For this second gastronomic experience in Barcelona I opted for Angle, a Michelin 2*. The reason? Not because it promises a “true gastronomic experience”, that they all do, but because at first glance its tasting menu gave me the impression that beyond the words this restaurant really had something different.
# | Type | Review |
1 | Lounge | Premium Traveller Lounge Orly 1 |
2 | Flight | Paris Orly-Madrid – Iberia – Business Class |
3 | Flight | Madrid-Barcelona – Iberia – Business Class |
4 | Hotel | Hotel Arts Barcelona |
5 | Restaurant | Xerta Barcelona 1* |
7 | Restaurant | Los Caracoles Barcelona |
8 | Restaurant | Angle Barcelona 2* |
9 | Flight | Barcelona-Madrid – Iberia – Business Class |
10 | Flight | Madrid-Paris Orly – Iberia – Business Class |
The concept of Angle
The restaurant proposes a gastronomic menu elaborated with fresh products of the day… Once you’ve read that, you’re not much further ahead.
So I’m going to make my own interpretation: many of the Michelin starred restaurants I’ve seen so far have offered more refined and advanced versions of well-known dishes. Here I perceived more the will to go beyond, to invent things and associations that did not exist.
At least that’s what tempted me.
And if you wonder about the origin of the name of the restaurant, I can’t think of a better explanation than the fact that it is located at the corner of a street and that the shape of the dining room follows this corner.
The setting at Angle
Angle is the restaurant of a 4* hotel, the Cram, but it has its own entrance with, to begin with, a lounge on the first floor dedicated to welcoming guests.
The dining room is upstairs and is quite surprising since it is located in the gallery that overlooks the lobby. In fact, you almost dine in a corridor,but thanks to a clever set of curtains you don’t realize it.
The tables are spaced out and the design is modern and warm.
The menu at Angle
No choice here, the tasting menu is mandatory.
On the other hand, as usual, I will avoid the food and wine pairing which forces to consume too many different wines. I prefer to take 2 or 3 glasses but avoid mixtures.
Dinner and service
The experience begins with a welcome in the first floor lounge. I am installed there with a glass of champagne. One by one the tables are invited to come to the bar for a first tasting.
There, we are made to taste very original appetizers because made with alcohol and conceived like cocktails.
The first onea cotton candy in mojito style, the second one a cactus with tequila, lemon and coriander, the third one alychee ice cream with a grapefruit sorbet.
It is original, as if a bartender had imagined the dishes.
It’s time to go upstairs and settle in at the table.
We start with a very original dish since it is a “bloody mary on the rocks”. Yes, it is a dish.
They start with a Classic Bloody Mary (although the real original recipe doesn’t have celery salt in it…) which is strained many times to give the result you have in front of you.
The taste of alcohol has almost disappeared and we find mainly that of the tomato with a taste of smoke very present in mouth. A bit like a tomato consommé, very original.
It is accompanied by appetizers:
Galician clam with caviar, salted tuna in plankton crust, sea urchin cone.
While I am tasting this first dish an oyster has been put to crystallize in a salt crust on a corner of the table. It will join the next course.
It is an aguachile (a kind of ceviche) with passion fruit, oyster, shell and marinated mackerel.
Then foie-gras flakeswith mexican sauce in sweet corn taco.
I continue with peas of Maresme, dry egg yolk with roots foam,
cod tripe, crispy truffles.
Let’s move on to seafood with a scarlet shrimp with soft roasted almonds, tarragon and kumquat to start.
It is followed by a sole with nori seaweed, squid velouté with caviar and crispy ink.
Then comes a entremet : Sole skin, crystallized, sole roe and sea urchin on a sole spine.
Meat then with a14 month aged steak tartare, Café de Paris butter, prepared at the table.
Followed by a Japanese style grilled squab with liver wonton and Yakiniku sauce.
Another entremet before moving on to dessert: floral sake bite, textures of lemon thyme, bergamot and Bataks pepper crunch.
Tea time, Earl grey and three milks. Superb staging.
And finally the dessert:Marzipan with hazelnut, smoked chocolate, caramelized eggplant and Pedro Ximénez ice cream (a white wine).
And we will finish with a few petits fours, some with truffles.
I found the pace of the service perfect: not too fast so as not to saturate but not too slow so as not to fall asleep given the length of the menu.
Each dish was presented and explained in detail, always by the same person in charge of my table.
Most of the time the finishing of the dish was done at the table in front of my eyes, which allows the staff to tell nice stories about the dish.
What can I say? That my expectations were largely met. As I said in the preamble of this article, I didn’t have the impression to eat refined versions of known dishes but really to discover new things through the dishes themselves or the staging of their preparation at the table or the story that accompanied them.
If I had to single out three, I would say: the cooked egg yolk that accompanied the peas, the tartare and the squab that was tender as I have rarely seen.
I will finish with a mint tea accompanied by an armagnac Dartigalongue 1990.
The service
As I said above the service was impeccable and very professional.
I loved the long story that accompanied each dish, its history, its conception, its preparation and the fact that the finishing of the dishes was most often done right under my eyes.
Each staff member played their role to perfection, present when needed without being intrusive.
Very professional in fact.
Bottom line
A very creative and refined cuisine and in my opinion one of the two or three best restaurants I have ever been to. A restaurant to return to.