The Prince and The Hawker

While in town for my school reunion, I had an incredible meal at Angle, a two Michellin star restaurant in the heart of L’Eixample district in Barcelona. The meal lasted nearly three hours, but every minute of it was enjoyable. I’ll try to be as brief as I can while doing the meal justice, but brace yourself, this is going to be a long one.

Barcelona is full of excellent eateries and has an extensive list of Michelin star distinguished restaurants. I always want to check out more places than I have the time for whenever I visit. On this trip, I was able to try two Michelin star restaurants, one of them being Angle.

Angle is located in Cram hotel, a chic boutique hotel on the corner property of one of Barcelona’s famed L’Eixample blocks. There is a separate entrance on the left side of the corner. This leads into the MAREVA cocktail bar part of the hotel lobby, which turned out to be the start of our culinary journey that evening.

At Angle, there is one (extended) tasting menu option. They are very flexible with dietary constraints and had no problem accommodating my partner who is a pescatarian. Once checked in with the host, we were led to one of the tables in the bar area, where a menu awaited us. Just look at the parade of a feast we had ahead of us!

Time to Eat at Angle

As we were settling in and perusing the menu, we were given glasses of cava. Then we were led to the standing bar for a couple of appetizers prepared fresh in front of us.

There wasn’t much explanation given of these two bites, so I felt like I was jumping into the deep end. The first was a morsel of vermouth and olive oil. It was a fun and somewhat savoury play on an aperitivo.

The second bar snack was a ceps (a.k.a. porcini) tart. The moment I put it in my mouth, I was greeted with a burst of earthy, umami flavour. Ok, exciting start to the meal!

After we polished off our cava, we were led into the lift and upstairs into the dining room. It was an intimate and elegant space with classic white table cloths and individual overhead lighting at each table.

Our server, Maria, came over to introduce herself. She turned out to be a delight throughout the evening, and was assisted by numerous other staff. I did notice the music in the dining room and thought it was slightly tacky for the environment – it was mostly slow jazz renditions of pop songs.

Almost immediately and with a flourish, we were served a Bloody Mary on the rocks. I panicked because I don’t really drink, but realised this was a non-alcoholic tease. It had a wonderful spicy tomato taste that was light enough to be refreshing. The drink was a great accompaniament for the first few appetisers being served.

A trio of appetisers was served shortly after. The beautifully presented sea urchin had a unique-tasting coral foam component.

The Galician mussel had a sweet taste imparted by the addition of smoked piquillo pepper. This was balanced by the delicate foam placed on top.

Then came the “tuna niguiri” (I giggled at the Spanification of “nigiri”). I thought this was a playful twist on nigiri. Instead of cooked rice, a deep-fried shell of rice (reminiscent of pani puri) contained a centre of tender tuna, katsuoboshi (bonito flakes), and a hint of wasabi. It was crispy and melt-in-your-mouth at the same time. This was definitely the more interesting of the three.

The next small bite was a sweetcorn taco with mole sauce and flakes of foie gras. The savoury foie gave way to the sweetness of the mole and the corn as I continued to chew. Again, the unexpected textures made me go, “wow”.

At this point, we were given small moist towelettes. This isn’t groundbreaking, but I thought the timing was thoughtful – after a taco eaten by hand and just before bread was served.

Maria soon brought a big loaf of bread. That’s right, it wasn’t even an item on the extensive printed menu! Maria gave me a knowing look when I made a slightly incredulous face. The bread was laced with poppy seed and pumpkin seed and had a lovely spring. It was served with three velvety butters: French butter, smoked butter, and toasted butter. We had fun oscillating between the three spreads. Of course, since we were in Spain, there was also olive oil available.

Right, back to the printed menu. On to the more substantial dishes, the first was grilled white asparagas and maitake. It was served with a sort of sphere of sobrasada and a pickled mushroom cream. The grilling of the vegetables brought a firmness in structure and flavour that held up with the other elements of the dish. There was also parsley foam on top. Yes, there was a lot of foam in this tasting menu, but it was all flavourful and intentional.

Next was a scarlet shrimp served in two parts. The shrimp tail came with a kumquat glaze, toasted marcona almonds, and what I can only describe as a tarragon spaghetti. It was extremely tasty. The shrimp head was served with a sea lettuce prawn cracker, which I thought was clever with the theme.

The next dish was the most theatrical of the night. A large glass steamer was brought out. Galician hake sat on top of steaming liquid filled with salt, ginger and lemongrass. The first steamer Maria brought out actually had a lid that was stuck. She noticed before starting the fire, made a lighthearted comment that it was just a joke, and quickly took the whole contraption away to replace it with another. I thought she handled the situation in both a professional and fun way that kept in touch with the mood of the restaurant.

Once the replacement had been brought out, Maria lit the fire and told us we’d wait for 6-7 minutes according to the hourglass timer on the table. As we watched the fish steam in front of us, we could smell the Thai-inspired aromas oozing out and we were literally salivating. Finally the time was up, and Maria plated the hake with accompaniaments. The ginger and lemongrass permeated the fish while the razor clams, celeriac, plankton and caviar components gave depth to the seafood dish.

You can imagine we were quite full by this point, but we still had the meat dishes to get through! First up was a kimchi ravioli with smoked aubergine, smothered in black garlic and topped with grilled wagyu beef. This is probably the only dish I questioned slightly. The black garlic was a little too sweet for me, and I felt the wagyu beef was disconnected with the underlying kimchi ravioli. Perhaps the intent was blending Korean and Japanese flavours.

The second meat dish was much more cohesive. The lamb shoulder was the star of the dish, flanked by earthy morels, baby artichokes, and intoxicating roasted garlic. There was also an anticuchero rib, sort of like a false rack of lamb, which I thought was playful. Anticuchos are traditional Andean small assorted pieces of meat grilled on skewers.

We’re nearly there, team! Onwards to desserts. On a deceptively soft-looking “pillow” plate was a study of textures through matcha. Matcha crumble supported a scoop of matcha and bergamot ice cream pierced by matcha and yuzu crisps.

Next was the beautifully presented carrot cake. Chai spices gave the tantalizing kick in the dish while more subtle aromas of eucalyptus lay in the undertone.

The last dessert was named Madagascar. All components were ingredients from the island nation: vanilla ice cream, cocoa beans, milk and dark chocolate, macadamia nuts and salted caramel. I’m glad this dish was kept in a small, concentrically circular package, because we were getting very full.

Almost done! We looked at our menu and there was only Petit Fours left. Of course, by now we should have known Angle wasn’t going to let us off easy. We were brought a box of four petit fours. From left to right, we had hazenut bonbons, tarte tatins, lemon meringues, and dark chocolate truffles. There was also a tube of red fruit sorbet…lipstick! When Maria brought them, she asked, “Is it your first time putting lipstick on?” with a wink. Again, a perfect combination of service and humour.

The petit fours were divine. The lipstick sorbet was a fun concept, but in practice, it was hard to get the sorbet to melt onto our lips. In the end, we just bit the lipstick as if it were a lollipop. Tasty end to the meal though!

After we sat for a bit and recovered ourselves, Maria even led us back down the lift to the bar area, all the while discussing the meal with us. It was a nice personal touch at the end of a perfect evening.

Final Thoughts

Much like Barcelona is a meeting place of tradition and modernity, Angle excels at showcasing local ingredients combined with innovative techniques and global flavours. Every dish (except one in my opinion) had a clear point of view, whether it was mixing flavours traditional to multiple cusines, or doing a study of one theme of flavours. It was a delight to consume each dish while musing on the chef’s inspirations.

The dining room at Angle and the entire experience was elegant, yet friendly and laid-back. While obviously not an everyday experience, the price point of €185 was actually less than I’ve paid at other two Michelin star restaurants around the world. I thought this was good value given the length of the tasting menu and the creative turns it offered. How I wish I could experience this again soon!