Gresca, Barcelona

When I discovered that most of the top tier fancy Barcelona restaurants are closed Sundays and Mondays, I got some really good tips on where to go from Chowhound, and after much research into what was what, chose Gresca for lunch on Monday.  The chef,  Rafael Peña, who is touted as a gifted disciple of Ferran Adrià, was the clincher.  It was a really nice follow up to a fabulous tapas lunch on Sunday, and a good introduction to the modernist cuisine that one can get in Barcelona.

I was not quite into the mode of "we are here for fantastic food" at that point in the trip, my husband was.  Our only problem was that the whole reason we were in Barcelona in the first place was for a meeting, and in order to get to that meeting, we had to be able to finish lunch in two hours.  Fearless as he is, he asked the waitress if there were any way that we could order the nine course lunch and be guarenteed of finishing it in the alotted time.  She gave us a slightly pained look, went to confer with the chef, and then came back and said yes, it was barely possible.  I would have been content with the plat du jour at 17€, but freely admitted afterwards that the meal we had was a better deal at 39€.  There were 12 plates in all, and they were happy to substitute for me.  The plates were small enough that we were not stuffed by meal's end, and were largely fish-based, which I loved, and fantastic.  The two desserts were the biggest surprise of all--the fist was whimsical--a thin chocolate shell with finely shredded coconut in the shape of a cocnut, filled with pineapple sorbet that was remarkably good, and then a chocolate mousse that had bits of all sorts of things--cookie crumbs, peppery flours, candied nuts--so each bite of it had a unique and different flavor from the previous bite or the bite to follow.  This is a great meal at a very reasonable price.