Raco D'en Cesc Review

Flawless service, some super tastes, and an elegant - and blissfully uncramped - space with a mixture of business-lunch types and foodie tourists like ourselves, all made for a pleasant second visit to this Barcelona classic. I looked in vain for the strawberry gazpacho with soured cream and lobster, enjoyed first time around, and can only hope it will some day make a re-appearance. This time the whitefish ceviche starter we shared was delightfully acidic, seemingly in a tart apple marinade rather than with lime or lemon. This was a lovely dish that would, I think, have been even more enjoyable with the grapefruity Punk IPA from Brewdog that I asked for. Sadly, although the restaurant has an impressive selection of craft beers imported from all over, they were right out of Punk IPA. I’m not sure the 5AM Saint amber ale quite did the trick, although it’s another super beer from the same Scottish brewery. A very nice quail’s egg and avocado amuse bouche from the kitchen went down well as we waited for the mains. I had no real complaints about my sirloin with trinxat (it’s basically “bubble and squeak”) and a licorice reduction, although I do wonder sometimes at the Spanish fine-dining aversion to vegetables or salad garnishes. This was very definitely a MEAT dish, first and foremost. The exact same went for my wife’s duck magret, accompanied by an interesting barley risotto, but nothing else. Both dishes were oozing with meaty flavours and aromas, but perhaps lacking in what I can only call “culinary dynamics”. It is hard to explain, but rather like going to a concert where all the numbers played are in the same one-dimensional tempo – after a while you start to yearn for a different musical texture: a slow-burning piece if you are being blasted by high-energy rock music, or something contrastingly upbeat if the mood is all “ballad-heavy” and minor-key. Basically this lack of “texture” and “dynamic contrast” in the cooking is what dragged the experience down for me. I