PRICE:
Frommer's Highly Recommended

This is the showcase of a personality chef, Xavier Pellicer, who creates a self-termed cuisine d'auteur, meaning a menu of completely original dishes. Inside the 1948 Park Hotel, his minimalist restaurant has even attracted members of the Spanish royal family, eager to see what Pellicer is cooking on any given night. Some of his dishes may be too experimental for certain diners, but I've found his daring palate pleasing. He is a master in balancing flavors, and his dishes perk up the taste buds and even challenge them at times. He emphasizes color and texture, and his sauces are perfectly balanced. You never know on any given night where his culinary inspiration has led him. Perhaps a mushroom tartare will be resting on your plate, or else a velvety-smooth steamed foie gras. Roasted sea bass appears with sweet pimientos and oyster plant and Iberian suckling pig is cooked and flavored to perfection, as is his fennel ravioli with "fruits of the sea."

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Barcelona, 3rd Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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