Barcelona’s got an essential group of indie haute cuisine chefs and restaurateurs – that is, those who are making it out there on their own without the help of a big hotel backing them, for example. One of them is Dani Lechuga (the irony of this master of meat whose surname means ‘lettuce’ is not lost on him or the local gastro world).
Lechuga’s former Caldeni is now Bardeni, a bar dedicated to meat, or a ‘meatbar’, as he describes it, though this likely sounds better to non-native-English-speaking ears. In a great nod to equality, you can’t book ahead, call for information or even wait around inside. You’ve got to just show up, and if there’s a table available, you get to eat.
Everything is made to share, because even if your dining companion is in a hurry and orders first in order to leave early, you can’t possibly let a pair of melt-in-your-mouth ravioli stuffed with apple, foie and black ‘botifarra’ sausage be eaten alone. Your nutritionist is sure to frown if you tell her that you shared four dishes featuring red meat. But one meal is one meal, and this is a celebration of good cooking, impervious to trends, so you won’t find endless varieties of wines or craft beer, or ‘fuet’ tartares, or avocados, or petrified pieces of beef on display. At Bardeni it’s all about freshness and the best kind of vice, along with plenty of technique and talent. Take the picanha – as fine as a roast beef – with foie, where the chili doesn’t overload the mildness of the veal; or the oxtail cannelloni with the pasta almost al dente, and a delirium of juiciness inside.