Hisop (Barcelona)

[endless autumn]

Thanks to Jordi, I headed down to Hisop for lunch on Tuesday.

I do not have many reference points in Spain against which to judge it (Tragabuches, little Arzak) but it needn't be set in context: it excels in its own right.

Everything was perfectly judged: service, food, welcome, wine. The room (for those of you who are interested) is clean, spare, sparse: white walls, brick ceiling, test tubes of roses, black and red lacquered cupboards.

We were just about the only people there; then again, we were just about the only people in Eixample - everyone else was on holiday.

We chose the menu gourmand (a snip at E$43):

Warm cockles with pureed melon soup and rosemary infusion

Raw sardines/anchovies (can't remember) with raspberries, deep fried bones and strawberry soup

Scallop with crispy pork and green almond cream (menjaron?)

Hake with dried tomato, goats cheese sorbet, aubergine puree and anchovy sauce

Duck with pineapple, girolles and saffron

some cheese (a chalky smoked Basque cheese, a little bowl of tupi, membrillo etc.)

Mint infusion with Caiprinha sorbet

Cuban: cold cocoa, warm banana, tiger nut sorbet

With this we drank a white Priorat from Clos Nelin (with a couple of glasses of Duquesa PX to finish).

The food was faultless: all the combinations (perhaps with the exception of the sardine/anchovy dish) were natural, though unexpected; all worked; all felt as if they should be paired with each other more often. The menu doesn't bristle with innovation but that is to its credit: it is restrained but original.

The maitre d' and chef were both good company: not starchy and gladhanding but warm, friendly and perfectly informal. I usually dread a chatty waiter.

Hisop would be booked out for weeks in advance if it were in London, but I imagine many places could make that claim. Anyway, I don't want in London as it gives me an excuse (and reason enough) to go back to Barcelona.

[sbcparis]

Dear Mr./Ms Autumn,

I am new to this site and have very much enjoyed looking through all the pages. Your posting was of particular interest. We have taken a flat for six weeks (Dec. & Jan.) and are first-time visitors to Barcelona. I read your note about Hisop with delight. I am looking forward to enjoying it. Any other suggestions?

Susan

[Bux]

If you found the description of the food at Jordi's suggested restaurant, I assume you will seek out Jordi's food at his restaurant.

December and January are less usual months for visiting Barcelona, although truthfully, I would prefer them to August when it's very hot and humid. It can be chilly in January, but that's relative and I have had lunch outside in the sun that time of year. Welcome to eGullet and to the Spain and Portugal forum. I suspect you will have more to read about Barcelona between now and December and I trust you will have much to report during your stay there.

[endless autumn]

I am by no means an expert on Barcelona: bcnchef (of cinc sentits), nerdgirl, pedro, asola and many others know infinitely more than me.

You will find, however, that the same names keep coming back: comerc 24, sauc, alkimia, cata 1.81...

I hope you have a wonderful time. And I'm very glad you will be visiting Hisop.

[Schneier]

I went for dinner yesterday; had the tasting menu:

Course 1: Foie gras with onion, beer sauce, licorice cream, and coffee ice cream. This was an impressive start to the meal. The smell alone was swoonworthy.

Course 2: Pork and octopus terrine, fig terrine, served with chocolate sauce. Chocolate is the trendy designer ingredient in Barcelona this fall. I had it in once course for lunch at Comerc 24, and two courses during this dinner. Tasty dish, although the fig pits were large and annoying.

Course 3: Prawn, mushrooms, and pumpkin puree served with smoked eel and saffron soup. How do you make a soup that smells like the essence of smoked eel? How do we convince Campbell's to sell it? This was a great dish all around.

Course 4: Hake served with mushroom puree, garlic puree, and herb puree. Served with a piece of pork fat and a test tube filled with mushroom infusion. Garlic puree is an excellent idea. This was all good, especially the earthy mushroom flavor. The test tube was for pouring over the fish and for drinking by itself.

Course 5: Venison with salsify, served with a red wine and red pepper sauce and chocolate sorbet. Again with the chocolate. A fascinating and tasty dish. Interesting flavor combinations.

Course 6: A cheese plate with five different cheeses and a slice of membrillo.

Course 7: Caipirinha sorbet served with a mint infusion.

Course 8: Fried slices of fig and fig sorbet served with bread soup.

Great meal, marred only slightly by people smoking across the room. I forget that smoking is permitted -- anywhere -- in Spanish restaurants.

Bruce

[Silly Disciple]

Great meal, marred only slightly by people smoking across the room.  I forget that smoking is permitted -- anywhere -- in Spanish restaurants.

Bruce

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Thanks for the report Bruce. Did you have any wine with your meal? How much was it?

Silly.

[Schneier]

The meal was 45 euros, I think. I did have two glasses of wine with the meal, both okay and neither terribly memorable.

Bruce

Edited November 7, 2004 by Schneier (log)

[docsconz]

Tasty dish, although the fig pits were large and annoying.

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Sounds like a superb meal, although I found this comment curious. Were the fig seeds unusually large or do you typically find them annoying?

[Schneier]

Tasty dish, although the fig pits were large and annoying.

←

Sounds like a superb meal, although I found this comment curious. Were the fig seeds unusually large or do you typically find them annoying?

←

They were unusually large. Large enough that I wondered if it was really a fig, and asked the waiter again to make sure I heard him properly.

Bruce

[nerdgirl]

Going to Hisop tomorrow for a friend's birthday dinner! Excited, as usual, for some fantastic food.

I've also been driving around with a menu from Can Fabes in my car for the past two weeks. Just sitting there on the dash begging me to write up the winter menu review. I will attempt to get to it in between my other eating excursions.

Today I'm having lunch at Hotel La Florida. Anyone have any experience with the restaurant L'Orangerie?

Ack! All this talk of food is making me hungry.

Everyone have a great holiday weekend!

[nimzo]

An interesting dinner at Hisop on Monday evening. Great welcome and quick to come with aperitifs, water and really excellent nut and olive breads.The room was busy without being completely full.My wife started with baby squid with white truffles whilst I went with prawns, both excellent although I think she got the best deal with the squid. She followed with turbot and black beans in a butifarra sauce whilst I had foie gras with a quince paste.I strayed off the spanish wines as they listed a Grosset riesling at a bargain price.Unfortunately, having ordered the wine it was unavailable and was replaced by one 3 years younger and more expensive.

Until this point it has been excellent but then things suddenly fell apart. I ordered a poached pear with basil, my wife a chocolate fondant with orange, My pear arrived with a pool of lovely basil sauce and we waited for the chocolate. In the meantime a waiter dumped a tray of dirty plates, glasses and cigar butts opposite so that the basil was obliterated by the bitter cigars. I asked after a couple of minutes if it could be removed and just got "un momento ".10 minutes later still no dessert for my wife, cigars and crockery still there and no staff in the dining room at all. Eventually the chocolate fondant appeared and looked like somebody had taken a hammer to it. It was present with the immortal line" It is all broken but tastes OK".25 minutes on and still can't get the cigars and crockery removed despite there only being 6 customers left and the waiting staff being empty handed. I was about to lend them a hand when finally it was taken.I asked why it had taken so long and was told."We have a very small kitchen and a small dishwasher, we have to leave dirty things in the restaurant".I asked about the delay with the dessert and whether anybody could at least be bothered to apologise for the state of it and the reply was "Look, sometimes things don't come out".Finally I asked what time the chef had left and unsurprisingly it had been right between the main course and dessert.My lasting impression will be of an excellent chef whose front of house staff couldn't care less once he is out of the building

[Schneier]

Dinner tonight at <a href=http://www.hisop.com>Hisop</a>. "Contemporary Catalan cuisine" is their motto. And it was an interesting tasting menu.

<i>Amuse bouche</i> #1: Asparagus soup with a soft-boiled quail egg and caviar. Tasty.

<i>Amuse bouche</i> #2: Tuna, cucumber soup, balsamic vinegar jelée, alfalfa sprouts. Better than it sounds.

Course #1: "Baby squid with fried egg and truffle." The egg was served three ways: a sauce made from the yolk, fried white on top of the squid, and crunchy very-fried white sprinkled on top of that. It was a <i>real</i> interesting dish. I liked the crunch.

Course #2: "Hake with herbs and black pudding." The black pudding was a sausage; probably blood sausage. There was also olive, and sun-dried tomato. Okay.

Course #3: Lamb with morels and curd. The curd was some kind of goat cheese thingy, completely forgettable but fortunately unobtrusive. The lamb was cooked well, and the morels were tasty. There was a lamb sauce and a mushroom sauce. It was a good dish, but pretty regular.

Pre-Dessert: a mojito with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha">caipirinha</a> sorbet. Tasty.

Dessert: "Roses and chocolate." Flourless chocolate cake, cacao sorbet with rose syrup, balsamic flavor somewhere, and strawberries. The rose flavor was completely lost, but who can complain about this kind of chocolate?

Spare room, but pretty. Mediocre service. The kitchen rushed everyone -- not just us -- and the two servers were harried the entire night. And people still smoke in that small dining room.

Not too much food, though. I really appreciated that.

Bruce

[luizhorta]

Have to say that the guys from Hisop, Oriol and Guillem, came here last month (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and did cook wonderfully, what is always very difficult, to be able to make a restaurant "travel". They are good at Hisop and abroad as well. Hisop remains an almost secret treasure in Barcelona.

[Silly Disciple]

Hisop remains an almost secret treasure in Barcelona. 

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why secret?

[luizhorta]

It was just a poetic license, Hisop t's not trendy or hype, has no stars and you dont have to wait long months to get a place. And its inexpensive and sympathetic, as Sauc, another favorite of mine. Perhaps I was not happy using the word to express what I wanted to: that its not so mentioned in guides and lists of places to go, but offer a very good creative and well done contemporary experience in food, slightly off the touristic beaten track, not a secret, indeed.

Edited September 17, 2006 by luizhorta (log)

[Silly Disciple]

It was just a poetic license, Hisop t's not trendy or hype, has no stars and you dont have to wait long months to get a place. And its inexpensive and sympathetic, as Sauc, another favorite of mine. Perhaps I was not happy using the word to express what I wanted to: that its not so mentioned in guides and lists of places to go, but offer a very good creative and well done contemporary experience in food, slightly off the touristic beaten track, not a secret, indeed.

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Yes, I understood the poetic license allright, but I'm not sure I fully agree with you. While it might be true that it's not on tourist guides (frankly, many awful restaurants make it into those guides) it is well known locally, and I would think you will find the same trouble booking a table as you would with Sauc, Coure, Colibri, Comerc 24, etc.

Moreover, I think it is inexpensive and great value if you go for the tasting menu, however if you order a la carte you will find that it is as expensive and if not more expensive than other restaurants in the same "tier".

[luizhorta]

ok.

[Chris Amirault]

What's the tasting menu costing these days? And are reservations required/recommended/unneeded?

[luizhorta]

Reservations are always recommended, I returned back twice at Coure in lunchtime and once in Sauc, deciding to eat for being nearby and without a reservation, they are small places. The price I dont know, perhaps in their page, www.hisop.com even it seems they dont update it frequently.

[nhconner]

We were just there last week and had a wonderful meal. The tasting menu was 54 Euro and includes three courses, a starter, a fish and an a main. We ordered a la carte and we were also very pleased. Both ways inculde a couple tastes, and cheese and desert are extra. This meal was not cheap (180 Euro total with 2 glasses of cava, 1 cheese, 2 desert and wine), but was one of the best values of our trip that inculded Roca, Bulli, Raffas, Abac, etc. Highly recomended. The best squab I have had yet by the way.

Nate

[Chris Amirault]

Anyone have experience with their on-line reservation system? Several days ago I sent in an email requesting a reservation for the week 8-14 Oct and haven't heard back.

[pedro]

Other than elBulli, I wouldn't trust any Spanish restaurant in their checking the mail or handling online reservations. Admittedly, some of the lack of confidence may be due to my own prejudices.

[luizhorta]

I second Pedro's opinion, I would rather phone because I had some problems with many a place in trying a reservation through email.

Other than elBulli, I wouldn't trust any Spanish restaurant in their checking the mail or handling online reservations. Admittedly, some of the lack of confidence may be due to my own prejudices.

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[Chris Amirault]

Oh ye of little faith:

Dear Chris Amirault,

Thank you very much for using our e-mail reservation system. Your reservation for the 9th of October at 21:00, for 2 people is confirmed.

Have a nice trip.

We hope you enjoy visiting Barcelona and our restaurant. Thank's for your support.

Hisop

Oriol Ivern

www.hisop.com

hisop@hisop.com

932413233

[luizhorta]

I am glad. They are great value and very nice to chat with too. Enjoy your meal and tell us about, please.