NoJennyNo: Barcelona 3 Date Night Favorites

My favorite this trip, Mont Bar

Barcelona food ventures part two: the date night worthy restaurants.

While I love to try out a bite here and there at the market or some hole-in-the-wall discovery, like most girls, I have a soft spot for fancy dinners. The restaurants I chose on this list is those I consider higher end and definitely a step above your average meal. From the dishes themselves to atmosphere and decor, these are not for the casual diners. So here are my 3 choices starting with my favorite.

1. Mont Bar
We found this place thanks to a chef we know from Thailand who used to work at the infamous Gaggan, but moved onto this restaurant a couple months back. The food was great there, top 50 in the world in fact, so we figured this restaurant would not disappoint either.

It's got outdoor seating and a bustling indoor seating with plenty of wine bottles and glasses lined up on the book shelves. The menu is tapas-style with various influences. I would call it international fusion cuisine since there's not only Spanish tapas but also Asian flavors blended in. We asked the chef to prepare us whatever he wanted, but here is the menu for reference.

Ham croquette

Pork and baby shrimp sandwich. Almost mochi-like texture

Ham

Daikon 'ravioli' with pumpkin stuffing and cheese balls

Eel and scallop wrap

Foie gras toast! It's frozen then shredded like fluffy buttery heaven on toast. My favorite.

Mackerel, mango, and sauces on squid ink corn puff chip.

Giant oysters with seawee, celery, and yuzu

Red prawns, simply prepared with sprinkles of salt.

Scallop ceviche, another delicious concoction

Smoked blue fin tuna belly

So smokey and buttery.

Chicken cannelloni with foie gras and mushroom cream

Steak

The crispiest, juiciest suckling pork with Thai green curry ice cream

Topped off with some sauce

Lamb with yogurt gnocchi

Various ice creams. Pistachio, pine nuts, lychee

Truffle flavored tiramisu

French toast with a special apricot candy

Break the candy open to reveal the sauce

Brownies, ice cream, and frozen cream rocks

Ice cream sandwiches with frozen 'sandwich' part

Montiel

I make sure to visit this little restaurant every trip. It's in a quiet little restaurant in a corner with quaint brick walls and modern/minimal decor. The menu is only available in two tasting menu, most of which are gluten free and health conscious. The ingredients are local and menu changes depending on what's available. I felt that every dish was deeply thought out and well executed.

Atmosphere wise, it's almost too sterile and serious for a city like Barcelona. But the food is guaranteed to be amazing, time after time.

We took this menu.

Strawberry gazpacho, a sweet twist to the regular savory-and-sour tomato gazpacho.

Amberjack ceviche with 'tiger milk' sorbet, which is just the leftover juice from ceviche. Very spicy and tart, but refreshing. I really liked it.

White asparagus, mushrooms, and egg

Paella with pig fat and shrimp. A bit greasy, but packed with flavor.

Duck and pear ravioli

Suckling pig with cauliflower cream

Cheese

White vermouth sorbet

Chocolate textures

Etapes

The only restaurant with a Michelin star on this list. I came across this place last year when I was craving some good paella and found a table available that night. I had never heard of the place and had low expectations. But turned out to be the best paella I had in Barcelona and surprisingly, the Michelin guide agreed with me as well.

The owner remembered our visit as well, recalling that I had brought in some visitors from the blog post I wrote the year before.

The table took the tasting menu with wine pairing, and I took only the paella. I didn't photograph the wines but I highly suggest it. For only 40 euros, you get a generous pour of each of the 5 wines and an entire cultural and historical background of not only the wine itself but the region as well. The owner takes wine very seriously and has so many tales to tell of each wine that the whole table leaned in to listen. That made the experience stand out from any other wine tastings I've had.

Salmon amuse bouche

Red prawn tartar and sauce made from its shell

Seared tuna

Duck ravioli with foie gras sauce. Really tasty.

Lobster pasta with squid ink and white truffle pasta. The perfect combination, I stole nearly half of this pasta.

More suckling pig

Chocolate textures, pretty much brownies with ice cream and nuts

Strawberry sorbet with mint and meringue

Ok, so here's the reason why this restaurant wasn't my absolute favorite this year. I had high hopes for the paella since I genuinely felt it was the best paella I had in my last visit. I immediately noticed it was different, and had to go back to my blogs to confirm the difference. Here's the one I had in 2015:

So gorgeous and red

And here's the one I had this year.

????

It's different, right? I'm not the crazy one, right??
It was visibly darker colored and even the taste was not what I remembered. I think there's more squid and ink than prawns, perhaps. It wasn't bad, but I was so disappointed it was not what I expected.

Bonus: Viana
This is listed as top 5 restaurants in Barcelona. With cramped seats, noisy diners, and sporadic decor, I wouldn't call it a fine dining experience. However, the food itself can easily be compared to the restaurants I mentioned above at a low price. That's probably what attracts thousands of people here - it was one of the more difficult restaurants to find a table for.