Barcelona continues to be a reference capital to choose to launch new projects. Its international connection allows it to transmit its most traditional gastronomy, but in a revolutionary way. As well as bringing together cultures from around the world to show them on the plates.
In recent months there have been many new openings of new restaurants in Barcelona. As for Japanese food, Jay’s Japanese and Ikoya Izakata. The figure of Albert Adrià in his Enigma, and the legacy he has left in chefs who have opened Compartir Barcelona, or Come, the latter with Mexican roots. Finishing with Batea, and its connection between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and the revolution of La Textil, restaurant, bar and brewery.
Jay Gatsby: from the American novel to the Japanese restaurant
The great literary character, Jay Gatsbyhas crossed the pages of books, stages and screens to name the stylish new restaurant Jay’s Japanese. The upper area of Barcelona has welcomed an exquisite Nipponese cuisine, which is accompanied by a selection of signature cocktails. The first step upon entering the small space allows diners to travel back to the 1920s. And, like its big brother, Gatsby Barcelona, Dpoch Studio has recreated an interior design of class and exclusivity. Golden tones, gray and blue tapestries, and modernist lamps.
Jay’s Japanese has a wide sushi menu such as Bimi Uramaki with battered shrimp or Rainbow Uramaki.
Jay’s Japanese has been designed with the aim of offering a gastronomic offer for a smaller number of diners. In this way, they invite you to enjoy a relaxed and quiet place, while the best products are placed on the table. Sushi is thefirst star dish that comes to mind when thinking of Japan. And the fish served in an excellent and fresh way, is among nigiris, sashimi, makis and uramakis. For the latter there are special ones made with crab, caviar and avocado, and lobster flambéed with shiitake mushrooms.
Fish lovers can enjoy high quality products in their dishes. Like the prawns that accompany the warm salad with kimuchi emulsion, the salmon or the crab in panko.
From left to right: Wagyu short ribs at low temperature and green tea tiramisu.
The Alaskan black cod marinated in miso or the Wagyu beef is also present among its products for its high flavor and juiciness. In addition, to finish the gastronomic experience, they do not forget desserts such as green tea tiramisu, ichigo maki, a soy maki filled with cream and strawberry, or the tasting of mochis. To extend the evening and enjoy a quiet after-dinner drink with friends and family, the restaurant has prestigious bartenders. In fact, international bartenders hold occasional events to bring the classics and new drinks.
Address: Carrer de Tuset, 19, Barcelona.
Hours: Tuesday to Thursday from 8:00 pm to 2:30 am. Friday and Saturday from 20.00h to 3.00h .
The enigma to be discovered among Albert Adrià’s dishes
Albert Adrià has returned to the kitchens reopening this summer the doors of his restaurant Enigma. This new reopening presents the same restaurant, but with a new and different gastronomic offer. During these months, Adrià and his team have thought about what they wanted to offer their guests. Seeking to create a place where they can relax, enjoying dishes at the highest level. Following an open menu, seasonal products mark the culinary offer. Meanwhile, the chefs’ innovations and techniques will present varied and constantly changing results.
Chef Albert Adrià presents a different, more flexible Enigma, with a menu without an à la carte menu, as he believes that diners deserve to enjoy themselves at any time, whatever they want and for as long as they want.
Adrià’s most avant-garde haute cuisine is enhanced by a very personal atmosphere. While diners enjoy their dishes, clouds hover over their heads, as if they were inside them. With lighting and music to accompany the experience. This interior design, created by RCR Arquitectes, has been influenced by Albert himself, who had this concept ingrained in him since 2000.
An evanescent, deep and timeless landscape has been created, so that people can disconnect from the world around them and let themselves be carried away,” said Rafael Aranda, of RCR Arquitectes.
Pistachio ice-cream ring and Basil ice-cream spaghetti with tomato and lyomozarella consommé
The wide variety of dishes includes snacks such as melon sashimi with fresh wasabi or cherries dipped in Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar. To follow with steak tartar terrine with black truffle or canapés with fried egg, crème fraiche and caviar. The tapas, perfect for sharing, captivate diners with barnacles with Codium seaweed emulsion or bouchot mussels with fennel jelly and saffron suquet cream.
Pâté a Choux Pizza, Tuna Tartar with apple jelly and sea lettuce granita and Grilled seasonal mushroom and pine brochette.
In addition, the presence of great fish and meat products occupy a privileged place. The exquisite squid handkerchief with ham and caviar, the king crab salad with tosazu jelly or the aforementioned wagyu. Excellent grilled veal with anchovies from the Cantabrian Sea and padrón peppers with piparra. All in all, a luxury experience for lovers of haute cuisine, discovering products and flavours that can be found in few other places;
Address: Carrer Sepúlveda, 28-40, Barcelona.
Hours: Monday to Friday from 18.30h to 22.00h.
The seafood restaurant Batea Barcelona makes diners sail between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
Last May, Marta Morales, Carles Ramón and Manuel Núñez, the Besta Barcelona family, opened a new sister restaurant, Batea. The new marisquería, which brings together flavours from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, pays tribute to its gastronomic roots in a simple way, but revolutionising flavours. Playing with the products of each season, the chefs focus on offering their dishes with the highest possible quality. They are committed to minimalism, achieving powerful flavours that make diners travel.
Batea Barcelona’s chic interior takes diners on a journey long before the plates are placed on the tables.
The cold mariscada or the Galician curly oysters welcome lovers of fresh seafood, and then continue with a wide variety of dishes worthy of enjoying and sharing. Galician products have nothing to envy from anywhere else, as Galician lands offer a wide variety of seafood. From spicy clams to the octopus that accompanies the classic sea and mountain rice.
Mar y Montaña rice, together with octopus and the sofrito made with it. It is finished with garlic mayonnaise. Vilma Batea
Other star dishes are the tortilla de betanzos, topped with red prawn tartar, Celtic pork ravioli with trout roe, or acorn duck with smoked eel from the delta. Marta Morales also leaves her own touch through magical cocktails. Refreshing mixes that bring back those sea breezes, connecting herbs, flowers, citrus and lots of bubbles.
From left to right: Norway lobster with Lourdes water and Betanzos omelette with red prawn tartar. Celtic pork ravioli with trout roe
The restaurant was born from the collaboration with the Hotel Avenida Palace, built in the 50s, and with which they combine to perfection. Designing its interior in a vintage style, with marble tables, wicker chairs and tea room lamps. But it still transmits casualness and innovation, with an open kitchen with touches of neon. In this way, they do not move away from the idea of nostalgically remembering the past while uniting it with the now. Allowing diners to live a seafood experience close to the Mediterranean Sea.
Address: Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes, 605, Barcelona.
Hours: Tuesdays from 20.00 to 22.30. Wednesday to Saturday from 13.00h to 15.30. And from 20.00h to 22.30.
The union of fire and sake brings Japan to the heart of Barcelona
The cultural and gastronomic diversity allows us to travel between countries without having to move. Open a door and appear under the feet of the Tokyo Tower, or discover new izakayas, the Japanese taverns. With the union between Michelin-starred chefs Hideki Matsuhisa and Iñaki López de Viñaspre, they have managed to bring a little piece of Japan to Barcelona, in front of the Mercado de Santa Caterina, with the Ikoya Zakaya. This new space appeals to lovers of Japanese culture, as the chefs have a great commitment to offering good products that combine with a very characteristic izakaya atmosphere. Artisan sake bar where you can find more than 50 references, the main presence of wood, and murals with Japanese faces and their emblematic koi carp.
The characterisation of the interior of the Ikoya restaurant reflects the most traditional Japan. Presiding over the room are Japanese portraits, such as the woman dressed in a kimono, or the lamps, made from fish skin.
“Barcelona deserves an izakaya, like the ones I have always frequented in Tokyo. A bar to enjoy and share, where among the bustle, the smoke and the sake, my cooking takes on a much more informal and fun character,” says Hideki.
Ikoya Izakaya’s menu includes Wagyu beef from the Japanese city of Miyazaki, pickled vegetable Sunomono or Shoyu Ramen.
The gastronomic proposal on offer is a meeting point between Japan and the Basque country, one and the other coming together to bring the best of themselves to Barcelona. The fire, an element that has accompanied Iñaki López de Viñaspre throughout his career, is present through the robata. An ancient Japanese technique where the charcoal grill is used to cook meat and fish. An offer where you can find all kinds of dishes, starting with some starters such as vegetable sunomono, different types of oysters, chicken karaage or red mullet ponzu tataki. The sushi, the delicate cuts that create the sashimis and the two types of ramen, Shoyu and Tonkotsu Miso, are more elements to enjoy.
From left to right: Grilled Yakitori, a variety of sakes such as Dassai 39, which goes perfectly with fish, and Ika No Sashimi.
For the grilled cuisine, there are 10 fish and meat dishes that stand out for their incredible flavour. From kokotxas kombu, toro tataki or even submissive red mullet with calçots, a culinary union that, when grilled, reinforces the flavours in a unique way. As for meats, we find wagyu sukiyaki, a beef with a very select flavour. To finish, the classic mochis are waiting to refresh the meal. As well as the traditional kakigori, shaved ice dipped in seasonal fruits. This traditional Japan that diners can discover and enjoy in the middle of the city.
Address: Av. de Francesc Cambó, 23, Barcelona.
Hours: Monday to Sunday from 13.00h to 16.00h. And from 20.00h to 24.00h.
Enjoying and Sharing, from Cadaqués to Barcelona
Ten years after the opening of Compartir Cadaqués, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas have opened new doors, but, this time, they share in Compartir Barcelona. The three chefs, who have been working together for 20 years in the kitchen of elBulli, together with Nil Dulcet, who has been part of the team for ten years, Barcelona was the ideal place to continue. The city is the place where they meet on a daily basis, and they consider that to be fully involved in the project it is important to have the restaurant nearby.
Touches of orange and blue bathe the Comparte Barcelona restaurant. Reflecting the legacy that started the restaurant in Cadaqués, the town that Salvador Dalí fell in love with.
As we already know, the gastronomic experience is shared and enjoyed through a menu full of starters, rice dishes, meats, fish and desserts. Following the essence of Cadaqués, we can continue to see dishes such as beetroot salad, tuna cannelloni, liquid chocolate balls or hazelnut coulant. But even so, there will be many more tastings to discover. For example, the oysters, with a choice of hot or cold. The legendary Iberian ham croquettes accompanied by red tuna and tomato, or the grilled organic picanto. The meal ends with desserts such as the delicious caprese.
Oyster with Béarnaise sauce and trout roe – Joan Valera
Tuna cannelloni with Mediterranean flavours – Joan Valera
In the heart of the Eixample, diners can enjoy an urban and contemporary atmosphere. A 550 m² spread over three very bright and quiet rooms where 80 people can enjoy the dishes in a calm atmosphere. The interior design, created by El Equipo Creativo, has been inspired by Cadaqués itself. A white space with the colour blue marking various elements. In addition, the grey tones of slate or the mirrors and half-curved wicker screens help to transmit that abstract landscape of boats on the Mediterranean.
Address: Carrer València, 225, Barcelona.
Hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 13.00h to 15.15h. And from 20.00h to 22.15.
La Textil Collective, a place that offers three experiences that come together in one
Sometimes, the restaurants we can find in the streets are not what we imagine, because we have to enter them to live the experience they offer. We have already seen this with El Camino, a Cantabrian restaurant that combines craft brewery with Asian delicacies. In this case, the recent launch of La Textil Collective proposes a revolution within its four walls. And the fact is that the premises, where fire is a main element, has been evolving and including, in these few months, the services of bar and craft brewery. An explosive cocktail that offers dynamism and disconnection.
La Textil has an industrial feel, with a choice of a bar, with a more informal menu, or a restaurant with a more extensive menu.
Its spacious interior is divided into three sections, with different culinary recipes, supervised by chef Pablo Lagrange. Once you enter the restaurant, the industrial air is already visible inside, and is articulated around the smoke and fire that presides over it. At La Textil, the fire allows them to play with the products, using the same ones, but with a very different result. For example, the use of mushrooms, preparing them in a savoury and sweet way, using leftovers that are not incorporated in the savoury dish to accompany the sweet one.
From left to right: Squid bite, Chicken of the Forest, with celery and pollen salad, dates and chestnuts and Duck breast with a thousand corn leaves.
The use is a basic idea within the premises, as they reinforce sustainability and environmental care. The artisan work can be appreciated when making their beers or breads, the latter being made with organic flour sourdough. In fact, for this September, new products have been presented for the breakfast menu such as the baguette, focaccias or croissants. Innovating and offering different dishes every so often. Just as Martín Vespa, the bartender, makes his mixes depending on the seasonal products. Author’s cocktail bar which, based on classic mixes, looks for different ideas to make each drink unique.
From left to right: Chocolate, Strawberry Sage and Orange Cocktails
The essence of La Textil lies in its craft beer, and in the constant work carried out by Brian Blazek, founder of the premises, to produce different flavours. Each brew is unique, based on using seasonal products, taking into account new techniques and even the ambient temperature. Two of the beers created have won awards at the Seventh Edition of the Barcelona Beer Challenge. Damn right, an Amber Bitter, and No mames guey, a Double Ipa.
Address: Carrer de Casp, 33B, Barcelona.
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 13.00h to 16.00h. And from 19.30h to 23.30h.
Come restaurant reflects the Mexican roots of chef Paco Méndez
After ten years working and learning from Albert Adrià, from his time at elBulli and Hoja Santa, Paco Méndez opens the doors of ComeCome. A gastronomic proposal where Mexico presides over the dining room, without forgetting the products offered by the Mediterranean and the legacy that Adrià has left the chef. The first element that enhances the experience at Come is the possibility of booking the private space for personalised and group contact with the dishes, the chefs and the kitchen team.
The essential elements of chef Paco Méndez’s native Mexico meet the essence transmitted by Barcelona.
Its interior lets diners know that they have entered a different restaurant to the one that Hoja Santa has let them in. White walls have been turned into dark tones, combining perfectly with navy blue and pink elements. In addition to combining pieces of art, such as the figure of an eagle at the entrance to the open kitchen;
Delicate Tequila Clouds
On this occasion they have an à la carte format and an additional one. The latter is varying its dishes according to the season, changing every day, week or month, depending on the introduction of new dishes. Among the regulars, tacos have a great presence, being presented in three different ways: with Grandma Flor’s ribs, Mexican stew and Angus sirloin. The guacamole with totopos and aguacate with black garlic mole are also present, recalling Mexican roots;
Chef Paco Méndez and Arbol de maíz with hoja santa powder and paprika. Accompanied with chilhuacle chilli cream and lemon zest.
The additional menu also includes biscayan cod dumpling or wagyu tartare toast, innovating and being influenced by products used in other gastronomies. Connecting cultures to bring them to the table. The cochinita pibil or bogavante con pipián papanteco are some perfect dishes to share with the group, to end the tasting with desserts such as garibaldi de naranja or maíz, chocolate and cajeta. As for drinks, they have organic and biodynamic wines, as well as cocktails and soft drinks.
Address: Av. Mistral, 54, Barcelona.
Hours: Tuesday to Friday from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Saturday from 13.00h to 14.30h. And from 19.30h to 21.30h.
Images courtesy of Jay’s Japanese, Enigma, Batea Barcelona, Ikoya Zakaya, Compartir Barcelona, La Textil Collective, Come
