El Celler de Can Roca - Girona
Michelin three-star lunch for eight - disturbingly still cheaper than some dinners I’ve had for only two people
Rating: 18/20
Where: Girona, Spain
When: Lunch for 8 on 4 December 2019
Cost: Tasting menu 225 Euro, Wine pairing 100 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, Twice #1 on Top 50 Restaurants list
Why: Inventive, and playful modern tasting menu. Seafood especially good.
Note: This was one of the first reviews that I wrote right after visiting a restaurant, and the rating scheme is on a scale 0-3 depending on how many Michelin stars the dish warranted. I later realized that a more fine-grained scale would be more useful…
El Celler de Can Roca had long been on my list of restaurants to visit. Three Michelin stars, repeatedly #1 on the Top 50 Restaurants list, booked solid for eleven months ahead of time. Unfortunately, over the last few years, I was never in a situation where I could actually plan eleven months ahead, so I figured that it would be a another few years until I would finally be able to go here. But as luck would have it, idly checking on a day in October I found an empty table for eight people only two months out. So, after inviting six more people to join us, here we were much earlier than expected. I also rearranged my travel schedule to make this my 100th three-star Michelin restaurant, high hopes indeed.
El Cellar lies on the outskirts of Girona, which itself is a short train ride north of Barcelona. The neighborhood looks residential, not particularly pretty, but you won't see much of it once you step onto the property. After walking up a short path through a simple garden (that in the summer might be a nice place to relax), we were directly escorted to our table. The dining room looks to be a modern addition to a previously existing building that houses the kitchen. The decor is modern, and the layout is in the shape of a triangle: tables are on the outside of the triangle, separated four at-a-time or so by serving stations. So even though there are a substantial number of tables (twenty or so), other than some background noise, we couldn't hear other guests. The inside of the triangle held an enclosed group of trees - reminding me a bit of Troisgros in France.
Service throughout was great, with only a bit of disorientation at the beginning and end, when we couldn't seem to get hold of a anybody to either order an aperitif or get the check, respectively. In between, service proceeded at a good clip, almost a bit too fast for comfort, each dish showing up only a couple of minutes after the preceding one.
El Cellar has two tasting menus, we had to pick one in advance due to our group size, and chose the longer one. The menu started out with an inventive series of amuse bouches. The first set was served on arms extending from a globe, representing mini dishes from different countries: a kebab from Turkey, a pyramid made from hummus for Egypt, a taco for Mexico, a potato dish for Peru and a filled mochi for Japan. Turning up the arms holding the dishes to line up with the correct country made the globe pop open and yield a dough sphere filled with chili crab. These were all very nice, and the presentation obviously very elaborate 1.
Next was a paper pop-up house showing the three brothers that own the restaurant. This was used to serve "bar food", recalling the restaurant's pre-cursor that was opened by their father and still exists down the street. Again all very nice, and the presentation fanciful 1.
This was followed by tuna belly with ginger in (I think) a tomato based sauce - Japan meets the Mediterranean -, very delicious 3. Then two dishes based on trees. A model of an olive tree held both green and black "olives", both distilling the olive taste into ice cream and breading, respectively 1. Accompanying this was a dish meant to evoke pine trees; I thought this was okay but the weakest of the appetizers overall 1. The final appetizers were based on truffles, a meringue and a brioche filled with truffle cream. Very tasty, indeed 2.
The first "real" course was a vegetarian "surf-and-turf", based on seaweed and mushrooms. A very nice dish, the vegetables and seaweed tasty and crunchy, with maybe the underlying mousse a touch too heavy 2.
The next two dishes were both very orange, and paired with orange wines to boot. First was the "orange salad" composed of close to a dozen ingredients that are orange, such as carrots, oranges, mango, yellow beets, and so on. Add to this uni and some bottarga, and you have a dish that manages to combine all these different flavors into a cohesive, tasty whole. To what in the hands of normal people would be a jarring cacophony works really well here 3. Next were some pickles on top of romesco sauce, the tartness of the pickles nicely offsetting the heavier sauce 3.
Onwards to a "soup" course. Sunchoke consomme with mushrooms and the seeds of an Asian tree (whose name I forgot) that resemble caviar. This was fine, but nothing too special 1.
The first of a long series of fish/seafood courses came next. I wonder what the menu would look like if one didn't eat seafood... This first dish was mackerel on top of a sauce made of white garlic, evoking "ajo blanco", a traditional Spanish soup. Next to the pieces of fish was a tofu-like mousse of ajo blanco covered with mackerel skin. I thought the fish and the sauce was great, but the tofu-ajo blanco was not that exciting, in hindsight maybe eating everything together would have been better. On average more like 1.
Smoked eel with olive tapenade, sliced grapes and a wonderful sauce was next. The eel was nicely cooked and went really well with the other ingredients 3. This was followed by a marinated and very lightly cooked prawn in a sauce of its innards (and its fried head for good measure). The prawn was nicely sweet and creamy, the sauce providing the oomph of the dish 3. Its (equally unfortunate) cousin langoustine was next, on top of a variety of sauces, some based on sausage; the second surf-and-turf dish of the meal. Also very nicely done 2.
Hake, with a sauce of its intestines, asparagus, rocket salad, and some tiny pickled peppers was next. Again, a wonderful dish, ostensibly simple but perfectly done 3. A local fish, cooked whole and filled with sea anemones was next. This was also very good, but maybe not quite at the level of the previous dishes 2.
The first meat course was a "tarte tatin", but with suckling pig as the base of the tart, and red-wine poached turnips as the "fruit" on top. The "whipped cream" had a flavor of juniper berries. I admire the playfulness here, but the dish was very heavy, especially at this point of the proceedings, and not that exciting in the end 1. The pescatarians at the table had a dish of truffle gnocchi instead, which was much better 3.
Ending the savory part of the menu was another meat dish that took inspiration from desserts: a pigeon pithivier - usually a sweet pastry that here was filled with pigeon meat. All very nice with a beautiful pastry shell 1, but I would have preferred the pescatarians' truffle risotto 1.
Three desserts concluded the meal: a "walk in the forest" dish based on fir, pine, cocoa and mushrooms. The waiter predicted that "you've probably never had a desert based on mushrooms before" - which struck me as an unlikely assumption given the kind of guests who eat here. The dish did was it was supposed to, evoke the forest, but not as good as similar dishes I've had before 1.
Next, a white candy sphere on top of lychees and filled with a mousse and flowers (to celebrate the dessert chef's daughter). Easily the best of the desserts 2.
The final dessert was a mousse based on Colombian chocolate which chocolate sauce from the same source. (The pairing included from Colombian coffee at this point.) Good, not very sweet 0.
A seemingly endless series of petit fours and chocolates followed, all pleasant, my favorite was a praline similar to Ferrero Rochers with pop-rocks 1.
Overall: This was an excellent meal, with the seafood courses especially strong. The setting was modern and open, a perfect way to spend a very rainy afternoon. I can understand where all the accolades come from, much of the meal was at a three star level 18.
Tasting menu and wine pairing
PS: Running along the beach in Barcelona is wonderful any time of the year - and a welcome preparation for a large lunch the next day.