Tapas, Pintxos y Gaudi

Cafe Barcelona
Spanish Tapas and Pintxos
1049 Granville,
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1L4
Canada
ph: 604-909-2223

Years ago, a former co-worker of mine once shared pictures of her work-related trip to Barcelona, Spain when an alien-looking mass of a church called La Sagrada Familia caught my attention. This was the beginning of my Gaudi obsession. Spain was never really on top of my places-to-go in Europe even with my Spanish background. I guess it just seemed a bit overrated for me especially growing up in the Philippines, Gaudi though changed me overnight. Barcelona immediately became one of my top destinations in the world.

In Vancouver, when I found out that there was a newly-opened, boutique style club on Vancouver's entertainment district called Barcelona, my love for Gaudi will no doubt make me enter those doors. Having heard this, I always keep my eyes peeled while walking on Granville St., looking out for Barcelona Nightclub and that's how I found Cafe Barcelona.

I mistook Cafe Barcelona to be the trendy, much-talked-about Barcelona (who would even open up two businesses on the same street, with the same name and at the same time?? Confused much!) but seeing the menu of this small, sleek cafe, I didn't even care anymore to check out at an over-priced nightclub and decided to just head down to Cafe Barcelona for some delicious Spanish tapas and for a little bit of the Barcelona experience.

Cafe Barcelona was a dark, sleek room with wooden tables and black leather upholstered chairs. In contrast to the dimness of their space, bright paintings of Barcelona shows that this cafe is indeed promoting Gaudi's home and even had little reference books on the table with the menu. Our friendly server came, offered us water and gave us the rundown of what this little cafe is all about.

Their menu consists of small plates called Tapas and Pintxos (pronounced peenchos), both having cold and hot selections. There are really not much of a difference between the two, both are small quantities of food and which are mostly eaten while consuming alcoholic beverages. Pintxos though is originated in Basque which literally means "pinches" -- pinches of food. The pintxos are smaller than the tapas but both are equally very satisfying in taste.

Cafe Barcelona's tapas and pintxos are priced economically with their most expensive tapa, the Basque sausage called Txistorra at $11.00 and is even served in pintxos size at $3.00. You can also get a croqueta for $1.75, which is a popular tapa of fried starch with a creamy bechamel and ham centre. All in all, their menu is perfect when you want to drink and indulge in good tasting food that is glutton guilt free considering the quantity, unless of course you over-order.

Since we are a table of 7, we ordered some smaller plates in 3, just to make sure that we all get a taste of the dish. Our picks included Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and allioli), Calamares (deep fried, Spanish style squid served with a lemon wedge), Gambas Ajillo (prawns sauteed in garlic and parsley), Champinon (sauteed mushroom with caramelized onions and ham), Mousse Queso Azul (blue cheese cream over minced walnuts), Olives Arbequires (Arbequina Olives), Manchego con Membrillo (Manchego cheese with quince paste), Jamon Serrano (dry-cured Spanish ham) and Croquetas which had tuna and bechamel sauce instead of ham and of course a pitcher of Sangria which is reasonably priced at $18 and a couple of pitchers of beer.

Everything that was put on our table was delicious. It is a bit hard to pick a favourite. I loved the Gambas Ajillo dish which was tasty in every succulent prawn bite but if you're not a garlic fan, stay away. The mushrooms were made delectable with the caramelized onions and a bit of ham flavour and the croqueta was equally delicious with its rich tuna centre. The calamares was good but if they bend the Spanish style a bit and serve it with the allioli (Spanish style garlic mayo), it would be better. The patatas bravas was filling and with its spicy tomato sauce and allioli, both sauces made this dish 3 levels higher than your regular french fries. The Olives Arbequires is a good deal costing only $2 for a small plate and is a great addition to a scrumptious Spanish feast. I thought the blue cheese mousse was very interesting, of course this should be eaten with bread (or 'pan' in Español) which you will be given lots of together with your orders. Since I recently developed a love for blue cheese, I enjoyed the mousse maybe this will be a bit rich especially for the non-blue cheese lovers but it's still worth a taste. I'm also a fan of the sharp Manchego cheese and the flavourful, distinct taste of Jamon Serrano so there was no surprise there when I had them at Cafe Barcelona, both tasty as itself but better together.

Sipping my sangria and having bites from the spread of Spanish tapas on our table really made my night, most especially when the bill came, very reasonable indeed. I can totally get used to eating Spanish style, hopefully the next time I do, I'm within 2 mile-radius from my beloved La Sagrada Familia but if this does not happen anytime soon, Cafe Barcelona will always be there to serve me some authentically delicious Spanish tapas and pintxos and will make me feel close to the most amazing art nouveau architect the world has ever seen.

** picture stolen from: http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4173916480_922861d7b7.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ethniceats.ca/category/spanish/&usg=__Ibvs4yCK4FK8aBjGZHnlN5VV2OM=&h=375&w=500&sz=148&hl=en&start=12&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=gJn7pZnJ2XM6hM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcafe%2Bbarcelona%2Bvancouver%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4RNWN_enCA316CA316%26tbs%3Disch:1