11/9/2010 l'Academia Barcelona Spain

today we decided to try and drop in for lunch at a place a friend recommended to us. it's not in the michellin guide at all, but if lunch was any indication it definitely fits as a bib gourmand. luckily i had read some of the reviews online (they only have a trip advisor type page) and most mentioned it was a hard-to-find place. we ended up circling the block before we found it.

it's just off a cute little placa (plahs-uh) with a fountain.

 i went in to get a table while matt locked up the bike. we got there right in time. there may have been 1 table left open after us, but within 20 minutes there was a line outside waiting for tables.

this was the 1st place we'd been with the menu entirely in  not-english. there was spanish and catalan, but that was it. and while i'm remembering a few more spanish words every day, i know nothing in catalan. the languages have similarities, but that's it.



luckily there was a 'menu' option for lunch - 3 courses for 14euro. sounds good to us, let's get it.











water, wine (ok, not yet on the table, we got a house rose), bread and olives.

 sopa de pescado con arroz

we managed to figure this one out -
fish soup with rice. and yes it was. it was actually really good. it was fishy smelly, but in a good way. the rice was not mushy, and never got there. i only had about 4 small pieces of fish in my bowl, and again, soft but not mushy. we think it was probably cod.

our main: bacalao fresco a la plancha con pure de manzana y olivada negra

we figured out a puree of something and black olives. other than that we had to wait for the plate.

bacalao fresco a la plancha = grilled fresh cod
con pure de manzana = the puree of apple was sweet, like quince
y olivada negra = and black olive tapenade across the top

very tasty

we had our choice of 2 desserts - something that looked like a flattened and hard flan or what looked like a white chocolate torte

i don't remember what he called the 1st, the 2nd was torta de coco. well...we chose wrong. what we thought it was - torta de cacao it was not. coco is coconut. ugh. i ate the cacao off the plate and that was it. oh well.








yes i'd go back for a dinner. i would recommend, even for lunches to try and get a reservation or be there when the door opens.  they are also closed on both sat and sun, which makes it interesting. they do enough business they can afford to stay closed for the weekend fantastic for them! we were lucky. i don't think i'd risk the dinner to that luck unless it's a monday and i was on the doorstep at 8:30 when they open.