Last month, I was with my husband in Barcelona in Spain to celebrate his 30th birthday. During our last day in this beautiful city, we booked a table at the famous local restaurant – Cinc Sentits. It made me question what do I consider to be the perfect dining experience? For me it’s firstly great food then service and lastly the atmosphere. Cinc Sentits definitely exceeded my expectation and I can definitely say that our lunch there was the best meal we had whilst in Barcelona.
I loved the restaurant philosophy which follows the Catalan proverb:
‘He who eats well and drinks well, does everything right’.
Location:
The Cinc Sentits restaurant is located in central Barcelona very close to Universitat tube station and is around 10min walk from the Placa De Catalunya.
Atmosphere:
The decoration of Cinc Sentits restaurant is modern and elegant.
It is run by a Michellin star chef – Jordi Artal who aims to share a vision of modern Catalan cuisine with its dinners. His goal is to create memorable gastronomic experiences designed to engage the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.
From the moment we arrived, the waiting staff at the restaurant were all knowledgeable, warm and inviting. There was some quiet music playing in the background…
The menu:
Cinc Sentits offers 2 testing menus (4 and 6 dishes) which are inspired by the freshest ingredients currently in season, as well as Catalonia’s culinary traditions.
In addition, diners have an opportunity to select a pairing of wines that have been carefully chosen to harmonize with the flavours and aromas of each course. All the wines in the restaurant pairings are exclusively Catalan and Spanish.
What these menus have in common is that they change seasonally and they are the same at both lunch and dinner, so the dining experience is identical. Before we started, we were asked if we had any allergies and our waitress explained that every course we’ll receive will be a surprise. As we had a flight to catch, we decided to try a testing menu 4 with a pairing of some carefully selected wines. Our waitress explained that we will get:
- 5 tapas dishes
- 1 starter
- 1 fish dish
- 1 meat dish
- 1 pre-dessert
- 1 dessert
I love being surprised and Cinc Sentits offers its dinners a really unique experience where you do not exactly know what you will get for any of the courses until they arrive. I really enjoy this concept as it stimulates conversation and the discovery part enables your senses to bring back some food memories or discover some new textures.
Whilst we were waiting for our food to arrive, we received a delicious shot based on maple syrup, cream, cava sabayon and sea salt. I am not much of a drinker but I really enjoyed it.
Our first course consisted of 5 tapas dishes:
- Iberian Jamon de bellota;
- Grilled vegetable flatbread with olive oil ‘caviar’;
- Freshly shucked baby clams with Cinc Sentis secret sauce number 3;
- Salt-baked potato, bonito tuna belly, carrot & green bean puree
- Anchovy with quince paste and pickled pepper.
They were all mouth-watering and delicious. This course was accompanied by some Cinc Sentits Vermouth wine which was full of aromas and nicely complemented our tapas.
Next, we received our starter-a dish called ‘ Land and Sea of Catalonia’ which was based on some baby peas, pea shoots, pea essence, black truffle, anise sea urchin, razor clams, green apple and ice plant. It was really enjoyable.
Moving on, we received some wild turbot-it was divine.
This dish was accompanied by some Contino Blanco 2015 wine.
This dish was followed by a smoked hen’s egg with crisp thyme brown butter breadcrumbs and pickled onion.
It was accompanied by some Pre Pairal 1999 wine which worked perfectly with it.
Next, we received some our main showcasing different parts of duck: duck breast with sauteed pear, duck leg with some red wine gel and pistachio in addition to some roasted duck wing and neck pancake with some pear chutney.
It was my favorite dish which was simply amazing! It was accompanied by some Magnum Acos 2007 wine.
For our pre-dessert, our waitress brought us some ‘lemon textures’ consisting of some lemon sorbet, lemon cake, lemon meringue and vodka ice sorbet to clean the palette. It was very refreshing.
If you regularly read my blog, then you will probably know that I have a very bad sweet tooth. As soon as I saw our dessert which was restaurants interpretation of a famous Ferrero Rocher, I couldn’t wait to try it.
It was simply delectable and was based on some toasted hazelnut mousse, candied hazelnuts with yogurt powder and tangerine sorbet. Our dessert was accompanied by some Moscatel Montegudo wine.
As a final temptation, just before we asked for our bill, we received some signature cheesecake with carmelised apple and white chocolate. What an amazing, unexpected treat!
Overall experience:
We both loved every minute of our unique gastronomic experience at the Cinc Sentits based on sampling and discovering some great locally sourced food. Each dish was beautifully presented and made from fresh seasonal foods. In addition to the food, the service was very knowledgeable and welcoming and the restaurant is centrally located so I would definitely visit it again when I am back in Barcelona.
Website:
For more information and to book visit:
http://cincsentits.com/en/
Address:
Carrer d’Aribau 58,
08011 Barcelona, Spain
I hope you enjoyed reading this review!
X
Pauline
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3. Reading Abbey:
4. Museum of Berkshire Aviation:
5. Riverside Museum at Blake’s lock:
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