In Barcelona, tapas is a way of life. Every where you go, there is tapas. Every street has 5 tapas bars which range from junky tourist traps to fabulously sophisticated eateries. And do you know what I discovered? Tapas are pretty freakin cool. Here in England, people are known to go on pub crawls, where they go drinking from pub to pub until they are barfing on the street and need to be picked up by the police. In Barcelona, there is the tapas crawl. A much more civilised version of the pub crawl where one goes from tapas bar to tapas bar, picking up little chi-chi morsels of food until one is also barfing on the street corners (or maybe that’s just me). While in Barcelona, Hubby and I had tapas at several places, but there was one place which really stood out for us, Taller de Tapas. I actually found out about this place on the British TV food show, Market Kitchen. Hubby and I liked it so much, that we had dinner there twice, and we both agreed that if we ever get to go to Barcelona again, this will surely be our foodie hangout! Everything we ordered was great. One of my favorite dishes here was their Patatas Bravas. While this is one of the most common varieties of tapas, the ones served here were far from ordinary. We tried these at several places, which ranged from soggy to crispy (mostly soggy though), and from simple to saucy. What makes these potatoes extraordinary is their very crispy exterior and soft and fluffy interior. And of course, there’s the sauce. The Patatas Bravas at Taller de Tapas comes with two sauces. One is a highly flavourful garlic mayonnaise, and the other was a delicious smoky paprkia tomato based sauce. No ketchup and boring old mayonnaise here. These Patatas Bravas made all of the other versions of this dish seem positively insipid. On both occasions that we visited, we had two orders of these. We were not the only ones who seemed to devour these like so many salty clouds of fatty deliciousness, as mountains of these morsels seemed to come out of the kitchen with very high frequency.
Other tapas plates that we ordered here included hummus and roasted aubergine, vegetable tortilla, oven baked turbot with rosemary potatoes, and of course, the most ubiquitous of all tapas, pan con tomate (which is bread with tomato, garlic, and olive oil):
I am also pleased to write that it was at this wonderful restaurant where Hubby and I decided to try lobster for the first time! It will not be the last time. I have nothing to compare it to as it was my first, but it was amazing! It was served with a very colourful salad and a vibrant tartar sauce. We had such a fun time getting the lobster meat out of the shell. Little shards of red exoskeleton were flying all over the place. Of course we pretended that we had no idea where it was coming from (even though we were the only ones with lobster). All I can say is its hard to look the part of the sophisticated housewife when you have garlic mayo on your shirt and lobster juice on your hands. Oh well, who cares when you are having that much fun?
Oh, yes, and deserts. On both occasions Hubby had the Creme Catalan, and I had a white chocolate mouse which came with a scoop of very dark chocolate ice cream. Satisfaction!
Of course we go to restaurants for the food, but I must add here that the service was great. Our waiters were fast and attentive. And the restaurant itself was lovely. It had a modern feel to it, but it was built with natural materials such as wood and stone. Also, just in case you are worried, the waiters all had at least some knowledge of English, and the menu came in several languages. One thing I noticed during our stay is that central Barcelona is full of tourists from America and England. I would imagine that in this part of the city, tourism is probably one of the main economies (if not the biggest), and foreigners (especially English speaking ones) are well catered for.
I really can not recommend this place enough. If you ever get the chance to visit Barcelona, don’t pass this place up. Just make a reservation. As our dinner wore on, the restaurant really filled up and lines started to form outside. Not that I was worried, I had a full belly and lobster shells in my hair. I was one happy bunny.
