Alkimia

When asking other people about places to eat in Barcelona, most recommendations were for Tickets, the Adria brothers’ restaurant in the theatre district. However, actually getting a table proved to be impossible. Following a review of menus on various restaurant websites, Alkimià, a restaurant run by Jordi Vila, was the one that seemed most appealing. 

The dining room at Alkimià is long and narrow and the decor stark and white throughout. There are two tasting menus, the menu Alkimià and the traditional menu. The former was mentioned as taking a more traditional approach to Catalan food with the menu Alkimià featuring the more innovative dishes. Innovation sounded much more attractive than tradition. 

 A taster was delivered with the menu, green onion. It looked more like a brown stick in a vase and it wasn't immediately obvious that it was supposed to be eaten. And as it turned out it really wasn't that edible.  Bread was offered at the table and the star of the basket was a nut and dried fruit bread that was tremendous. 

The amuse bouche was a deconstruction of the tomato bread routinely served all over Barcelona. At  Alkimià  it is served as a glass of tomato water topped with breadcrumbs in olive oil with a slice of sausage balanced across the top of the glass. The tomato water was delightful with an intense fresh flavour, complimented perfectly by the sausage. It was easy to forget the disappointment of the “stick” after this.  

First appetizer proper was a salad of salmon served with radish, yoghurt & salmon roe and it was lovely light dish but not particularly memorable.  

Next up was Tomatoes “Trinxat” with codfish.  Again the tomatoes were crisp and fresh and the intense flavour justified them as the centrepiece of the dish. However,  the presence of the salted cod helped make this dish one of the best of the evening.  

Next course was the Spaghettini with sea fruits where long coiled strips of courgette were topped with a variety of seafood including barnacle, (something like) squid and sea cucumber (didn’t hear everything) dressed with a vinaigrette. The marine animals were all new tastes to me and I loved this dish. Obviously lots of care had been put into preparing this dish and it gave a good indication of the kitchen’s ability. 

During a previous trip to Barcelona, I visited Passadis del Pep, that operates without a menu. All diners eat the same traditional tasting menu foods (some good, some bad). The absolute low point of that meal was a plate of mushrooms with no accompaniment. With Alkimià's menu roughly following a similar pattern, their mushroom course  was billed as “Mushroom dish depending on market”. The actual dish was very simple in appearance and featured the mushrooms cooked with radicchio and pine nuts and garnished with mint. This was superb although I’m not sure what the jelly on top of the mushrooms was. No matter, it was all delicious. 

Next course was the star of the night, described as pickled oysters with glazed pork cheek & spinach sauté. The light pickled taste of the oyster was fantastic and the pork cheek just melted in the mouth with a wonderful flavour. Spinach is not a vegetable that I find particularly interesting but in this setting it worked really well too. 

Still on fish courses, the cuttlefish with squid ink & ginger was a beautiful presentation and it tasted as good as it looked.  

The following course was prawn baked with lime, bay leaves & sea salt. This looked sensational but did little for me. This was loads of effort to eat for very little return and disappointing after the inventive dishes that preceded it. 

Fish main was billed as Fish of the day with onion & black olive. I really don't like the taste of black olives so asked if they could do something different. I loved the fact that the kitchen was very happy to accommodate this request so the dish became sea bass with spinach cream, tomato, onion and pine nuts. The fish was cooked perfectly and the accompanying vegetables provided a wonderful balance. A very good dish. 

Moving on from fish, Special chickpeas with skin didn’t really give away much about what to expect. The “chickpeas” were actually small gnocchi in a creamy broth with onion and topped with pork skin. This was another lovely dish. 

The main meat course was Beef & sweetbreads. The beef was nicely rare and very easy to eat, particularly with a nice coating of the campari sauce. The sweetbreads and onion rings were fine but the pickled cauliflower was the highlight of the plate. 

The palate freshener ahead of the main dessert was a tomato and cucumber gazpacho with sheeps’ milk ice cream & cherry tomatoes. Every time tomatoes were used in a dish the flavours were phenomenal and the gazpacho was no exception. The ice cream paired very well with the broth. The cherry tomatoes didn’t add anything though. 

Dessert was a fondant chocolate with burnt rum ice cream. It looked spectacular and tasted great.  

Highlight of the post-desserts was a passionfruit lollipop (no picture) where passionfruit sorbet was encased in white chocolate. This was truly excellent and followed by yoghurt foam with pumpkin that was also good.  However, I would much rather have had another “lollipop”.
Last but not least was a light doughnut with raspberry & ginger (delicious) and a chocolate with pine nut. 

Overall verdict
For a 17-course menu there were very few dips and few really outstanding courses. 

Would I revisit Alkimià?
Definitely, but I’d know next time not to eat the “stick”. 

Overall Rating - 4.5/5