Friday 26 October 2007

Restaurant Egypte, Ramblas, 79

Fri Oct 26

Menu del Dia - Restaurant Egypte, Ramblas, 79

I have been here many times now and it never disappoints. Even though its on the Ramblas, it enjoys a far better level of food and service than any of the other restaurants I've tried along Las Ramblas. Most of the people working there actually seem to care that the customers enjoy their food/eating experience.

For Primero, I had the excellent Fishermens Fideua, which is a special for Fridays. This consists of noodles along with a little amount of fish meat and shellfish. For Segundo, Salmon a la plancha (grilled salmon), which was also good, although would be better to have something else with it other than chips, as I'm not a 14 year old.
For drinks, this is one place where they give you a small, glass-size bottle of wine, although the Vino Blanco is very good - a nicely chilled wine called Crin Roja, Macabeo.

Menu del Dia - 9.00 Euros + IVA

Rating out of ten - 8

Wednesday 24 October 2007

Nou Miño, C/Carmen 2?

Wed Oct 24

Menu del Dia - Rst Nou Miño, C/Carmen 2? (don't know exact nr)

I highly recommend this nice little restaurant, ideal for lunch/menu del dia.
Very good food, attentive service and a nice atmopshere made for a great lunch.

For primero, I had Tortellones en salsa tomata, a very tasty tomato sauce. Then, for segundo, conejo (rabbit) which was served in a lightly-peppered sauce.

Primero - Tortellons en salsa tomata
Segundo - Conejo

Drinks - White wine. As usual, the whole bottle was left for my entertainment, managed to restrict myself to two glasses this time.

Total price - 8.90 Euros (with a small tip to take it up to 10)

Rating out of ten: 8.5

Friday 19 October 2007

Miramar Restaurant, Plaza Carlos Ibanez, 3

Friday Oct 19

This was an unusual experience for my brother and myself. I have often been to the Miramar bar/cafe that sits above this restaurant and often thought it would be interesting to try the restaurant, as its open at night and overlooks the same great view that the bar/cafe enjoys.

Getting a table wasn't difficult, which was a good start. Very attentive service with about three or four different attendants scuttling around the table, of course, then start thinking maybe they have high prices to match the decor, view and amount of service. A quick read of the menus showed this was the case, with starters averaging around 18-26 Euros and main courses (strangely) about the same. A quick bit of math made me realise if I had a starter and a main here, that would be the same as a whole weeks menu del dias. Not good. Then a quick read of the wine list proved similar, cheapest bottle being 18 Euros.

Both my brother and myself decided on just a main course and this is where the fun really started. I went for a lamb dish and my brother went for a scallops dish. When the plates were put before us, I've got to admit I laughed out loud - I couldn't help it. The plate my brother had consisted of a tiny bit of froth with an even tinier bit of scallop under it - and nada mas! I think my exact words were "Unlucky bruv!"
My lamb dish was just that, lamb in a sauce, with nothing else accompanying it.

Later on, whilst waiting for the taxi, someone there described it as 'sofisticado' - I know what they mean!

Rating out of ten: 6 (for comedy)

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Tapas del Born, L'Argenteria 45

Mon Oct 8

Menu del Dia - Restaurante Tapas del Born, L'Argenteria 45
I'd often passed this place by whilst walking down L'Argentaria on the way to/from the Born area, due to its seemingly tiny window/restaurant space. When you pass by, all you can see is one table and the bar. There is an upstairs, luckily enough, so theres more than one table, but first impressions do last a long time.

So it wasn't until today that I actually tried this place. The food was pretty good, the service more or less good and it was an enjoyable meal.

Primero - Cannelones (pasta) - A big portion!
Segundo - Bacalao (cod in a tomato-type sauce) - Contrastingly, a small portion of bacalo, but enough after the mass of Cannelones
Postres - Tarta Manzana

Drink - White wine of course. Managed to get two glasses, although this is one of the places where they don't just leave the bottle, you have to ask for another glass, but its included in the price of Menu del Dia.

Menu del Dia - 10.80 total including an additional coffee

Rating out of ten: 7

Saturday 6 October 2007

Taller de Tapas, C/Comtal 28

Fri Oct 5

Tapas selection - Taller de Tapas, Comtal 28 (Portal de l'Angel)
Any of the three Taller de Tapas restaurants are always great for trying out some more unique tapas, as they craft their own specialities. The restaurants and the prices are a bit more upmarket than the usual tapas bar I prefer - the cheap and cheerful variety - but on Friday I was celebrating that I'd had a quick and easy experience with the Spanish bureaucracy in getting NIE Number/Residence Card, whereas I thought it would take an age.

Tables are usually always full, but there's normally plenty of space at the bar, so that was where I sat. One thing to mention about this restaurant is that it didn't have all the tapas that's on the menu (missing ones marked with a dot) whereas the main one, in L'Argentaria 51 always seems to have the full list available.

Tapas is always best when there's a crowd of you and you can then select a large variety and get a little bit of each, but its still good when eating on your own, as long as you select a decent mix.

I went for the following:
'Espinicas con pancete Iberica y garbanzos' - Spinach with Iberian bacon and chickpeas
'Boquerones a la malaguenya' - Malagan anchovies
'Sardinas a la plancha' - Griled sardines

All were good, but especially good was the Espinicas, the spinach itself was full of flavour (unususal for spinach) and the small slices of Iberican bacon were great combination with the chickpeas.

Rating out of ten: 8

Wednesday 3 October 2007

Restaurante Victor, C/Deu i Mata 43, Les Corts

Wed Oct 3

Menu del Dia - Restaurante Victore, C/Deu i Mata 43, Les Corts

This restaurant is around the corner from where I live and I've been there quite a few times now. Its always very popular for lunchtime trade so not always able to get the outside tables, which I prefer. For Primero (starters) I had Tortelitos de Tortilla y Verduras - two pieces of tortilla with some mixed vegetables - which was good, although could have been a bit warmer. For Segundo (main) I had Pechuga de Pollo which was strips of chicken breast, with chips and lettuce. This was also good, especially once I'd added some pepper to liven it up a little.

Primero - Tortelitos de Tortilla y Verduras
Segundo - Pechuga de Pollo

Menu del Dia - 9.90 + IVA

Again they included as much of the bottle of vino blanco de la casa as you want to drink, which is always a nice touch.

Rating out of ten: 7

Bar/Restaurante Ciudad Condal, C/Banyos Nuevos 8

Note: This restaurant has the same name as another one in Rambla de Catalunya, which could lead to confusion. Anyway, read on...

Tue Oct 2

Menu del Dia - Bar/Rst Ciudad Condal, C/Banyos Nuevos 8
This is an atmospheric little restaurant in the Barri Gotic, the old part of town. Its popular and seems to attract a wide variety of customers, from passing tourist, to locals, to some that look like they've eaten lunch there every day for the last 20 years - maybe they have. I've now been twice and the food has always been good. The fideua (noodles) are a very good Primero (starter) as they come with alioli (garlic mayonaise) and a little bit of seafood and meat, paella-style. For Segundo, the Salmon planchada (grilled salmon) was also very good.

Primero - Fideua
Segundo - Salmon planchada

Menu del Dia - 10.50 + IVA
Cafe con Leche - 1.80 + IVA

Included in the Menu del Dia price is also a drink and I had vino blanco de la casa. Handily, they just leave you the whole bottle, so you can have as much as you want, whether one glass or more. So I had more.

Rating out of ten: 8

¡que aproveche!, ¡bon appétit!

¡Hola!

This blog is barcapat's guide to the restaurants of Barcelona, if I've eaten there it will appear on here...

I've been living in Barcelona since February 2007, so have been to quite
a few restaurants here and want to list them all, for other peoples interest and also so I don't have to remember them all! Each posting should be a quick bit of info on the restaurant, a mini-review and a rating out of 10.

There'll also be the odd food/spain/barcelona related posting.