After departing Brasserie Flo after being completely ignored (see review in post preceding this one), we headed to Barkeno Cocina Mediterranea, a restaurant we had previously walked past on the way to our hotel, and one the front desk at our hotel had recommended as well.

What a difference Barkeno was from Flo. The service was very good - the only mild negative was that I had to pour my own wine and water most of the time, but that truly is mild considering how great our waiter was in all other respects.

We had an excellent meal, starting with appetizers including mussels in cream and wine sauce, tuna tartar with avocado, and whole fried small fish and baby squid. We were also treated to home-made chips (potato, sweet potato, and eggplant) and nicely marinated olives. We also had an order of Catalan Bread - lightly toasted bread onto which olive oil and tomato has been rubbed. Catalan Bread is a staple in most of the restaurants we’ve been in here, and quite fresh and tasty when done right.

For our main courses we enjoyed monkfish medallions, grilled pork with mashed sweet potatoes, and duck margrate, all of which were also excellent.

We accompanied our meal with a bottle of 2006 Ermita D’Espiells from Juve y Camps, made from a blend of Macabeu, Xarello and Parellada grapes - a wonderful recommendation from our waiter, and reasonably priced as well.

Our “postres” (the local word for desserts) featured a trio of chocolate textures, Parmesan ice cream (sounds odd, but was quite tasty), a cheese cake, and strawberries in muscat. Again, all very nicely plated and very tasty. We were also given small (thimble-sized) cups of white chocolate filled with dark chocolate mousse and hazelnuts (filberts) as a small treat to end our meal. I also discovered that Grand Marnier comes in a yellow label (versus the usual red), indicating a lemon flavor instead of Grand Marnier’s usual orange base, although my personal preference still runs to Grand Marnier Cuvée du Centenaire or Cuvée Speciale Cent Cinquantenaire when opportunity arises.

Our meal for the four of us was about 175 Euros, plus I gave our waiter a 20 Euro tip for the service he provided. Expensive, but definitely the best meal we’ve had in Barcelona so far.

I give Barkeno an 8.5 out 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

After lunch yesterday we parted ways with Martin and his father Arend, followed it with Gelato at a local gelataria, and went for our afternoon Aquarium excursion after some shopping. We tried to drag things out so we could make it to dinner at 8:30pm instead of facing restaurants closed for dinner prior to that time, but despite our best efforts, we found ourselves tired and hungry, strolling back towards our hotel around 8pm.

Along the way we encountered, on Jonqueres near the Urquinaona intersection, a restaurant that was open, and looked nice and quiet - Brasserie Flo. The outer vestibule teased us with a display of delicious shellfish, and the interior was formal and refined. We were promptly seated at a table for four, given menus featuring a limited but tasty looking set of items - ranging from duck foie gras to lobster and sole.

Alas, looking at the menu was as close as we actually got to the food, since we could not get even a modicum of service during the 20+ minutes we sat at our table. No offer of water, refreshments, bread, or any attempt to communicate with us, never mind taking our order. The one point at which I managed to get one of the wait staff to look at me, she responding by saying that someone would be right with us. Ten minutes later someone had yet to materialize. As by now it was 8:30pm and other dining options were now available in Barcelona, we ended up leaving the restaurant in disgust. And interestingly, not a single member of the restaurant’s staff deigned to even ask us why were were leaving. Brasserie Flo gets a big fat raspberry and a 0.0 out of a possible 10.0 on The Richter Scale. Only go here if you are a masochist who thrives on being ignored and enjoys not eating or drinking anything in a restaurant. For the rest, keep in mind that life is too short and restaurant alternatives too many to need to experience treatment like this.

Yesterday, after touring the Parc Guell and passing up a visit to the Miro museum (see previous posts), we ended up in Las Ramblas, a busy, touristy section of Barcelona about a 15-20 minute walk from our hotel. We picked a Tapas-oriented place at random and ended up at El Choquito Restaurante, a busy restaurant with mostly tourists as customers, although we did see some locals at the Tapas bar on the way in. Service was brusque - just a slight bit above the sort of service one would get at Dick’s Last Resort back in the U.S. - a chain which prides itself on rude servers.

Fortunately, the food was a bit better than the service, but nothing great - mediocre and expensive would be a better description. We had a blend of tapas and entrees, none of which really stood out, although the patatas bravas were pretty good.

Bas particularly enjoyed his Chicken paella, although I was a bit put out by the lack of saffron flavor and the use of frozen vegetables. However, it’s been pointed out to me that each region in Spain has its own version of paella, with different flavors - but whether that was the reason for the flavor of the paella here or not, I don’t know.

The only thing that was distinctively good was the Cava-based Sangria - Cava is Spanish sparkling wine - and normally Sangria is made with red wine, but it was close to US$35 for one liter of Sangria with Cava.

There’s no question in my mind that El Choquito was a tourist trap. Cost for lunch was about 160 Euros (about US$250) for the six of us - pricey for what we got. I give El Choquito Restaurante a 5.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

For dinner on our first night in Barcelona we were wandering about after having toured the Sagrada Familia, and then walked a number of miles to the Arc de Triomphe (a bit smaller than the one in Paris), which led to a long line of market stands. We then walked into the La Ribera area near the Barri Gotic. We were still early - it was only just about 8:30pm, and ended up picking the first decent looking restaurant we came upon which had already opened - the restaurant Iggy.

Iggy specialized in Italian cuisine, and had a pretty diverse menu. Our charming waitress was actually Italian herself, from the island of Sardinia. We had an excellent bottle of Priorat (a red wine which comes from a particular region of Spain) and an excellent meal. Appetizers we enjoyed included Steak Tartar, steamed shellfish, stacked Caprese salad, and goat cheese ravioli. For our main courses we had roast lamb shoulder, a tender Ossobuco, pumpkin gnocchi (the only mild disappointment as the gnocchi were not fresh and tender), ox tail, and Turkish snuff tail (a type of fish). Dessert consisted of a chocolate fondant, apple tartlets, and ice cream, along with a sweet Spanish sherry with overtones of raisins. Final bill was around 240 Euros (approximately US$380), plus a 20 Euro tip (tipping is not that common in Spain, with a tip typically consisting of rounding up the bill to the next round number) for the nice service we received. Iggy gets an 8.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

As some of you may know, the three older Richters are foodies. Bas is slowly getting more adventurous too, and for an 11 year old boy, does well (his favorite foods include mussels, snails, and steak tartar), but he doesn’t hold a candle to the rest of us.

As foodies, we try to explore the local cuisines of areas we visit, and here in Barcelona, there are three overlapping cuisines we were are working to sample and experience: Catalan, Mediterranean, and Spanish. That’s in conjunction with some excellent Spanish wines, of course, as well as with another wine-based concoction: Sangria.

As mentioned in my previous post, dining times here in Spain are a bit unusual from an American perspective. Most local restaurants are open for lunch until about 4pm, and then re-open around 8:30-9pm (some as late as 10pm) for dinner. Back home we usually have lunch between Noon and 1pm, and dinner starting betweek 6 and 7pm). I’m hoping jet-lag makes the whole adjustment to later dining times easier.

So far we have dined at four restaurants, with a failed attempt to dine at yet one more.

Our two lunch experiences have both been at places which offer a popular form of Spanish dining, namely something called “Tapas“, with the restaurants serving Tapas frequently referred to as Tapas Bars. Spoken quickly this sounds like “Topless Bars”, a misunderstanding which is a source of frequent amusement to us.

Tapas Bars in the U.S. are bars (as in alcohol bars) which serve Tapas, while here in Barcelone, they are bars more along the line of Sushi Bars - you can set at the “bar” and select from a variety of Tapas shown under glass at said bar.

So what are Tapas? Well, the term refers to small plates of a particular food item - it might be a cold food, like marinated octopus or ham on small slices of bread, or hot food like skewers of meat or patatas bravas (chunks of potato with a spicy sauce).

The plates either comes as individual items for one person or as a slightly larger small plate featuring multiple portions of the ordered item, ideal for sharing with others at your table. Our experience with Tapas in the U.S. so far had been with the latter approach - you typically get enough for sharing with one or two other people, and make a meal of ordering a half dozen different Tapas items which are all shared.

Our first restaurant was Txapela (pronounced “Chapella”), a couple blocks from our hotel, right near the busy intersection of Passeig de Gracia and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. While the weather was still a bit brisk, it was a beautiful afternoon, so we sat outside at the cafe portion of the restaurant. Our waitress did not speak English, and our Catalan and Spanish were minimal, but thanks to a pictographic menu of Tapas, we were able to order our Tapas-based meal without too many complications. The tapas at Txapela were the first single portion size tapas we had ever experienced. We ended up ordering two or three of each of the kinds we wanted to sample (about ten different kinds overall), and enjoyed them all. We accompanied the meal with a couple of pitchers of sangria, a blend of wine, fruit, fruit juices, and as we discovered in this case, a heavy dose of sugar too. While the food was good, service, while friendly, was a bit spotty. For the six of us, the bill came to around 120 Euros (about US$190). Based on what we’ve been seeing of prices here, that’s not unreasonable, and certainly eating outdoors was a pleasure (albeit a bit cold for those of us with thin blood) as we could do all sorts of people watching. Txapela gets a 7.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.