Heading to the airport to pick him up, I just couldn’t remember where he wanted to go. My good friend Petre has just finished a painful divorce and was coming to Barcelona for the week-end. “Camelia told me to force you to take me to that place!” he said… Dead serious he seemed.
To eat at this place was for him like going to the ‘Zara Museum’ for the girls…
That’s why on my way to the airport to pick him up I was scrolling down my memory for THAT place. When he finally landed, this was my first question to him: “What kind of food was Camelia talking about?”
“All kinds of food, seafood and chicken – as I’m not a big fan of the first.” As I still looked puzzled, he added: “She said it was rather a dirty place…” Now you’re talking! I knew what she was referring to.
It is not quite a restaurant, but what you call a place cutre (the Spanish term is somehow similar to shabby). The table is sticky, the waiters are in a hurry (but efficient), the chairs to close to each others, while the place is always crowded.
Do not miss it if you want to try botifarra amb mongetes, any type of sea food, delicious patatas bravas, crema catalana, roasted chicken or big juicy tapas. All these really cheap, I promise (lunch for two with four tapas and two main dishes, plus beers or wine and desert will cost you around 40 euro tops).
Ask for the allioli on the side and convince your date to eat it too (the garlic will do wonders).
I have tried the following dishes and got the same result every time, a belly full of tasty food:
- chipirones (tiny squids)
- sepia a la plancha (grilled sepia)
- merluza a la marinera (hake with seafood sauce)
- calamares a la romana (Roman style squid)
- paella (rice with seafood and meat)
