RECASENS - Poble Nou - Spanish Ham & Cheeses

I went to Recasens a while back for my boyfriend's birthday. I called last minute for a reso. on a friday night. Luckily they still had a table for their 2nd seating at 11. They mentioned that we should arrive a couple minutes early in case we could sit down earlier.

We arrived at 10:45pm. We sat down to eat at 11:30pm. I was starving and not too impressed at this point. However they were nice enough to give us free wine or beer while we waited outside. We sat by the kitchen, which meant that it was a little hot... actually unbearable at one point, I ran out and sat on a bench for a couple of minutes!

We ordered everything to share. To start we had a ensalada de queso de cabra, it was absolutely amazing, I am not sure if it was the salad or the fact that I was sooooo hungry. But I do remember that it had the right amount of seeds, nuts, fruit, cheese, leafs and dressing to make me want more! We ordered a mixed meat plate and a mixed cheese plate for our main with tons of pan con tomate.... they should work a bit harder on their pan con tomate. All the regular meats were included, fuet, chorizo, paté, butifarra, iberic serrano ham etc... the cheeses sorry i cannot remember the names.. but there was a blue, a goat, a brie a hard a soft etc... Everything was sooo good especially the patés and the portions were so large we had to take a doggy bag!

Recasens is a place to go with a group of friends not a romantic evening with your partner. It is super loud, with tables on two floors. It reminded me of being in a bodega somewhere in the country with all the locals hanging out, laughing and enjoying a fantastic bite to eat.

My advice, go for the 1st seating, unless you are prepared to wait, and are having a big night out!
15 - 20€ per person

Recasens
Rambla Poblenou 102
933 008 123‎

PACO ALCALDE - Barceloneta - Fish & Seafood

Paco Alcalde, founded in 1921 is a hidden gem in Barceloneta. We walked into the restaurant, and the first room was full of Catalan families (no young kids). The restaurant had traditonal blue, white and yellow spanish tiles running half way up all the walls, white table clothes and wooden tables. I felt that the restaurant would be good right when we sat down. The service at the beginning was a tad slow but after we ordered everything ran smoothly.

I am not a huge fan of calamares in fried battar as an appetizer but Paco Alcalde surprised me, they were cooked perfectly, crispy, fantastic batter, soft chewy texture and they were not too greasy. Their pan con tomate, on huge pieces of wood oven bread, lacked oil and salt.. (which was easy to solve) and ended up being delicious. Other items we had for appetizers are not really mentionable so I will leave it at that. The black fideua, had a thicker al dente noodle (with homemade ali oli) which I adored. The special seafood paella was one of the more flavourful and best paellas I have had in a long time. I didn't try the fish but from what I gather from the people at my table it was delicious. Only one person got dessert, profiteroles, similar to donuts with homemade cream in the middle with hot dark chocolate sauce poured over it. I didnt try it not a huge fan of sweets but it looked good!

One of my favourite things about this restaurant is that you do not have to order the paellas and fideuas for 2 people. If you want a paella, and your friend wants something else. No problem. The bill came to 30€ per person which was well worth it. Oh and btw NON smoking!! such a plus.

Paco Alcalde
c/almirall aixada 12
93 221 5026