FANALS PLATJA Ca L’ADOLFO

FANALS PLATJA Ca L’ADOLFO – Passeig del Mar 92, Platja d’Aro, Spain

We were actually looking for another restaurant that we had visited before, but could not find. As we were looking for grilled fish we decided this one would be a choice as good - and it was. We asked what fish they had for the day and we could have Dorade, Loup de Mère and they had one St. Pierre. We settled for Dorade. The fishes were big, perfectly grilled and very tasty. We had a nice white wine to drink with it. After that we could not have anything but coffee. We have however no idea how the other dishes were as we had the simplest and basic one can have in a restaurant 10 meters from the sea.

The restaurant was a family restaurant and the owner as well as the father came down to “inspect” the business and sat down to speak a few words with old friends.

WEB: http://www.torredealtamar.com/en/ 
Latest visit: June 2016
Number of visits: 1

RESTAURANT LA PLAÇA

RESTAURANT LA PLAÇA – Plaça Promotori 2, Llafranc, Catalonia, 17211 Spain

The restaurant is a part of Hotel Llafranc in the center of Llafranc. The hotel also has a more casual alternative with outside service. Both places have really good food and the service is perfect.

After arriving at the hotel, we had a fantastic turbot in the outside restaurant with a good local white wine. In the evening, we visited the main restaurant and had one of the best tenderloin we have had. An interesting thing is that at both places we asked about a good local wine from the wine list, but the waiter instead suggested a less expensive house wine.

Llafranc is a very pleasant place, especially in off-season. The place is beautiful and one can take long walks, be on the beach, do diving or other water-sports and a lot of things.

By the way – the hotel is really nice and we can recommend you staying there.

WEB: http://www.hllafranch.com/
LATEST VISIT: May 2017
NUMBER OF VISITS: 1

RESTAURANTE CASA HIDALGO

RESTAURANTE CASA HIDALGO – Calle san Pablo 12, Sitges, Spain

We found this restaurant through Via Michelin who had recommended it. The interior is fairly simple, but the service is pleasant and the food is really good. We had a three course dinner starting with two different variations of foie-gras. Both were very good. It was so generous that we could have shared one starter. My wife had a nice piece of veal entrecote and I had one of my favourites – a leg of baby goat. Both dishes Were tasty and the meat very tender.

The desserts were however a disappointment. My wife’s manchego cheese was dry, ice cold and had almost no taste and also my traditional crème caramel was quite tasteless. It was a pity to ruin such a fantastic meal with a bad finish. They however did not charge for the cheese even if they argued that it was the best manchego that was to find. Maybe so but we have had this kind of cheese many times in good restaurants and it is a favourite of my wife.

WEB: http://casahidalgo.es/
Latest visit: June 2016
Number of visits: 1

EL BALCÓ de CALELLA

EL BALCÓ de CALELLA – Pl. Atlàntic 2, Calella de Parafugell, Spain

This restaurant belongs to Hotel Sant Roc and one can sit either outside, on the veranda or in the dining-room. The view from either place in fantastic over the sea, the beach and the village. We settled for their gourmet menu which was a tasting menu so everything mentioned was included. Normally these tasting menus have small dishes, but here they were quite large. It was hard for me to reach the finish even if everything was really delicious.

The first starter was a very good Foie Gras and the second one was an oyster soup that was an absolute dream. The first main was a perfectly cooked fish and the second very tender veal. We also got two very tasty desserts, but at this time we were quite full.

Included in the prize 44 euros per person was white and red wine and they served as much as you felt like. Especially the first white wine impressed on me. It was a mixture of Chardonnay, Sauvignan blanc, Picpoul and Macabeau – which gave the wine a nice balance of fruitiness, freshness and body – perfect with both the Foie Gras, the soup and the fish.

The service was absolutely perfect as it was in the whole hotel. This is a place we will return to as it is just a couple of hours from home and the whole setting I almost perfect.


WEB: http://www.santroc.com/en/gastronomy-hotel-calella-costa-brava/#
Latest visit: June 2016
Number of visits: 1

BAR EL GALLO

BAR EL GALLO – Calle Especiers 13, St. Feliu de Guíxols, Spain

We were looking for a place to eat some tappas and sat down in this little place for just a drink. As the guy who served us was very friendly and helpful we asked if they had food as well. We got some very nice tappas – nothing fancy, but just what we were looking for. We were sitting outside in the street and watching people passing. It was a nice experience in a little bar that we normally would just pass.


WEB:
Latest visit: June 2016
Number of visits: 1

TORRE D’ALTA MAR ♥

TORRE D’ALTA MAR - Passeig Joan de Borbo 88 | Torre de Sant Sebastia, 08023 Barcelona, Spanien

This is really a fantastic experience that does not seem to be that well known. From Barcelona to Barcelonnette, there is a cable car. In the station-tower at the sea-side you find this restaurant. It is situated just one floor above the cable-car-station. The only sign of it from the outside is the door to the elevator. The design of the place is very modern and the view from up there is breath-taking of the whole of Barcelona.
The food is fantastic and to a fabulous price. We had the lunch menu that was a three course meal of the best gourmet class including a glass of cava and a glass of wine. If I remember right the price was 30 euros+ per person. The service was really pleasant and we can really recommend this to anybody visiting Barcelona.

WEB: http://www.torredealtamar.com/en/
Latest visit: February 2016
Number of visits: 1

LOS CARACOLES

LOS CARACOLES - Carrer dels Escudellers, 14, Barcelona, España

You must visit this place. Many people say it is a tourist trap, and maybe so. But – if it has been around for 180 years and my wife was here 1958 and it still looks the same it must have its virtues – and it has. You still have to reserve a table to get in. The atmosphere is fantastic and the service friendly but no nonsense. It is not a gourmet-restaurant, but the food is rustic, nice and generous.

The only problem is that you have to be sober to find you way out after your visit. You enter the restaurant through the kitchen which basically is an enormous stove where they prepare the food. They take you through a labyrinth of rooms, up the stairs and around bends and soon you are lost. Enjoy!

WEB: http://www.loscaracoles.es/index.php?lang=en
Latest visit: February 2016
Number of visits: 1

DON EDUARDO

DON EDUARDO - Passeig Marítim, 68, Platja d’Aro

We visited this restaurant two years ago when we had a short and very pleasant mini-vacation to Costa Brava. When my wife, myself and our friend Eva revisited Platja d’Aro this week we had to go back to Don Eduardo on the beach. Last time we had a very nice fish lunch and a meat dinner that was perfect. This time they had got fresh sole so we settled for that. It was as perfect as we remembered it from last time.

The restaurant is one of the many places on the beach and the service is professional and very relaxed. It is a place where we feel we can trust them to recommend both the food and the wine.

Latest visit: May 2014
Number of visits: 3

For those who read Swedish the whole tour can be read about on http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2014/05/tva-dagar-i-spanien.html but also and earlier trip on 

http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2012/09/costa-brava-utanfor-sasongen-sa-skinka.html

CASAMAR

CASAMAR – c/ del Nero 3, Llafranc
Guide Michelin

After some troubles finding a good restaurant that was not closed on Tuesdays we were recommended by a very helpful person in a neighbor village to go to Restaurant Casamar in Llafranc on Costa Brava. This family-owned restaurant was really something else and well worth its star in Guide Michelin. It is beautifully situated high up with a fantastic view over the Mediterranean bay bellow.

All three of us had just a main course as we had planned to eat at a good restaurant in the evening also. We had chateaubriand which came with a puree of potatoes and a sauce with a mild mustard taste. It was delicious and the meat was perfectly cooked to our liking and very generous. The service was relaxed and very professional.

Web: http://www.hotelcasamar.net/

Latest visit: May 2017
Number of visits: 2

For those who read Swedish the whole tour can be read about on http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2014/05/tva-dagar-i-spanien.html

KøSa bistrõ

KøSa bistrõ – c/ Valls 16, Palafrugell

We had planned to eat at a couple of nice restaurants on our visit to Costa Brava. What we did not know was that most places are closed on Tuesdays. We were however lucky at lunch and found a fantastic place, but in the evening it looked as we should have to eat at a fast food place or a place with roaring tourists that were more interested in drinking than eating.

Again we asked a lady we met in the street that we categorized as someone who might have our kind of taste of restaurants. She directed us to a very small tapas restaurant where we only heard Catalan language when we entered the place. It was this family owned restaurant with the funny name KøSa bistrõ. The food was however not funny at all, but really delicious. It was a kind of local version of tapas that was freshly made by the chef and served on big plates for the whole party. We got the dishes one by one as we ate. We had of course Iberian ham and also big tempura fried shrimps, filled artichokes, cheese, sliced entrecote and I had a lovely baked apple.

Web: https://www.facebook.com/kosabistro
Latest visit: 2014
Number of visits: 1

For those who read Swedish the whole tour can be read about on http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2014/05/tva-dagar-i-spanien.html

KÖNIG

KÖNIG - Placa Independencia, 2, 17001 Girona, Spain

Esta foto de König 2 es cortesía de TripAdvisor

This is not a gourmet restaurant, but a very good place to go to get good tapas or a burger together with friends. They also serve good German beer with distinct taste of hops, which I appreciate after the more sweetish beers from France and Belgium that we normally get in France.

We tried this place because it was the most crowded place around Place Independencia and we thought it meant something. The food was well made and not at all expensive - exactly what we were looking for after our fantastic lunch at Restaurant Nu.

Revisited August 2014: This is actually a quite good place to eat. The food holds a good quality and the wine is nice and affordable. Tapas is a good choice.

Webb: http://www.konig.cat/konig_2.php
Latest visit: August 2014
Number of visits: 2

RESTAURANT NU ♥

RESTAURANT NU - c/ Abeuradors, 4 Barri vell, Girona, Spain

This restaurant was the best culinary memory from our early spring trip to Spain and normally we do not give a “coup de coeur” to a restaurant after the first visit, but this is an exception. It is a modern restaurant that serve fusion food – a crossing between the Spanish tapas culture and Asian food. Even if the tasting menu was “just” ten dishes it reminded me a lot of the fantastic 35 course dinner I was invited to in Yokohama in Japan some years ago – but this had more Spanish taste. Like in Japan, the beautiful dishes were carefully designed both aesthetically and taste-wise and served on/in containers that enhanced the experience. I will only mention one of the ten dishes – the “foie gras”. The menu says “Salt baked foie gras, Golden apple ravioli, vanilla oil and P.X.” I do not know what P.X. stands for but there was a very thin crispy “blade” of chocolate and a dust of fine coffee powder. You might not believe it but together it was fantastic. Sorry I have to mention one more thing. I normally do not eat sardines, but “Marinated sardines, cream of pine nuts, basil and parmesan cheese” was absolutely fantastic.

The staff was young and professional and very nice. The restaurant had a modern design and the chef was preparing all the cold dishes behind a counter in the restaurant, which was interesting to look at.

The experience did not suffer anything from the fact that the whole menu was under 50 Euros and we could get wine by the glass or whole bottles to reasonable prizes.

Revisited June 2014: The day after our own traditional Midsummer party we did not feel like cooking so we, together with our Norwegian friends, drove down to Girona to eat. Like last time it was absolutely fantastic. We had the gourmet dinner again, which was basically the same as last time but with some new innovations. The foie gras was now caramelized and had got company of a banana ice-cream. Delicious!! The prize had gone up a few euros to 52.

Revisited August 2014: This is the third visit, but the first time in the evening. We got the feeling that the atmosphere was more relaxed at lunch. We enjoyed the food as usual, but I think we should wait a little until next time as the menu is the same every time. The little dish with mackerel was an exception and was the only dish we were not fond of.

Webb: http://www.nurestaurant.cat/index.php?idm=en
Latest visit: August 2014
Number of visits: 3

OSMOSIS ♥

OSMOSIS - Carrer Aribau, 100  08036 Barcelona, Spain

If I would recommend one restaurant in Barcelona it would be Restaurant Osmosis. We have been there three times. The first time we went there for dinner and returned for lunch the day after. They only serve tasting menus and this cost 25 euros at lunch and 42 euros at dinner time.

We came there quite early for being in Spain and got a table in the front room. Already reading the menu told us that this was something extra. My wife has a special diet and even if all the dishes are set it was no problem to go through every dish and customize it to her liking. They had a wine package there every glass of wine was selected from the whole world to fit perfectly to every single dish so we left to the restaurant to surprise us.

The first surprise was when the owner himself – Ignasi Montes – sat down at our table to discuss wine to drink with the foie gras that was the first starter. He decided that we should test the pride of Spain – sherry. You can imagine our surprise when he placed four glasses on a black piece of textile and beside that four different types of sherry on another black cloth. He told us the story of sherry and how the different qualities were produced and after that we had a sherry testing. It was really something else to test different kinds of sherry to the first to courses.

During the dinner a number of beautiful wines were served accompanied with descriptions of the wines and were they had grown. As he understood we were very interested in wine he spent quite a time with us during the meal to discuss the virtue with different wines and grapes.

With the dessert he asked if we would like to taste a very special sherry. A German wine grower moved to Jerez to grow wine. As he knew the Riesling best he planted this in Jerez. The Riesling however does not like the climate of Jerez so he decided to produce a Sherry from the grapes. This Sherry is thick, dark brown and very intense in taste.

Before dessert my wife went out for smoking. He came out and said that he had a private cigar-club upstairs there we could go after dinner and have our coffee. When he came with the coffee ha had hidden a big cognac-glass behind his back with a distillation of the special sherry on Riesling. This was only produced in 3000 bottles per year. To my disappointment I found that I had forgotten my cigars in the hotel and asked him if he sold any. He did not, but asked what size I preferred and sent out one of the waiters who came back with a lovely Montecristo. I can tell you it was something else to drink this sherry distillate together with coffee and a good Cuban cigar. The German person who started all this was Peter Simonis, but he soon changed is name to Pedro Ximenes.

Before we left for France the day after we had lunch at Osmosis. The quality of the food had the same fantastic standard even at busy lunchtime and the service as well. We had foie gras, quail, lobster, mushrooms and fish – all perfectly prepared. Even this time the dishes were customized to my wife’s diet.

We have been there once after this. It was together with our American friend and neighbours that we picked up in Barcelona where they arrived on a Norwegian cruise-ship. This time we got a separate room and our own personal waiter. As they only served the most fantastic wines from the whole world with our meal there were a few euros added to the basic prize this time, but it was much more than a meal. It was a total experience that can only be challenged by our local three-star restaurant L'Auberge Le Vieux Puits.

If you read Swedish you can learn more about our trips to Spain on my other blog. Se http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2011/11/tva-pensionarer-i-barcelona.html and http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2008/04/en-fantastisk-utflykt-till-spanien.html and perhaps even  http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2012/05/forsta-dagen-pa-var-spanienresa.html

Revisited October 2013: We were invited to a wine- and food tasting and we decided that a trip to Barcelona would be nice. It is just a little more than two hours drive. It was an evening to remember. The food was as always fantastic and the wine of a quality that you seldom can afford. It was 16 invited couples sitting together and the atmosphere was really nice despite the language problems for us. They provided us with a translator from Catalan so we could follow the information about the wine.

Revisited March 2016: We had our specially designed 70+70 birthday-dinner in Barcelona for friends from Norway and Sweden. It was fantastic. We were sitting in a private room and had our own sommelier. It was something to remember for everyone.

Swedish report from the trip on http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2013/10/snabbvisit-till-barcelona.html

WEB: http://www.restauranteosmosis.com/
LATEST VISIT: 2016
NUMBER OF VISITS: 5

Reasons for the ♥:
Our favorite restaurant in Barcelona. The tasting menus are always something very special and the service is really friendly. You can afford it too.