What a lump in the throat! Can someone please teach me how to get rid of that annoying "www.flickr.com" label from the albums on my "Fotos" sidebar? It is immortally revolting, like someone putting a blue plastic bucket under a Caravaggio's masterpiece just so to ruin your mood. Not that my photos are of any good, but they're about the subject food, right? I simply can't stand my divine subject be maimed by anyone.
Anyway, enough for my ranting. On the right you'll see a collection of 5 photo albums taken from those Michelin-garlanded establishments in Barcelona. The first four are Alkimia, Jean Luc Figueras, Gaig, and Abac. The last one, Cinc Sentis, is yet to crown a macaron by the Michelin.
There could be so much to say about dining in Barcelona. Yet, when we get down to the bottom of it, my advice is simple: go with flow and try to enjoy tapas as far as possible. Unless you're someone who must live on prodigal, one, or two at most of these lavish starlets (no restaurant in Barcelona has clinched 2 or more Michelin stars so far) would be enough to visit. The basics, whether they boost a modern style (Alkimia and Abac) or a traditional (Gaig and Jean Luc Figueras) one, are more or less very similar. One point in check: all these outlets have implanted roasted suckling pig in the set. Regulars of this blog know very well I love all thing porcine -- but up to a point! By the time I was in Abac, which was the fourth starred restaurant I tried in Barcelona, I was so done with this piglet engulfment that I had to switch it with something else from the a la carte menu. Fish, veal, or game, whatever. Just no more pork fetish! In retrospect, I was too much distracted by the Michelin Red Guide. I should have spent time in exploring the tapas culture.
Cinc Sentis, on the other hand, is another story. I went there because of the high praise I've seen in the eGullet forum. Unlike the other four, CS serves international cuisine. You can get a glue of this easily by the choice of word "Okamase Menu" rather than "Set menu" in print. Review in short: friendly and well-trained staff along with a very reasonable price.
