A few years ago, our go to spot for Chilean food in Chicago (in fact, the only Chilean restaurant in Chicago) unexpectedly closed. We have been trying to find a new Chilean spot ever since. Aside from having some Chilean food in NYC (see review of Freddie and Pepper's), we have been unable to find any. While the search still goes on in Chicago, we found this place in Barcelona.
The restaurant's decor was pretty cool. With all of the decorations, it looked like a party inside of someone's house. We started off with bread and pico de gallo. (Note: the restaurants in Barcelona do not give complementary bread. So if you don't want to get charged, tell them early on that you don't want any bread) The pico de gallo was very good. We both drank bottles of Escudo (which is a good Chilean beer). We then had an order of cheese empanadas. The empanadas were huge and had a great amount of cheese inside. These were very good. We then continued with an order of mussels with parmesan cheese. The mussels were very big and tasted pretty good with the cheese.
For my entree, I had the pastel de choclo (a dish I had not had for about three years). My fiancee had the sirloin steak with rice. The food was fantastic. Definitely a reminder of our old Chilean hangout.
The owner (who I assume is Hugo) came over to check on us and chatted with us. After dinner, he gave us two complementary shots of a drink that tasted like lemonade spiked with tequila. It was pretty good and not too strong.
After we paid our bill, Hugo again came over to tell us to enjoy the rest of our trip and shook my hand. Definitely made us feel welcome.
If you want good Chilean food and excellent service for a decent price, you definitely have to come here. Next time we are in Barcelona, we will definitely stop in. read more