Bodega 1900 by the Adria brothers – Barcelona

I was on Twitter saying I was heading to Barcelona next and a fellow foodie recommended going to Tickets and Bodega 1900 which are by the famous chef Albert Adria, brother of Ferran Adria who of course is partnering with him on these ventures in Barcelona (which also include a cocktail bar amongst others) but Albert runs the show.Tickets is an apparently amazing tapas bar, with more of a molecular gastronomy take / fantastical approach to delight customers, but you have to book online, and the spots are all booked up within 10 minutes of the online booking opening (2 months before at midnight) so we couldn’t get a spot. Luckily, there were still tables to be had at Bodega 1900 which is just across the road and pitched as a turn of the century Spanish tapas place which he says Tickets would have been had they lived 100 years earlier.

We loved it, some of the dishes were just mind-blowing.

As usual, read on for more info….

Lots of branding 🙂

We were sat just in front of the kitchen and one of the prep areas which was fun.

View in the other direction towards the bar.

Here are the current specials. Watch out as some things on the standard menu won’t be available, they will be replaced by one of the specials.

A table next to us waiting for its occupants. I like the floor.

I had a sparkling water.

Hubby started with a beer.

These “olives” are a throwback to El Bulli where they were a signature dish. They aren’t actually olives and blew G’s mind. They tasted like really briny, very good olives close to a dirty martini but the texture felt like it should be an egg yolk. Mind blown.

We ordered the signature crisps. Hubby loved the vinegary brava sauce and the very good crisps that even stayed firm with the sauce which is impressive. G does regret not ordering the vermouth that Bodega 1900 is also famous for, that will have to be next time.

The brava sauce is the homemade special sauce by Albert Adria himself.

The ingredients are wine vinegar smoked sweet and hot paprika from Vera and black pepper.

You can see just how cripsy right?

And the result 🙂

Next, the Prawn cocktail – yes, you heard me, we are back in the 70s. G thought he had ordered boiled prawns and would have to shell them but the staff decided differently and delivered the prawn cocktail from the specials menu. Lots of English people have had a prawn cocktail in the past but this is what all prawn cocktails want to grow up and be. The prawns were really really good and still moist and very flavourful.

We ordered a side of bread which was properly old school brownish bread.

G ordered a glass of white wine and it was very smooth (a Verdejo which we both enjoy).

Next we thought we were ordering the aubergine from the main menu but again it was the one off the specials but that was fine as it was yummy. These aubergine fries were delivered dripped in honey and served with a really good gaspacho which made G miss gaspacho. The aubergine really good, crisp due to a very thin batter on the outside and melting inside.

Iberian Pork brochette (Pluma Joselito) got an “oooooohhhhh” from the hubby. First happy dance from G. It was recommended to him by the waitress when he was actually looking for ham. It was beautifully grilled still almost pink in the middle with a good taste of char on the outside. Enough fat that had been properly rendered down made it beautifully moist.

Next, tomato salad – ridiculously sweet and amazing and happy dance worthy. Not many times people who live in South of France are amazed by tomatoes not from southern France. Nommy nommy with a touch of nom on the side. These were beautiful bursts of sweetness close to even a strawberry! Served with a touch of salt and olive oil, and just really really shockingly lovely. A must order.

We ordered pan con tomat also which was nice but not out of the ordinary, we had better elsewhere but in a way that was good as it was more of just an accompaniment rather than taking away from the other awesome dishes.

Don’t get me wrong, we did like it, it was good, but just not as good as Elsa y Fred for example.

I don’t often order dessert but we were quite restrained on the tapas so we felt we deserved it 🙂 We asked our lovely waitress (who was distant at first but warmed up after I tried with my dreadful Spanish to communicate) for advice and she recommended the melon dessert.

The melon was very ripe but it didn’t taste of melon so much, it was more of a background for the rest of the ingredients – the gin the vermouth and the mint. The gin was nice and subtle, vermouth and mint less discreet but enjoyably so. Disappeared in seconds 😉

I saw chocolate brownie on the specials menu and quite fancied a bit of chocolate but didn’t have very high expectations, a brownie is a brownie after all right? Wrong!

G had small bite but was delicious and realised needed to leave it to wife’s capable hands who needed to eat it, and eat it all, enjoying every second! Oh my goodness this thing was amazing!!! It was like a fancy Mars bar on steroids!

Inside the dark chocolate shell was a moist soft chocolate cake topped by an intensely chocolaty ganache. Oh my oh my oh my this was really really amazing.

A right hit in the face, with dark biter gorgeous chocolate, just a huge bite of chocolate which was soft and crunchy and moist all at the same time and just amazing. Win!!

Overall Bodega 1900 was a great place to head for lunch and we would for sure head back and explore more of the menu. It might not be ideal for vegetarians and vegans but there are a few options on the menu that I could have. There were loads of seafood options for the hubby to try next time.