Nexes - Barcelona

[Carolyn Tillie]

On my last day in Barcelona, I was wandering the Gothic quarter's area where the antique stores reside. Having mostly eaten my fill (okay, not really) of tapas, I found a restaurant intriguing enough to warrant dinner as there was Kangaroo Carpaccio on the posted menu. While I wanted to get to some of the more noted establishments like Rías de Galicia, I figured I would have decent luck getting my traveling companion somewhere relatively close to our hotel...

Well, it *was* an adventure, I will grant that. We ordered a 2004 Genium Priorat and proceeded to order. Gee, a salad with pine nut ice cream? That sounded promising! Look at the picture and note the addition of peanuts and raisins in the salad -- it will become a recurring theme. Actually, the salad was not that bad; the addition of the pine nut ice cream was quite interesting. There was also sliced tomato, Asian pear, kiwi, cherry tomatoes, and a flower. It would make for an interesting interesting intermezzo in a large-coursed meal (well, the ice cream part, anyway).

Alongside the salad, we ordered a "tagliatelle with langostine, mushrooms, and soya." This was an extremely salty offering with a tad too much soy sauce. I couldn't tell you what the cheese was atop the pasta. The langostines were over-cooked and looking at the pictures, you can see how over-dressed everything was.

Now for the Kangaroo Carpaccio. This is what intrigued me to the restaurant and could have been extremely brilliant. Notice the peanut/raisin pattern again? What gives? The "dressing" (I think it might have been a balsamic reduction) was so sickeningly sweet as to killed whatever flavor the kangaroo might have offered. Those langue du chat were savory and meant to accompany the dish. One bite are we were both done. Quite possibly the most bizarre dish I have ever had and a complete travesty.

Dessert - why, oh why, did I bother? Well, the servers were nice and it was quiet and bizarrely Oriental (look at the pictures - the entire restaurant was edged with the left-overs of a Chinese restaurant's motif they obviously haven't bothered to remove). The dessert we ordered was "chocolate lasagne." Hmmmm... are you seeing peanuts and raisins again? Yep, more garnish of peanuts and raisins along with more Asian pears and kiwi, just like the salad. The "lasagne" was supposedly chocolate pasta separated with thick chocolate ganache and overly garnished with chocolate syrup. You may not see it in the picture, but this monstrosity was HUGE, covering almost half the length of the table. Two bites sufficed. An interesting end to Barcelona and I promise there will be other follow-up reports which are far more interesting...

Nexes

C/ Banys Nous 8

08002 Barcelona

933 171 812

Pics on the blog.

Edited April 4, 2008 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[MoGa]

Why did you end up choosing this restaurant? I get the impression you just stumbled on it as it was conveniently located.

Entering Nexus + Barcelona into Google and avoiding your commetaries, the first mention I saw was this one

http://www.barceloca.com/dataDetails-8760/...-barcelona.aspx

Which describes your menu almost perfectly - Mediterranean food fused with East Asian flavours.

Here's the description of your choice:

"Tallarines salteados con ceps, cigalas y soja"

Tagliatelle Sauteed/tossed with ceps, langoustines and soy sauce.

Just from this I would have steered well clear. From your review I'm convinced I would have been absolutely right to do so.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Why did you end up choosing this restaurant?  I get the impression you just stumbled on it as it was conveniently located.

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Exactly.

Entering Nexus + Barcelona into Google and avoiding your commetaries, the first mention I saw was this one

http://www.barceloca.com/dataDetails-8760/...-barcelona.aspx

Which describes your menu almost perfectly - Mediterranean food fused with East Asian flavours.

Here's the description of your choice:

"Tallarines salteados con ceps, cigalas y soja"

Tagliatelle Sauteed/tossed with ceps, langoustines and soy sauce.

Just from this I would have steered well clear.  From your review I'm convinced I would have been absolutely right to do so.

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Had I had time to pre-research, I *would* have avoided it... but the restaurants was wholly and entirely stumbled-upon and I was with someone who does decidedly not like going out of one's way to eat and prefers to eat when and only if convenient. Annoying, but true.

[MoGa]

and I was with someone who does decidedly not like going out of one's way to eat and prefers to eat when and only if convenient. Annoying, but true.

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Make sure you never come with that particular person to London. All our worst restaurants are conveniently located for those following the tourist trail. Most visitors eat only when and if convenient, annoying but true, there's no other reason these awful places stay in business.

Not to say that Nexus was 'awful'. It just reflects the reality of fusion cooking in Spain. Not a joke at all, sadly, just what happens when the only Oriental food the majority of its customers are familiar with is Spanish-style-Chinese food and mediocre sushi. Remember, hardly any immigration was possible before the 1980s, Spain is just starting to get into stride with regards to 'ethnic' restaurants.

Could have been worse though... at least you didn't decide to have a 'paella' that evening

[Carolyn Tillie]

and I was with someone who does decidedly not like going out of one's way to eat and prefers to eat when and only if convenient. Annoying, but true.

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Make sure you never come with that particular person to London. All our worst restaurants are conveniently located for those following the tourist trail.

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Actually the whole trip started in London -- but there we had mostly business meetings so the restaurants were chosen by others; Rules, Papillon, Anchor & Hope, and (me alone, yeah!) St. John. We did also go to a rather horrible Indian restaurant, Red Chilli's.