El Bulli and Arzak - the blinker effect

[degusto]

Outstanding raw materials are a Spanish specialty, and sometimes they can only be found in Spain, or are different in Spain (lamb, suckling pig) from what one would find under such names elsewhere. These products are best highlighted in simpler, 'terroir'-oriented restaurants than in the havens of refinement. The blinkered foodie will thus miss, if he/she only goes from three stars to two stars to three stars again, all these treats that really mark the soul of Spanish gastronomy:

- the Roses bay shrimp or the L'Escala anchovies at Rafa's, or perhaps the tiny springtime Maresme green peas (next March!) and delicate langoustines ('escamarlans', in Catalan) at Hispania, a few miles down the coast

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Another such place to taste the local seafood treasures is Garbet in Colera outside Rosas. It is an address to take note of by el Bulli travellers. Surprisingly, the place is not mentioned on these forums. A very beautiful setting just by the seafront, although a bit odd in a small camping. Very reasonable prices and lots of great local seafood prepared with care and without fuzz.

Edited April 19, 2005 by degusto (log)

[marlena spieler]

[

A great place to eat well, varied and relatively inexpensively is the Boqueria Market in Barcelona. Two places I can recommend from personal experience are Bar Pinotxa for wonderful Catalan cooking and Kiosk Universal for fresh seafood. I believe these are only available for lunch, but I might be mistaken.

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El quim de la boqueria is another fabulous tapas bar in the market, too. it serves things like baby fish and teeny baby squid, sauteed with garlic, and served over eggs, sort of like a fish huevos ranchers. wonderful fried artichokes. tomato bread. eggplant/aubergine tortiilla. all vegetable tortillas.

x marlena

[Saborosa]

It's like comparing the Grand Central Oyster Bar and Le Bernardin.

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Which is which?

[Johnsonic]

My wife and I are staying in Empuriabrava for 16 days from mid May 2005,its the next coastal town south of Roses. This will be our 3rd trip in May and for the last two years we have been unable to locate Rafa's in Roses.

I wonder if anyone could help in providing me with directions or perhaps a url to a streetmap of Roses so we can visit this trip?

As I understand it is on Caja St Sebastian but despite driving around several times we have drawn a blank.

Thanks in advance.

[Bux]

My wife and I are staying in Empuriabrava for 16 days from mid May 2005,its the next coastal town south of Roses. This will be our 3rd trip in May and for the last two years we have been unable to locate Rafa's in Roses.

I wonder if anyone could help in providing me with directions or perhaps a url to a streetmap of Roses so we can visit this trip?

As I understand it is on Caja St Sebastian but despite driving around several times we have drawn a blank.

Thanks in advance.

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I don't believe I can capture a URL for the map, but if you go to the Campsa site - http://www.guiacampsa.com/ and click on "Restaurants" (towards the upper left there's a highway picture adjacent to the cover of the Campsa Guide) in the menu that lists:

Street maps

Restaurants

Hotel

You can enter "Roses" as the search town. Can Rafa should pop up as the first restaurant listed. Click on the "Map" link and you should get the map you need. I say should, as the correct street is shown, but the restaurant is shown a few blocks away. The street is C. S. Sebastià in Catala apparently. It may be better to park and walk around.

[Silly Disciple]

You can enter "Roses" as the search town. Can Rafa should pop up as the first restaurant listed. Click on the "Map" link and you should get the map you need. I say should, as the correct street is shown, but the restaurant is shown a few blocks away. The street is C. S. Sebastià in Catala apparently. It may be better to park and walk around.

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Parking a few blocks away will be not only better, but the only feasible way, since Rafa's little restaurant sits on a street that is a pedestrian walkway most of the day. I think you can drive through it only during the early morning and/or weekends (can't remember exactly, but I DID drive through it once when I stayed in the small hotel right accross from Rafa's).

SD

[Johnsonic]

Thanks for the help, I am sure we will be able to find it now.

[butterfly]

Silly Disciple--

How was the hotel across the street? Do you happen to remember the name?

[Silly Disciple]

Silly Disciple--

How was the hotel across the street? Do you happen to remember the name?

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Butterfly,

sorry it took me a while to reply, I couldn't remember the name of the hotel and had to wait for my friend who lives in Roses to call me back - anyway, the place is called La Cala, and is a no frills place for about 15 EUR a night. I don't have the phone number but my friend will get it for me, tomorrow.

SD

edited to add: if you decide to stay in Roses for more than a day, there's another place, right accross from Rafa's as well, which is worth visiting. The restaurant is called SnackMar/Las Golondrias, and its a small (4/6 tables if I remember right) restaurant with great seafood and some quite interesting dishes. I think it has already been mentioned before, but can't find the thread.

Edited April 25, 2005 by Silly Disciple (log)

[Corinna Dunne]

My wife and I are staying in Empuriabrava for 16 days from mid May 2005,its the next coastal town south of Roses. This will be our 3rd trip in May and for the last two years we have been unable to locate Rafa's in Roses.

I wonder if anyone could help in providing me with directions or perhaps a url to a streetmap of Roses so we can visit this trip?

As I understand it is on Caja St Sebastian but despite driving around several times we have drawn a blank.

Thanks in advance.

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Rafa's is tricky to find, but well worth the search (we were there 2 weeks ago). The best thing to do is park in the carpark at the harbour and walk from there. We popped into a newsagent and asked for directions to C S Sebastia. It is on a sidestreet running almost parrallel to the main drag. Even when you find the street it's difficult to identify, as the sign is carved out of wood and says RosesRafa's (or vice versa). It is an inauspicious little place, but I cannot emphasise enough how wonderful it is.

When we were seated, we were brought a tray with a number of different little fish, to show us the catch of the day, and there are a number of bigger fish on display in a refrigerated case. They source their fish from a short distance boat which lands its catch every day. The sweet freshness of this fish along with simple cooking (mostly on the grill, which gives a delicious caramelised edge), is what makes this place so special. And it is so cheap, it is almost embarassing.

The thing to do is tell them that you eat everything and they will bring you plate after plate of fish: anchovies, clams, baby squid, baby octapus, sea cucumber, prawns and langoustines. Once you have exhausted the tapas, you can have a larger fish. We shared a black sole, but were barely able to finish it, we were so full. I noticed that none of the other tables attempted this feat, so its not 'expected'. We had the white wine, which wasn't too exciting, but noticed that the other tables were having red, so this is probably the thing to do. Our bill for 2 came to 77 euro, and 27 euro of that was for the sole! I don't think I have ever eaten so well for so little. But be sure to book, there are only 5 tables (972 254003). I understand that it is only possible to make bookings one week in advance, but we were OK booking a few days before we were due to go.

One other point of interest: we noticed that there was a serious selection of whisky on display and a humidor, so this looks like it could be a very lively place after dinner!!

[docsconz]

Thanks to everyone for the Rafa's info. That restaurant is almost as high on my desire list as El Bulli itself. We'll be heading directly to Roses after our Saturday arrival later this summer. Our El Bulli reservation is for that Sunday night. We will leave that area on Tuesday morning to fly from Barcelona to Paris. Any thoughts as to when in that span from Saturday night until Tuesday morning would be the best time to visit Rafa?

[Silly Disciple]

Doc,

one good strategy in the low season is to give Rafa a call during the morning and ask him what the day's catch is like. I remember the first time we went there we called two days ahead and his wife suggested we call the same day to make sure he had "something good to offer". However, this might not work at all during the summer, since the place is a bit small (he does have a second room which he opens during the summer) and he must be getting lots of reservation requests (particularly from this forum!! ). In any case, I would still give him a call and see what he says.

SD

Thanks to everyone for the Rafa's info. That restaurant is almost as high on my desire list as El Bulli itself. We'll be heading directly to Roses after our Saturday arrival later this summer. Our El Bulli reservation is for that Sunday night. We will leave that area on Tuesday morning to fly from Barcelona to Paris. Any thoughts as to when in that span from Saturday night until Tuesday morning would be the best time to visit Rafa?

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[Bux]

I have to wonder how disproportionately large a number of tables eGullet Society members will occupy at elBulli this summer, but the greater effect may be seen at Rafa's where there are even fewer tables.

I wonder how many of the guests at elBulli are visiting the restaurant from the area as locals or even as vacationers staying in Roses or the nearby area, and how many are in town just for dinner at elBulli. Then I have to wonder how many have turned what might have been a one night stay in Roses to more than that just to drop by Rafa's. Rafa does take reservations a week ahead, but won't guarantee he'll have anything worth eating that day. We were advised to call confirm early in the afternoon to see if he has a catch for dinner. To tell the truth, a call a week in advance seemed to catch them off guard as if they've not yet come to expect that.

[Johnsonic]

We are off to Empuriabrava tomorrow for 16 days and are both looking forward to trying Rafa's. Thanks again to all who have provided information, we can't wait to eat there.

[docsconz]

Getting back to Rafa's...does anyone know when they are open and when they are closed?

I fear that they will be closed on Sundays and Mondays as will Can Roca. Unfortunately this may cramp our plans as we would then only be able to do one on the saturday that we arrive.

[Bux]

Getting back to Rafa's...does anyone know when they are open and when they are closed?

I fear that they will be closed on Sundays and Mondays as will Can Roca. Unfortunately this may cramp our plans as we would then only be able to do one on the saturday that we arrive.

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Campsa says Can Rafa is closed on Sundays and Mondays. (Rafa's phone number is +34 972 25 40 03.) There's no question in my mind which is the destination restaurant, although I don't know if I could do justice to both Can Roca and elBulli one right after the other. While Rafa's may not be a destination restaurant, it may well be a "don't miss" kind of place. I've been preoccupied by the idea of destination restaurants that draw one from far away and for which no detour is too great, and those restaurants that one shouldn't miss when one is in the area.

I will also suggest SnackMar/Las Golondrinas, originally recommended by Louisa and across the street from Rafa, is a place for exceptional tapas. In its own way, it may be as don't miss as Rafa's.

[Silly Disciple]

Rafa is open Monday night as well, but during the month of August ONLY.

sd

[pedro]

Is there such a thing as too much publicity being bad publicity? I mean, people should be aware of what they're going to find when they go to Rafa. Good seafood, some of it being excellent, in a non-descript setting like many other bares around, and a skilfull man with the plancha, reasonable but not cheap prices.

Is it the best seafood you can have in the country? Hardly. Is it a nice place where you can enjoy with a good and simple meal? Definitely. In fact, I preferred to go there instead of to the more sophisticated Golondrinas (at least from a cooking point of view) to give my palate a rest of creativity some weeks ago.

[Bux]

I think most people's comments on Rafa's are right on target, but when dozens upon dozens of members post about a little place with absolultely fresh fish, it takes on mythic proportions which in turn lead to unrealistic expectations. Rafa for instance, was a good three or four inches shorter than I expected him to be. The room is also more ordinary in an ordinary way than I expected it to be. I expected it to be more distinctly ordinary.

The food at Rafa's is an excellent foil to all of Adrià's flash as either a palate cleanser before, or a antitidote afterwards, but the food at Las Golondrinas, at least the little we had for a light lunch, was delightful. I thought it was thoughtful rather than overly creative. Rafa's prices may be surprisingly low or high to those unfamiliar with the relative scarcity of individual species served, depending on what's available that day and what you order.