Cuidad Condal

Rambla de Catalunya, 18

Barcelona - Spain

After a string of tasting menus in San Sebastian, we were excited to meet up with our friends and experience the tapas scene in Barcelona. Our first meal turned into a late-night "snack" at Cuidad Condal, recommended by both a foodie friend and the hotel concierge. You can't miss this place - just look for the dozens of people packed into the bar and waiting area and spilling onto the side walks. We arrived at 9:30PM or so and still had to wait over an hour to get a table. Once seated, we let the server select a couple of their most popular dishes for us to share.

1. Egg plant, roasted bell peppers, mozzarella cheese - The worse dish of the night, in my opinion. Lacking in both texture and flavor. The eggplant and roasted peppers were very mushy and super tangy. The cheese did little to cover the flavors. We tried to avoid this dish for the rest of the trip. Despite its popularity in Spanish cuisine, it is a combination of flavors that we cannot appreciate.

2. Jamon Iberico plate - Ahhhhh....ham from the legendary black-footed pig. These pigs are fed on a diet of acorns and supposedly make for some of the best cured meat in the world. Super yummy...but then again, how can you go wrong with jamon? In fact, we loved it so much, we actually went to Jamonisimo later on during the trip to do a jamon tasting. More to come later about our history lesson on the pata negra.

3. Bacon-wrapped dates and cheese - Standard Spanish fare. You can find a different iteration of this dish in every tapas restaurant you go to. This version was good, with a layer of crispy batter around the bacon. 


4. Veal with bread and roasted pepper - This was one of the better dishes of the night. The veal was cooked perfectly with a nice sear on the outside and tender in the middle.


5. Grilled shrimp - We were excited for the gambas but it turned out more lackluster than anything. There really wasn't too much flavor and the shrimp lacked it's usual sweetness. It was also luke-warm which didn't help its cause much.

Overall, a decent first meal in Barcelona. The tapas were more traditional, lacking the creativity we saw in San Sebastian. Not really sure why there were so many people fighting for seats as we found some better places for tapas later on in the trip.