When I was doing research for Barcelona, I stumbled on Alapar. I opted not to book a table at Alapar because we had just come back from 2 weeks in Japan and I felt like I didn't need another pricey omakase. Besides, I'm in Barcelona to have tapas!
A friend was in Barcelona the week before us and he highly recommended Alapar. He live texted the experience to me and I was convinced. I somehow managed to snag a reservation for 2 bar seats for 8pm, which is when they open. We were seated right in front of the chef himself and got to watch him in action the entire night.
To start, we had the sparkling white tea. This was delightful and I highly recommend it if you're not looking to drink. We had a total of 18 courses, with 6 nigiri/handroll courses, 5 cooked courses, 3 raw, 3 dessert courses. Our meal started off with a fermented fig and pineapple drink that opened up the palate and our appetites. After that, we had tuna tartare on wasabi mochi, montadito style. This was fantastic and I loved the mochi. It was followed by a squid sashimi montadito, with the added 9 EUR supplement for caviar. The next few courses were nigiri, cooked dishes, and assorted raw dishes. Dessert was wasabi ice cream, followed by their signature shaved vanilla ice cream with a fig tart. The last dessert course was a chocolate filled mochi with olive oil ice cream. All the desserts were fantastic.
All the nigiri were pretty unique in the sense that they were Mediterranean fish paired with Japanese and Catalan flavors. The wasabi is grown locally and they also use a ton of local ingredients. It truly is a classic Japanese omakase with heavy Mediterranean influences and flavors. Chef Marambio was very happy to answer our questions about the dishes - we learned that the uni served during the meal is local and in his opinion, more flavorful as a result.
Service was absolutely fantastic and we felt so well taken care of. I am so glad that my friend talked me into making a reservation at Alapar. The flavors were definitely very different from other omakases that I've ever had. read more