Restaurant Montiel for a Michelin-Star worthy lunch – Barcelona

I just have to tell you about one of the best meals in a long time, superb quality and a super reasonable price! We had the whole restaurant to ourselves at lunchtime as they have only relatively recently started doing lunch and it was mid week in May 🙂

The waiter was amazing, the chef was super accommodating, the food was awesome – A+++ 🙂

We took the lunch menu but you can also go a la carte. The lunch menu involves a choice of starter, main and dessert, an appetiser and chocolates, plus bread, water and a glass of wine. All for 36euros per person. Insanely good value for money!

A quick look at the decor – we sat downstairs but the upstairs is nice and airy too.

Our awesome host for the day who made awesome recommendations, explained the background to everything, the sourcing of the ingredients and what made them so special. He let us have this wine rather than the standard house wine as our glass with the menu. It was great.

Avi Arrufi from Terra Alta is Catalan white wine which has a lovely mineral flavour. I don’t always like wines from oak barrels but this was perfectly balanced and still crisp.

Strawberries gazpacho with cucumber sorbet

The appetiser was a surprise – cucumber sorbet with strawberries

And gazpacho

So pretty and yummy too 🙂

Egg from our farm with tender garlic with wild mushrooms and vegetables stew

My husband picked the egg with mushrooms as he decided to have fish for the main, so didn’t pick the ceviche for starter. He was not disappointed with the gorgeous mushrooms and poached egg 🙂 He was very happy.

With the veggie broth.

And the beautiful soft egg topped with leeks and micro herbs.

Bread and fruity olive oil

Sprouts and flowers’ salad with citrus

This salad is usually served with vegan almond cheese but I am not a fan of any kind of cheese so they swapped it out and I ended up with this beauty 🙂 Avocado, mushrooms and orange. YUMMMM fresh and creamy and earthy and peppery and just lovely.

I really loved the flexibility at Restaurant Montiel, they are totally willing to customise to your allergies, dietary requirements or even just preferences. Amazing – the maitre d’ said he was about 70% raw vegan. You can have an entirely vegan lunch if you want, or vegetarian or pescatarian.

Catch of the day – Parsnip and “Picadeta”

This was my husband’s main dish – the fish of the day was a sea bream with parsnip puree with salsify, truffle and picadeta which is a puree of caper, nuts (lupins and peanuts) with other briny ingredients like olives etc. He was yet again a very happy boy.

Every dish is so pretty.

Green peas from Sant Andreu de Llavaneres 

Baby squids with a hint of mint is the usual dish but they can make it vegan for you. And they did for me 🙂 I was all set to order the rice and wild mushrooms but the waiter told me that if I like peas, I had to order this dish but made vegan. I was intrigued. Me? Like peas? I LOVE peas!! Pretty much the only veg I used to eat as a child.

He then told us the story of these peas from Sant Andreu de Llavaneres which are famed all over Europe. They are so sweet and tender, apparently because the area grows a lot of carob which sweetens the ground and they go for between 60 and 120 euros a kilo! They even throw a yearly pea festival, I might have to visit some time 😉

So what I received was an amazing hill of sweetness, with a touch of onion and mint, with morel mushrooms (so I didn’t feel like I missed out on the main with mushrooms). SOOO YUM. And when he put the dish with the truffle down for my husband, he saw my envy and went and got me some truffle shavings to pop on top of my peas and mushrooms. I was in heaven!!!

One of the best dishes I have even eaten.

Catalan cream foam – Strawberries and fennel

Yes, this is creme Catalan though it doesn’t look like it 🙂 Not your standard creme catalane as it had frozen elements, the firm foam, sorbets, flowers, fennel and pea shoots. Stunning 🙂

Origin of the truffle

This one messed a little with my mind 😉 But at least it was not as out there as the chef originally planned it to be with mushrooms and moss! Here the origin of the truffle is a play on chocolate truffles hidden beneath a brownie earth – the twist being there is actual truffle down there with the chocolate. Super odd but tasty at the same time 🙂 With some fresh berries. I found out more than halfway through that you aren’t expected to eat allll the brownie earth 🙂

Petits fours

Raspberry and yuzu with white chocolate, orange and dark chocolate and lemon biscuit. Nom. Good way to finish the meal. We were happily full at this point 🙂

Here is the bill – the 2 lunch menus for 36 euros each, an extra glass of wine each and a coffee each for a total of 86.40 euros, we thought it was wonderful value for the quality and quantity of the food. So so so good. You all need to book lunch there if you are in Barcelona! Before they get their well deserved star and the prices increase 😉

Restaurant Montiel
Carrer dels Flassaders, 19, 08003 Barcelona, Spain

+34 932 68 37 29

http://restaurantmontiel.com

Open at lunch from 1300 to 1430, dinner 1900 to 2230, Closed on Tuesdays