L'oliva
C/novella no, 2
Barcelona
93-317-02-31
I use the address from the web site which is not the same as the yelp address, however, it does seem to be the same place. The menu is the same and, not speaking Spanish, the address seems similar and Google Maps seems to concur. I wroth this the day after my meal on my iPad but waited to get home before posting.
Well, another incredible find.
Neighborhood: near the University, lots of students milling about.
We were off to find the best burger place in Barcelona but, upon finding it, we decided a kids burger joint wasn't the thing to do in Spain. Reading menus we found what we thought was a tiny place with a fixed price menu that looked good. They had chicken, apparently an oddity in Spain.
We were greeted warmly by a man who spoke no English. Our orders were taken and the entire evening's conversation was performed by an incredibly nice man who never let on that he spoke English, I have to assume. He made me feel like I belonged. But I digress.
Numerous menu items but we chose the price fix, 16.00 Euros including VAT, version, Mary choosing chicken with a Roquefort dressing and I taking the chicken filled with ham and cheese, a la "cordon bleu", mine with rice and hers with boiled potatoes. We both chose a green salad with an incredible amount of goat cheese, tomato, walnuts with oil and vinegar.
The dulce, I forget what it was in Catalan. ( there are just do many languages one can pretend to speak) was a choice of five. Mary chose the Nougat ice cream and I chose the Crema Catalan I.e. Creme Broulet.
Wine list seemed fine but don't know a great deal about Spanish wines. We chose a bottle of white from
Penedes only because we are visiting the area tomorrow. It was a cool, crisp, mild and very enjoyable accompaniment to our chickens.
I must say, we were so happy with the food, it's presentation and the service that we must rate it the second best dinner of eight in Spain do far. 12 in total before boarding our cruise home.
Upon using the rest room, one of the cleaner and most spacious I've found, I realized there was a second crowded dining room,doubling the size, on the second floor.
So, great food, great service, Plenty of room, especially when you go out "early " at 8:00 PM make for a fine choice in Barcelona.
Addendum: Aparently this too is part of a small, local chain as we found another by the same name but this doesn't diminish our appreciation of this find. read more