of my head.
-Oysters - they were good, but I've had better.
-"Snow crab in avocado cannelloni" - the mix of crab and avocado is pretty standard, the dish itself was delicious, but rather unspecial for such a place.
-"Crunchy octopus with pak choi" - the octopus was delicious, super fresh, and whatever created that crunch was fabulous.
-"Roasted chicken with its broth" - it was a thinly sliced escalope (I think that's how it was presented to us), and the bottom of it had what I believe was its skin fried to a crisp. The chicken itself was unremarkable, though the skin was delicious and the broth was very flavourful. I felt like it was tea time. The tea cup had a tea bag with herbs and lemon of some kind in it, I thought that was clever.
I forgot to get a picture of the dessert menu, but here are my poor descriptions. Mushroom was not impressed.
-Cupcake, and we could eat the wrapper
-Apple strudel ish with ice cream
Well, glad to get this off the bucket list. We had 3 waters, and the meal total was about €150 for us both. I don't think I would give it an outstanding endorsement, but it was an interesting place, and I believe one of the hottest restaurants in Barcelona at the moment, so I'm glad we went. Could have done with less calories though.
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