Why is it that so many of Barcelona's great restaurants are in hotels? A combination of expensive space, limited opening times and chef salaries usually create a formula that only makes sense for a well-financed hotel. Opened in 2006, chef Martin Berasategui found his hotel dining room at Condes de Barcelona in one has become one of the city's best dining rooms albeit at a less-than-best city hotel. A entry small lounge offers a bit more visuals than its neighboring eatery with amber crystal chandelier with prisms that look like shaggy fringe above modern leather and gray-upholstered settee. With only 35-seats, a muted dining space of sparse cream-colors walls with panels of sheer drapery with bursts of wood paneling and plaster wall mural create a clean visual palette for this 2 star Michelin eatery.
The Food
Unique, explosive Catalan cuisine with Basque influences is the name of the game for chef Martin Berasategui who is assisted by assistant chef Antonio Siez who does most of the grunt work. A prix fixe menu offers a spectacle of dishes like farmhouse egg cooked at low temperature, grilled red shrimp with spicy lemon juice and black olives and creamy flan of sea urchins with caviar sheep's milk and almonds. Main dish standouts include roast pigeon as well as squid and chive stuffed mushrooms with truffle potato cream.
Last Word
One of the top dining destinations in Barcelona, Lasarte offers a muted and modernist eatery with explosive Catalan cuisine by chef Martin Berasategui.
