It's always a bit un-nerving picking a restaurant in a foreign city even if it's only for a couple of people. When you need three restaurants on three successive nights and want them to satisfy a very mixed group of people (12 to 36 of them depending on the night) then it's natural to be a ... Read review
Advantages: Fantastic food, subtle service, great ambiance Disadvantages: So understated that it's easy to miss
...a bit un-nerving picking a restaurant in a foreign city even if it's only for a couple of people. When you need three restaurants on three successive nights and want them to satisfy a very mixed group of people (12 to 36 of them depending on the night) then it's natural to be a bit worried because no restaurant is ever going to please them all. I just accept before I even start that someone will hate whatever I pick but if I'm paying, they can lump ... ...a time when no Barcelona restaurant is ready for action.
===Understated or just plain hiding?===
We were dropped directly outside the restaurant - or to be more precise, dropped at the restaurant's address where, despite standing right outside, we still couldn't find the place. To say that Negro is understated is - predictably- an understatement. There's no big sign, no colourful frontage, just a big metal door. From the outside, ... more
It's always a bit un-nerving picking a restaurant in a foreign city even if it's only for a couple of people. When you need three restaurants on three successive nights and want them to satisfy a very mixed group of people (12 to 36 of them depending on the night) then it's natural to be a bit worried because no restaurant is ever going to please them all. I just accept before I even start that someone will hate whatever I pick but if I'm paying, they can lump it. Luckily, for our recent business meeting in Barcelona, I had a secret weapon in the form of the local secretary, a woman who can be relied on to always find somewhere great.
On the first evening our key criteria was to find a place that was near to the Hilton Hotel (where we were staying) and would be easy to find for people arriving late. Part of the group - those who arrived early enough - headed off on a coach tour to have a look at the city - and the others were supplied with Googlemaps and instructions on how to find the restaurant. Negro was a great choice - less than five minutes walk from the hotel - and the menus looked great. Our tables were booked for "9.00 to 9.30" and our tour bus dropped us off at about 8.45pm - a time when no Barcelona restaurant is ready for action.
Understated or just plain hiding?
We were dropped directly outside the restaurant - or to be more precise, dropped at the restaurant's address where, despite standing right outside, we still couldn't find the place. To say that Negro is understated is - predictably- an understatement. There's no big sign, no colourful frontage, just a big metal door. From the outside, it could have been just about anything from a bank to a furniture store but it didn't look much like an exciting restaurant.
Habitat Catalogue
Inside we found we were much too early to be served but the bar was long and very welcoming even though the restaurant was totally empty. The restaurant is split into two levels - the ground floor is called NEGRO and downstairs is called ROJO (or for those who don't know any Spanish, upstairs is Black and downstairs is Red). The theme is a fusion of Japanese and Mediterranean and I suspect (probably rather wisely) we were in the more Mediterranean zone. Whilst I can eat raw fish until I start to develop gills of my own, it's not everyone's taste.
The restaurant was very modern and slightly industrial in appearance with more than a touch of Habitat - high ceilings, lots of big lampshades and some very funky white chairs that looked a bit like they'd been made of origami. Whilst I've been rude about the Hilton for looking like it was furnished at IKEA, saying the same about Negro and Habitat isn't intended as an insult. This is more'Elle Deco' pared down minimalismIn with funky lampshades. In terms of visual impact, Negro delivered something very stylish, modern and quite funky. If I was spending my own money, I'd have been quite happy to go there.
Bottoms up
For about half an hour the lady behind the bar poured very small beers into very tall narrow glasses whilst the group - many of whom hadn't met before - got to know each other. I kept watch for the other colleagues arriving later since they - like us - all walked straight past the door without noticing the restaurant.
Time to Eat
At about 9.30 we moved to our tables. With around thirty people to feed, the restaurant had chosen to split us over four or five tables which made it easier for them to serve, and easier for us to make sure everyone had someone to talk to. The next night we ate at a table set for 40 people where there was little option other than to holler like fishwives to get anyone's attention. Negro had also insisted in advance that we had to pick a menu in order to keep things simple on the night so when everyone sat down, they had a print-out of what I'd chosen for them. There had been three group menus to choose from - ranging in price from Euro49 per head up to Euro70 per head. Working on the theory that only the secretary and I would ever know what the choice had been, I just chose the one I most liked the look of which was also the cheapest (although let's be fair, that's still almost £40 per person so it's not exactly McDonalds). The price did include wine, water and coffees so it wasn't as bad as it might sound.
On to the food. We started with an appetiser of a small toast with hummus piped on top - not much more than a mouthful but very tasty and more than welcome. That's the problem with eating at 9.30 in the evening; you're liable to wolf down the table cloth if it's not fixed in place. For starters we had a choice of tuna tartar with guacamole, soy and sesame oil or vegetable and prawn won tons with sweet and sour sauce. As I adore raw fish, there was no question for me; it had to be the tuna tartar. When the plate arrived, the roughly chopped raw tuna was dressed in the soy and sesame oil and perched on top of a broad column of chunky, spicy guacamole. I don't normally order guacamole because I never think an avocado tastes good enough to justify the calories and fat in it, but in this case, I was glad that I'd made an exception. The sharpness of the soy, the softness of the tuna, and the bite of the chilli in the creamy guacamole all combined beautifully.
Those who ordered the won tons were not disappointed either. They each received three of four sizeable fried filo parcels and a healthy dose of chilli sauce to go with them and a few of the guys at our table were thanking god for the tendency of the ladies to be more delicate eaters (i.e. spare wontons for the boys).
Main course choices were codfish carpaccio with 'Santa Pau' white beans and crispy tomato or spicy wok-fried prawns, chicken and vegetables. At this point I did realise that maybe two courses of raw fish might not be greeted by everyone else quite as enthusiastically as by me. But hell, if you can't choose what you like when you're working your socks off arranging a meeting, when can you? In both cases, I'd say the main courses were a bit less substantial than the starters - perhaps that's also a Barcelona thing. Eat late and you want a substantial starter more than a bit main course. The cod was very thinly sliced, sprinkled with the beans (still not sure what makes them Santa Pau beans), dressed with oil and little shavings of something black and crumbly which I naively assessed as maybe being some kind of truffle - but to this day I'm still not entirely sure. The crispy tomato was bizarre - as if someone had peeled the skins of a load of tomatoes and then dried them in the over. On our table, most of the tomato got left on the plates. The stir-fry eaters all seemed happy with their choice but maybe would have liked the servings to be a bit bigger.
When I'd chosen the menu, the pudding was supposed to be a chocolate mousse but luckily for us it had been substituted for massive chunks of moist rich chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream. Several of us looked at the size and said 'We'll never finish that' but the brownie elves must have been out in force and gobbled them down whilst we weren't paying attention. Funny how that can happen.
As the menu included water, wine and coffee, those of us who can still sleep after coffee ordered a mix of espressos, lattes etc and the rest polished off what was left of the wine. My boss kindly offered to pick up the bill so I don't know what the total came to but I was so full of chocolate brownie that I was past caring. We staggered out of the restaurant and back to the hotel in time for bed.
Service?
I just realised I've said nothing about the service - and I think that's a sign that it was pretty good. When you don't notice the service, then generally nothing bad has happened. It's one area where not remembering is a positive sign. If a waiter is too obsequious and fawning, I'm likely to hate it - but even with a relatively small amount of wine inside me, I can honestly say I don't remember anything of particular note about the service. The food came at the right pace, the dirty plates disappeared as if by magic and nobody got in a fight with a waiter - not something you can take for granted with some of the people I work with!
I loved it, how about the others?
By the end of the week, I'd had mixed feedback on Negro - of course people like to wait and see what else they'll get before passing judgement on the first night's meal. There was a bit of a split along gender lines - most of the women rather liking Negro, some of the men preferring to sit in a tent by the harbour facing a mountain of seafood that left them wondering should they eat it or climb it. I think the same men were a bit peeved at how tiny the glasses of beer had been too. Fair enough, the portions at Negro weren't enormous, for which I was quite grateful, but everything was done beautifully - nothing was over seasoned or unbalanced, the surroundings were pleasant and stylish and the wine was great. If I ever found myself at that end of the Diagonal, I'd be only too happy to go back and take a crack at the full menu - perhaps downstairs in Rojo for some sushi. Details Negro/Rojo Diagonal 640 08017 Barcelona
http://www.negrodeltragaluz.com
Be warned if you are tempted to check out the website, it's one of the hardest sites I've ever found for navigation. Finding what you want is almost as hard as finding the restaurant.
