Last summer we visited Costa Brava for one week and had some memorable meals. Here is a quick summary of the restaurants.
1. ESPERIT ROCA
The Roca brothers cook some of the traditional dishes that put them on the world gastronomic map in this new hotel-restaurant complex not far from Girona. Our experience, save for a very awkward five minutes when entering the complex and waiting – with many others – for somebody to usher us to the dining room, was top notch. Enjoyable one bites inspired by the Roca brothers’ voyages around the globe set the feisty tone. The excellent apple and foie timbale and the cold zucchini cream with pistachios and quisquillas shrimp (at least as good) are faultless, multi-dimensional and harmonious entrees. The charcoal grilled Mediterranean sole is not noteworthy (despite the five sauces), but both the suckling pig with pig trotters and espardenyes (sea cucumber) and grilled breast of pigeon with stuffed pigeon thigh are outstanding. The pig-espardenyes combination is my candidate for the best land and sea-type dish. If you feel like smoking after the meal, you can take a “trip to Habana”, a very classical dessert of Jordi. I also salute Josep Roca for the excellent and fairly priced wine list.
EVALUATION: 8.5/10
2. VICUS
We visited Vicus, which is in Pals, twice in a week as I always look forward to a visit there. The cooking is contemporary, colorful, with absolutely top notch ingredients and intelligent but not self-consciously creative combinations. The dishes are at the very least good, but often excellent. In our two visits we found the following top notch: Zucchini flower tempura stuffed with brandade of bacalao; Bonito in carrot escabeche; cigalas (escamarla) plancha which was the best of the trip; the freshest possible gambas XL of Palamos plancha; black rice with squid and pear aioli; crunchy lemon custard. The wine list is also very good featuring some natural gems with reasonable prices.
The only problem with Vicus is that it is not in my neighborhood.
EVALUATION: 8/10
3. ELS TINARS
This is one of our favorites in Costa Brava with one drawbeck: the wine list is outdated and too pricey with very scant choices to please the connoisseurs. But the cooking is very good, and the selections are almost all exciting. Hence we visited twice. The ajo blanco soup with tomato granita that the chef credits to El Bulli was so tasty and right for summer nights that we ordered it twice. Jamon bellota was also high quality. Besides both the arroz with pork feet and cigalas and the patates tinars (crisp potato chips topped by the most gelatinous parts of butifarra sausage like ear, feet and nose) are most satisfying dishes for gourmands. Their version of beef wellington was also quite good, although not as memorable as the other dishes I mentioned. In the second visit we repeated some dishes, but we enjoyed a fresh and expertly cooked besugo a la brasa, rather than red meat. We also indulged in a rich gnocchi of creamy potato, butter and imperial caviar. Also don’t miss the torrija with a caramelized and crisp top, lavender ice cream and lemon curd.
EVALUATION: 8/10
4. VILLA MAS
The cuising is fresh, bright and plant based. These are the words that come to my mind when I think of the two consecutive meals at this special spot for summer meals. Perhaps the two dishes that exemplify Villa Mas the best are the “tomato salad from our garden, spring onions and basil”, and the “calamar de potera de Palamos, acqua pazza”. Both are seasonal, simple but delicious and well executed dishes with local products. The chef here seems to value simplicity and authenticity over sophisticated and daring creations. Clearly they also buy top notch products as our Cantabrian anchovies and 3 different Jura comte cheese with varying maturation-combined with 2015 Vin Jaune “Les Bruyeres” from B&S Tissot”- were excellent. You will be very pleased if you don’t expect culinary fireworks. But expect to see an amazing number of some of the most interesting wines, esp. French Burgundies, for fair prices. The problem for a wine lover is that, since you have to choose 1 or 2 bottles at most, you will depart regretting the gems you left behind!
EVALUATION: 7/10
5. TOC AL MAR
Too bad that the owners over-expanded and let the quality slip in this popular restaurant at the Aiguablava beach in Begur. But given that the only other restaurant was a disaster we ate there 5 consecutive days. We tried almost everything on the menu, including the rice dishes. Almost everything was consistently mediocre with 2 exceptions. The Cantabrian anchovies priced the same with Villa Mas, were of very low quality, extremely salty and hardly cleaned (that is, still full of small bones). The only satisfactory dish was grilled langouste or spiny lobster (llagosta) from Cap Begur, but even this was not perfect as the presentation seemed perfunctory and it grilling technique was sub-par (too fast and too high temperature) compared to other Spanish restaurants. It seems like they are the victim of overcrowding and overextending (catering business).
The wine list is pretty good. Wine mark-ups are normal.
EVALUATION: 5/10
Great read! Just one thing: It would be great to always name at least the village/city where a restaurant is located. Thank you!
Not fair to rate Toc al Mar with same thresholds as others. They are in different classes with different promises and Toc al Mar delivers its promise far better then the 5/10 rating in its class.