Creative and delicious, that's how I would describe the tapas we had here at Pan & Oli. Had my…read morehotel's concierge service make us a reservation for 2 here at 9PM. Yelp says they open at 8:30PM, but the concierge let me know that there was no availability for 8:30. And we arrived a couple minutes until 9 the restaurant was empty. English here was a barrier, except for the chef. My kindergarten through high school Spanish, didn't stick with me very well during this trip and Catalan has a handful of differences.
The place is cozy, simple but cute. I actually heard of Pan & Oli from Afar and TimeOut. A bulk of their dishes are interpretive and playful while still highlighting popular dishes of the area. It's tapas, but they have a smaller menu than other places we went to, allowing them to focus more on the flavors and creativity behind each dish. The chef told us that his menu items change with what's in season and such. We decided on the eggs with foie gras, eggs with ham, croquettes, tomato cannelloni and patas bravas.
First we were presented with the tomato cannelloni. There was goat cheese in it, which I used to like, but now don't eat much of due to its tangy flavor, however, the goat cheese was very mild and all the flavors married together so well. The cannelloni was the best presented dish we had. It was constructed from what looks like tomato puree and had a glass like texture and was served with a light almost pesto like sauce. Hubby said it tasted like a fruit roll up to him! Next up were the egg with foie gras and the croquettes. The croquettes were perfectly breaded and fried with pillowy potato puree and cheese inside. You can like never go wrong with croquettes! The foie gras and eggs were served in a little cast iron skillet and the eggs were still perfectly yolky when punctured. The foie gras pieces were cut up and this dish was delicious. Definitely needs to be for dinner, not something you could ever have for brunch. Still a little hungry and also very impressed with the dishes we received, we ordered the patas bravas and the eggs with ham. I will probably emphasize this in every Barcelona restaurant Yelp that I'm going to write, Iberian ham will be the best ham you ever try in your life! And this dish was made even better by putting it in the skillet with eggs. The heat of the skillet allowed for the edges to get crisp like bacon and brought out a little bit of the saltiness as well. I don't eat much ham at all back home, but when in Europe, and especially in Spain, I had it like everyday. I think this was his favorite dish of the night. Last but not least, I was almost not going to order the patas bravas, but, everyone talks about it, so I did. The patas bravas is whipped potatoes served hot in a shot glass with the bravas sauce at the top and the cherry on top is a single potato chip. The potato chip tasted like a store bought Pringles chip except not salty, but the layers below were something special. We just used the bread from the bread basket they provided us to eat this dish. I wish it was served more in a bowl though since much of the time I would end up just getting the top layer bravas sauce; while it was good, it got a bit salty. We also got a glass of Cava Brut, which was alright.
When I looked around, I had a feeling that everyone dining here was a local. So glad to not end up in a tourist trap (i.e. avoid Las Ramblas). Service was a bit slow but friendly despite the language barrier. Overall, we had a wonderful meal here on our second night in Barcelona. We even thought about coming back for another meal, but I do always like trying new places. My only regret was that we didn't save room for dessert. On our walk there, he went "This better be worth it for a 9PM dinner (even for Barcelona that's a teeny bit late to start)." Leaving the restaurant, he said, "Okay that was worth the wait." Yes it was indeed! 4.5 stars rounded up.
