blanc semidolç Portell 2007

Blanc semidolç Portell 2007

http://www.cava-portell.com

This cellar produces a very interesting semi-sweet white wine. For a ridiculous price (2,3 EUR/Bottle) you will get a very pleasant and easy-to-drink wine.

Living

Living

C/ Capellans 9, Barcelona

This is a quite hidden place close to cathedral. They offer a fix-price menu, even on Saturdays (12 eur), which is quite reasonably good. The drawback is the service if you are in a hurry.

ensalada con manzana, frutos secos y cremoso de aguacate:

lubina al horno al vino blanco:

rollito crujiente de verdudas braseadas:

tarta de santiago:

Bar del convent

Bar el convent

Plaça Acadèmia S/N, Barcelona

This is a nice bar inside a cloister. In addition, they organize some activities (see below), but I was on saturday (not on thursday ;-) )

Ad: Beer, helping ugly people have sex since 1862

Beer, helping ugly people have sex since 1862

This is a curious advertisement that I found in a shop...

Masia Vila-rasa

Masia Vila-rasa

This is an interesting wine produced in Taradells (Osona), with 2/3 of pinot noir and 1/3 of merlot. Although pinot noir is not my favourite grape, I must say that I enjoyed this very special wine (limited production to 5,000 bottles). Worth to taste it if you can find it!

petit comitè

Petit Comitè

Passatge de la concepció 13, Barcelona

http://www.petitcomite.cat/

This is a fashion restaurant of Fermí Puig, a very well reputed chef. The service is outstanding, the prices are very clear (no surprises, you can even check the prices outside in the street), they have a fully catalan wine selection (including some wine from the Països Catalans), they offer very interesting traditional dishes, and the raw materials are really high quality. Taking into account these facts, it offers a reasonable quality/price ratio (49 eur per person in my case).
Nevertheless, this place reminds me some other cheaper restaurants in Barcelona such as Madrid Barcelona and Senyor Parellada, already commented in this blog. Although the quality of Petit Comitè is higher, we should consider that it is also around two times more expensive than these other places.
The salad was quite ridiculous (11 eur for some lettuce leaves, 4 olives , 4 small pieces of tomato and a minor amount of onion from Figueres).
The “croquetes” were outstanding, really home-made, but 7 eur for four very small “croquetes” is a shame.
The quantity of the main dish is reasonable and at the end you won’t feel hungry. Nevertheless, although the rice contained a really high quality prawns, the rice was too much salted (I had to drink water several times during night), and there was also an excess of pepper. In my case this amount of pepper is not a problem, but I am pretty sure that most of the people won’t feel comfortable with it.
My conclusion: it is interesting to know this place, but it is not among my favorite ones.

menu (click to enlarge and read):

croquetes

lettuce salad with onion from Figueres:

Arròs mariner a la gandula:

Anegueta amb naps:

crema catalana:

Cheeses:

a gift:

Bombons Blasi

Bombons Blasi
http://www.bombonesblasi.com/

This is an outstanding bombon maker, with 300 different ones.
They have three shops in Barcelona:

• Alfons XII, 26
• Cardenal Casañas, 16
• Còrsega, 218

Worth to taste them!

Asador de Burgos

Asador de Burgos

C/ Bruc 118, Barcelona

http://www.asadordeburgos.es/

This is a castilian restaurant specialized in lamb (lechal) and porc (cochinillo). The restaurant is small (100m2) and it is allowed to smoke, which is a serious drawback. It is hard to compare, but in my opinion the quality of the place and the meals is slightly worse than other places in Barcelona with the same philosophy (el Yantar de la Ribera, El Asador de Aranda). In addition, the price seems slightly more expensive than them.
Another important point is that wines are extremely expensive. They multiply the shop price of the wine by a factor of three, and this is unacceptable for quality (expensive) ones.
apetizer
revuelto de setas

pimientos del piquillo

sopa castellana

salad:

baby lamb (cordero lechal)

baby lamb ribs (not as baby as in Asador de Aranda):

dessert:

coulant de Chocolate

icecream

cuajada:

we took all the meals that you can see here plus a bottle of water (0,5l) and a bottle of Gran Colegiata (they charged 22 eur plus IVA while the price in a shop is around 8 eur) and we paid around 45 eur per person.

Free Damm 0,0% Vol

Free Damm 0,0% Vol

http://www.damm.es/

This is the new label design (produced by Salvatore Aduci, who has also designed other labels for Cocacola, Marqués de Grión, Vilarnau, etc.) for the Free Damm beer 0,0% alcohol and low calories. it seems that they return to the classic rectangular label. In my opinion the taste is smoother than Damm bier, I think that it has more hop. If you want to taste it in a different way, try to add some drops of natual lemmon juice. The result is great!

Don't miss the TV ad. It's great! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irZJmL5uKME

Albet i Noya Lignum 2007

Albet i Noya Lignum 2007 DO Penedès

http://www.albetinoya.com/cast/lignumnegre.html

This is a very good quality/price ratio. It costs around 6 EUR per bottle and it is a really pleasant wine. Worth to taste it!
In addition, it was a winer on the young wines category in a Penedès competition (see La Vanguardia, 22/march/2009).
The white wine is also interesting (and quite dense).