7 Portes

Going to a conference in Barcelona means that everyone arrives the night before, gets registered and then it’s time to go out and eat, ahead of three days of focussing on our actual jobs. Much as I wanted to go back to Alkimià it seemed appropriate to look for somewhere else to visit. Friday evening at the end of the conference had a reservation at more of a destination restaurant  so I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to go for.

The closure of the Gay Hussar in London was announced around this time and an article by Marina O’Loughlin eulogised a number of distinctive historic restaurants. One of those was 7 Portes in Barcelona and I thought “why not? let’s see what it offers” so this could be interesting; work bookended by the historic restaurant on one night and the innovative one at the end.

The restaurant is 175 years old and is in the Xifre houses in Isabel II promenade built by Josep Xifré i Cases in the early 19th century. The aim of the buildings was to replicate the feel of the squares in Paris. The café on site was built with 7 doors for customers with an eighth for business – thus the name 7 Portes.

Due to circumstances slightly beyond my control I ended up leaving the hotel significantly later than planned. The result was that I turned up at the restaurant 30 minutes after my reservation and was totally dependent on the mercy of the bow-tied and suited maitre d’  for a table. He briefly tutted, shrugged his shoulders and then escorted me to a table in a more sheltered part of the dining room. The bright open dining room was a study in black and white from the dark beamed ceiling to the black and white tiled floor. Vast mirrors dominated the walls and the décor was rounded off by incongruous large ruffed orange lightshades. The bustling dapper waiters sported white jackets with black bow ties and white linen napkins over their forearms. The heavy linen theme was continued with the expansive tablecloths employed throughout the room and the stark white covered tables were contrasted by the black chairs that surrounded them. The background music was supplied by a pianist who worked his way through standards including Killing Me Softly, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and My Way.

The menu includes listings for rice dishes, cold appetisers, cannelloni, warm starters, fish and seafood, meat and dessert. Once the order was taken, delicious crusty bread was brought to the table with a small cruet of salt and a bottle of chilled olive oil.

I’d also ordered the Catalan style bread with tomato made by rubbing very ripe tomato on the bread. The very thin crunchy bread came with a generous smattering of olive oil and not enough tomato for my liking. Not the best tomato bread I’ve had.

The escalivada esguerrada from the cold starters menu featured sweet red peppers cooked in embers with the addition of cod flakes. The languid sweet peppers were perfect and lulled you into a false sense of security ahead of the aggressively salty cod flakes. Elsewhere the menu lists salt cod salad that combined fresh tomatoes and olives with flakes of cod and has the comment “You’ll be surprised that this doesn’t taste salty”. Just my luck to get the cod they forgot to rinse. Despite the cod, I liked this dish with the texture from the pine nuts and the subtle hint of lemon. Mopping the juice and olive oil with bread at the end gave a good combination of flavours with still just a bit too much salt.

I’d been advised to go for paella and the Rich Man’s paella is listed on the menu as invented for the wealthy but lazy gourmet Juli Parellada who didn’t want to deal with shells & bones. Sounds like a man after my own heart but I'm sure with much more disposable income. It’s listed on the menu as possibly including chicken, pork, cuttlefish, sausage, lobster and prawns. It was brought to the table in a paella pan to show how it looked and then the waiter spooned a portion onto a separate plate. For me the meat was a bit too homogenous but the mussels and juicy prawns were real standouts. The lobster on top had good flavour too. The inclusion of the peas and red peppers gave some light relief from the robust rice mix.  Overall this was pretty satisfying and incredibly filling.

Dessert was out of the question so it was time to settle up. 7 Portes was a nice way to pass an evening but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it. When it came to the food, the tomato bread wasn’t close to examples I’ve had elsewhere, the pepper dish would have been fantastic if the cod was light on salt and the paella was fine but not special. I’m glad I went but am happy to leave it to others in the future.

Overall Rating – 2.5/5