My second day in Barcelona was probably the best one, we went to so many different areas...we walked kilometres. It was also a great day because we found excellent restaurants, full of local customers.
After visiting Parc Guell, we decided to lose ourself in small streets on the way to Sagrada familia, we arrived around Joanic station and found a nice local restaurant. Customers in this restaurant were all Catalans, some of them seemed to know very well all waiters.
There wasn't really a menu option there, some boards indicated outside the special of the day but you could ordered anything really, you just had to point what you wanted on the counter.
When you walked to the loo, you walked passed the kitchen where you could see it is an old women who cooked every single dishes for the whole restaurant, my friend and I wondered if she was not the wife or even the mum of the head waiter behind the bar.
We had some exqueisada, cod has been marinated in lemon, it was served with cooked red pepper and tomatoes salad. This dish was amazing, fresh and light. I don't usually think about eating 'raw' cod but it was really nice.
Exqueisada - Marinated cod with tomato, red pepper and olives
Pan con tomate was ok, not the best but it was free so you can't really complain for it. It had a little bit too much oil and not enough tomato taste. For the garlic they put the right amount on it.
Pan con tomate - Bread with tomato, garlic and olive oil
My friend had tuna empanadas while I was having a few croquetas. Those croquetas were very nice, homemade, there were a little bit creamy and full of ham.
Atun empanadas and croquettas - Tuna empanadas and ham croquette
Our main dish at Vermeturia Lou was impressive, a massive plate of fries served with eggs, wonderful slice of Iberico ham and foie gras on top. For sure it wasn't the most healthy dish ever, but it was so good. A rich dish well deserved after 5 hours walking. I would recommend you share this dish.
Plato estrella : huevos, fritos patatas, virutas de jamon - Star plate: fried egg with ham and foie
In the counter, there was some nice langoustines, unfortunately after the plato estrella, I was too full to have even one of them, such a shame.
Langoustines and prawns
I really liked Vermeturia Lou restaurant. It was a small typical restaurant full of local people, like I was hoping to find in Barcelona. There was no extravagance, food was simple, good and well executed. Prices were very cheap considering the portion in the plate.
8/10.
Vermeturia Lou
Carrer de l'Escorial, 3
08024 Barcelone
The place we went for dinner was recommended to me on Twitter by Sabrina Ghayour, she was the only one who haven't recommend Tickets from Ferran Adria, finally someone who thought outside the box. We had a little bit of wait when we arrived, but after 10 minutes we managed to get one of the best seat, at the counter with a view on every side of the kitchen where the food was prepared. We start our dinner with two glasses of Cava while we were looking at the massive menu plus the special on the board. I should have listened to her advice and come twice on that day as it was very hard to select only few things as every thing sounded and looked so good!
The first tapas we ordered was La del quimet, it was a nice toast with marinated salmon served on greek yogurt and truffled honey. It was succulent and light, Salmon and honey was a great combinaison and the little taste of truffle add a little extra.
La del quimet - salmon, greek yogurt and truffled honey
Then we ordered one of my favourite ingredients - sobrassada. Usually it is seved on its own, at Lolita taperia it was served with juicy and tasty fresh tomates and oregano. Such a great dish. Even if sobrassada is a very fatty ingredient, the whole dish felt very light thanks to the freshness of the tomato.
La Mallorquina - Sobrassada, fresh tomato and oregan
The dish below was one of the special, apparently Feo de Tudela tomatoes from Navarra are very famous in Spain and very sweet. When they arrived I was a bit perplexe because of the colour, I thought there were not ripe, but they were. A great balance between soft and crunchy and very sweet and juicy. Wished we can find tomatoes like this in the UK.
L'Amanida de Tomàquet 'Feo de Tudela' - Feo Tudela tomato
I know what you are thinking when you look at this dish... a basic kind of croque monsieur. It wasn't! El Planxat amb tofona was succulent. It was such a great sandwich mozzarella and boiled Iberian shoulder and truffle matched so well together. Mozzarella was perfectly melted, the bread wasn't soggy, and there was truffle spread all over the Iberian shoulder.
El planxat amb tofona - Truffled mozzarella and boiled Iberian shoulder
We had after La bomba de l'eixample which was fried meat in a potato ball, meat was pulled inside. Again en explosion of good taste in the mouth.
La bomba de l'eixample - Fried meat in potato ball
When they brought this dish I was expecting chicken and patatas bravas, I was really surprised to discover that the breaded was actually crisps!
Crisps were not soggy and or greasy, the whole crusted chicken was very good, I really liked the kurkuma sauce served with it.
Les 'rabas' de pollastre - Crusted chicken nuggets with potato crisps and kurkuma sauce
After all the dishes we were very full, but we thought it would have been a big shame to leave such a great restaurant without having desserts...We shared a creamy cheese and the special of the day : figs and greek yogurt.
The cheese was served with a pot of rosemary honey, I was very happy as it was the kind of cheese I liked.
El Recuit de Drap de Fonteta - Creamy cheese with rosemary honey
The special dessert was delicious, figs were amazing, massive and packed with flavour. We had a little bit of the rosemary honey on the greek yogurt as it was very good.
Figue amb mel i iogurt grec - Figs with greek yoghurt
To finish the meal our waiter offered a shot of sambucca and raspberries.
This restaurant was gold, Sabrina Ghayour was right about this place, every dish was very good. After the meal, we had difficulty with my friend to decide which dish was the best. I think all of them were amazing. For one time also in Spain I felt like tapas even if they had fat and oil on it, tasted very light and fresh. We were full at the end but it was in a very nice way. Our blue eyes waiter was also very nice, if he reads that he will probably recognise himself! We had a great spot, looking over the kitchen where every one was focused on their task and having a bit of fun.
It is such a good taperia, it will be so good to have one like this in London. (I know we have Barrafina, but this one was different!)
10/10.
While we walked to Lolita Taperia we found the perfect street for our future dinner: Carrer de Parlamente in the middle of Poble Sec. We had a drink there after Lolita Taperia. Again the street was full of Catalan enjoying the late warm night in Barcelona.
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