An American Foodie In England: Bar Lobo

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Bar Lobo - Barcelona

Thursday evening we set out for dinner in the El Raval neighborhood with Dan using his trusty guide book to get us to a restaurant they recommended. As we were heading there, I saw this beautiful place on a corner that looked very busy and very inviting. Turned out the place in the guide book was closed, so I suggested we go back to Bar Lobo. There was about a 20 minute wait, so we sat at the bar and ordered a couple of beers. The beer the bartender suggested was Cruz Campo Gran Reserva (3.10 euros) and I instantly had a new favorite beer that is 6.4% ABV!

We were seated at our table and fortunately we were handed a clipboard with the menu in about 5 different languages, including English. They had a wide assortment of typical and not so typical tapas, plus pastas, burgers, chicken, beef and duck. We started out with the Hummus and Pita Bread (5.60). The hummus was very good, one of the best I've ever had. The bread wasn't pita though, it was more substantial and very fresh tasting. Dan ordered the Rigatoni with Pesto Sauce and Fresh Tomato (10.70) which was very good. The pasta was covered in large slivers of Parmesan. I ordered the Penne with Fresh Mozzarella, Lime and Mint (10.20) and it was incredible. This will be a dish that I will try to recreate when I get home! Dan did not care for the beer, so he ordered a white wine called Copa Cigonyes (3.75) and I finished his beer.

For dessert we ordered a slice of lemon pie (6.50) and a couple more glasses of that wonderful white wine. The pie was also very good, with a high meringue top and a creamy lemon filling in a graham cracker crust. I could have eaten every meal in this place while in Barcelona and that was with poor service. The waiter was not the most attentive, but the food made up for it. We sat next to a lovely elderly couple from Turkey at the beginning of our meal and had a nice conversation with them. We finished the meal with a couple from Boston and talked with them too. It's funny how you have conversations with other tables while in Europe, but in America and England you don't. It's really too bad that we don't open ourselves up more. After dinner we walked around and enjoyed the Christmas lights.