Although I’ve always read that Barcelona is no tapas town (this article, for example, explains how Catalunyans historically preferred a full sit-down meal), Jon and I couldn’t resist the siren call of small plates in Spain.
On the high end of the tapas spectrum was Bar Mut, which is a short walk from Diagonal metro in Eixample district, where you’ll find Gaudi goodies La Pedrera, Casa Batllo and Sagrada Familia. (If you think the area feels like the Upper East Side, you wouldn’t be far off the mark).
Bar Mut is a small, French-looking spot complete with marble-topped counters, brass-and-frosted-glass fixtures, a blackboard menu, and that hazy gold lighting that characterises all charming late-night spots. I’d read only rave reviews of the place, and Bar Mut’s open for business on Sunday, which was a big plus.
The restaurant is extremely-well-known, so when we turned up for our 10:30 pm booking on a Sunday night, it was still packed.
Understandably, the restaurant sent us the one server who spoke fluent English, but he turned out to be sort of an arrogant, condescending guy, insisting that it’d be easier if we left the ordering to him. In a good mood from our aperitifs, we agreed, and he proceeded to skip all the dishes on the blackboard that we couldn’t quite make out, and instead ordered us basics like jamon iberico and marinated anchovies. High quality, beautiful stuff, but I couldn’t help feeling that Jon and I needn’t have traveled to Barcelona to eat expensive, good-quality basics.
An order of ventresca con tumbet (tuna belly) sounded promising, but turned out to be very good-quality tuna that had been cooked until it tasted canned. Based on its melt-in-your-mouth texture, the tuna was probably brilliant when it was raw, and it seemed a shame (to me) to have cooked it up and shredded it on a slightly-limp green lettuce salad.
The cochinillo at 18 euros was very good, making it the one dish that our server recommended that was especially noteworthy. The skin was incredible – thin and crispy, and extremely easy to break apart. Apparently, the kitchen first cooks the suckling pig sous vide before crisping the skin on the grill before serving. Much as I loved the classic oven-roasted version we ate in Segovia in the Ribera del Duero, the skin on the traditional version was sometimes a bit too shiny and hard to eat easily, so I’d say Bar Mut’s contemporary version was a real improvement.
Still hungry, Jon and I used pidgin Spanish to ask another server what he’d recommend, and without hesitating, he pointed us to the carpaccio huevos fritos. Unsure what would be raw (i.e., the carpaccio bit), we figured anything with fried eggs would surely be a winner, and at 14 euros, the dish was the highlight of our night: fried shoestring potatoes on a bed of raw egg yolk with some veg thrown in. The crunch-creamy textures were great, and the comfort factor of all those potatoes mixing with the rich egg yolk is not to be underestimated.
With a bottle of Carmelo Rodero crianza for 25 euros (I love the relatively-low markups on wine in Spanish restos!), our tab for two before tip totaled 110 euros. It was a lot of money for an inexpensive wine and five or six tapas dishes. I’d have been more wowed if we’d gotten more of the interesting items on the menu. So if you go, try to order on your own, and definitely go when there’s shellfish available. Bar Mut knows how to source, and I’ll guess that when there’s shellfish on offer, it’s the best money can buy.
Go for high-quality versions of tapas classics. Go if you’re touristing out in the neighborhood gawping at the Gaudis. And if you really want to be wowed, eschew the help of the English-speaking server and order the dishes you’ve never heard of from the blackboard menu.
Bar Mut, Pau Claris, 192; +34 93 217 43 38; Eixample district; closest metro station: Diagonal
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Grrr. I really dislike it when you’re abroad and the waiting staff almost bully you into ordering the usual fare that other tourists are happy with. It’s hard to stand your ground when you don’t speak the language well.
Lizzie – yes, in the end, I did feel a bit foolish for letting the server take charge that way. I’ll assume he was well-intentioned, and looking back, I could’ve insisted a lot harder on picking my own dishes (i.e., I played a role in letting my lazy side agree to his ordering our dishes). There was also a part of me that hoped he was going to help us discover something new and wonderful on the menu. Live and learn.
If you were there on Sunday, May 10, I was too. We probably had the same English-speaking server, in fact. I just want to let you know that I came upon this site while looking for a recipe or even just a picture of the carpaccio huevos fritos, they were so good.
The waiter was probably just trying to make sure you liked your food and without more information, he played it safe. We ate at Cal Pep on our trip and were steered to more basic stuff at a restaurant that has no menu. Nevertheless an amazing meal.
Josh, I was at Bar Mut on Sunday, May 3, so a week before you.
[…] Who doesn’t love that? Admittedly, part of our high expectations stemmed from our memory of the wondrous “carpaccio huevos fritos” that we’d had at Barcelona’s Bar Mut …. Setting aside the camera/lighting issues I had at Iberica, just compare the above photograph of […]
[…] Bar Mut’s carpaccio huevos fritos speaks to breakfast lovers everywhere. Crispy shoestring potatoes + hot, gooey egg yolk = match made in heaven. fried anchovies at Furran Balikcilik in the Karakoy fish market (Istanbul) […]
[…] Bar Mut, Barcelona (posted 11 May 2009) […]
[…] Bar Mut, Barcelona (posted 11 May 2009) […]
Di not eat at this restaurant unless you want to be completely ripped off. Maybe it was better in 09, but we ate there yesterday, June 17,2012, and could not have been treated more rudely by our waiter. While the food was mostly (but not all) good, it was hardly worth the extraordinarily rude treatment and exorbitant prices. We have had much better experiences at every other restaurant and food establishment in Barcelona. Avoid this place!
Well, still getting commnets in 2012. I was there in March of this year. I was with my friend, a native catalana, so I had protecation from from surly wait staff but not from exorbitant prices. The decor is A 1 but our late afternoon drink and tapas were so-so and over priced. I do not mind paying for value, but I do object to being ripped off.
I came to this blog because Bar Mut is included in the recent WSJ article “In Barcelona, a wine scene for the ages” and the name rung a metal bell, sure enough, I had been there, but will not return. Does a bar like that actually have repeat customers who pay those prices?