Jump to content

JennyUptown

participating member
  • Posts

    1,841
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by JennyUptown

  1. I returned from Barcelona two or three weeks ago. Beautiful city, wonderful food! My friends and I were looking for quality, budget meals and we found them easily. Like some of you, though, I spent some time sick in Barcelona. What a drag! :sad: Who goes to Spain and LOSES weight??

    Here are a few places we liked

    Before I got sick, one friend and I enjoyed a visit to La Champagneria (Carrer de la Reina Cristina; Barceloneta?). Really crazy tapas experience. Wall to wall people, however it's a convivial bunch. We found the locals were very eager to help when our Spanish lapsed (I speak decent Spanish and picked up a little Catalan). They helped us get sausage on a roll (2) and a bottle of cava rosato (it was what everyone else was drinking so we figured we'd give it a try), all for about eight Euros. Very fun. No web site, so far as I can tell.

    I made a note to myself to write about Café Saula. Unfortunately my memory has faded and googling the name has turned up no results. Argh. Anyone know it?

    A place we liked in L'Eixample (Left?) was Raco d'en Balta Bar. Here's a link to a brief review that sums it up:

    Click aqui

    El Raco d'en Balta (tel 93 453 70 44; Carrer d'Aribau 125; open Monday to Saturday) spreads out over three floors and it has a cool bar next door where diners will be offered a complimentary chupito (shot) after their meal. Food offerings include hearty meat mains and dreamy desserts.

    I was still a little sick and fuzzy in the head when we ate there, but I seem to recall a great appetizer of fried Camembert with a non-cloying blueberry sauce and a pork entree. Portions were reasonably sized (e.g., not Cheesecake Factory, but not meager either) and we had a bottle of rioja. Two appetizers, three entrees and wine would up costing about 85 Euros divided by three people.

    The bar next door was very cool, IMO. I chose Crema Catalana for my free chupito, while my friends had something stronger.

    We also loved Irati Taverna Basca (Cardenal Casanas, 17). Such a classy pintxos bar. Diners of all ages, all personable and helpful when asked "Que es eso?" (what is that?)

    Another good spot: Espaseria Degustactions (Carrer de L'Espaseria; El Born). Pintxos bar. Alas, no web site.

    We didn't enjoy La Pizza Nostra near the Picasso Museum. I heard you can get good pizza when you exhaust tapas in Barcelona, but this place served a pizza suspiciously similar to frozen!

    On our last night in Barcelona before departing for Mallorca, we dined at Restaurant El Cafeti (c/ Hospital, 99 (passage's end) or Sant Rafael, 18; El Raval). We found the space and service warm and charming; the food, delicious and reasonably priced (similar to Raco d'en Balto). Unfortunately the neighborhood was a little scary, even to three city dwellers and on our way to the cheesy-fun Rita Blue, we saw someone get mugged. :sad: It wasn't eight feet in front of us....

    Restaurant El Cafeti - web site

    Rita Blue (Placa Sant Agusti, 3; El Raval)

    Rita Blue - web site

  2. I can't think of many sushi restaurants in this specific area. Sushi AOI comes to mind on 11th and H/New York.

    If you search for "sushi" on eg or dr.com, you'll find threads on Sushi Ko, Kotobuki, Makoto, Kaz...and more. Not near the Convention Center, but DC is easy to get around (cabs, metro, bus, etc.)

  3. Thanks for trying. Next time (and there will be more than one "next time").

    I got roped into lunch with my boss and we just stayed within the hotel. Atlanta Grill was fine with some odd quirks (among them, serving soda in a pilsner glass with a straw so tall one had to remove the glass from table for a sip). Their bread basket was, IMO spectacular. My favorite was the scone-like object with onions and scallions.

    For dinner, a friend and I tried to go to Two Urban Licks, but I stalled too long on the reservation process (work) and when we arrived around 8:30 pm on a Wednesday, there was a two hour wait for a party of two. Interesting look to that place.

    We instead ate at Sotto Sotto, my Atlanta friend's favorite. To some, Italian might be boring but at home in DC moderate and good Italian is hard to find. Note: I don't think the online menu is 100% up to date.

    Highlights included mushroom rissotto (shared as an appetizer) and tortelli di Michaelangelo (veal, chicken and pork-stuffed pasta served in a butter-sage sauce). Chocolate soup was tasty for dessert.

  4. If you had to eat in downtown Atlanta, where would you go?

    I'm flying in tomorrow morning and departing Thursday morning which leaves time for one lunch and one dinner. My boss will be in tow so although price isn't a concern, he's not one for "interesting" ethnic options (sounds like that won't be a problem downtown, huh?).

    No rental car so something near the Ritz-Carlton by cab or on foot would be great.

    I wish I had more time to comb through Atlanta-related threads, but it's another last minute business trip! Oh, and I have zero sense of Atlanta's geography either. :rolleyes:

    Thanks in advance.

  5. I wasn't a big fan of Spezie overall (just one visit, admittedly). Nothing went horribly awry; I just didn't enjoy the experience. The front room, where the bar is, is quite nice - sunny and bright, albeit smoky. The dining room was depressing, like a 70s hotel breakfast room. Relatively empty when I was there.

    As for the food. We loved their appetizers that included bufala mozzarella. Just really high quality ingredients. Entrees were pretty dull. The usual "oh, we need to have a filet, and a lamb and a tuna."

    Good gelato.

    Al Tiramisu is pretty good (ask for a price if you plan to order a special - trust me).

×
×
  • Create New...