Last month marked eleven years since chef Toni Romero has been in charge of the Suculent restaurant (rambla del Raval, 45). The anniversary caught them far from home and very busy: for five weeks the entire team settled in Copenhagen with the idea of ??bringing the essence of the Raval kitchen and dining room to the Tivoli gardens, the historic amusement park of the Danish capital, which hosts a renowned restaurant every year.
Once back, they recognize that the challenge has helped them to get to know each other better, “to engage in those eternal pending conversations,” says the sommelier and head waiter Pedro Garrido; to face new situations, “such as serving more customers than can fit in the Barcelona premises, and also looking for a living when it was time to replace some fresh products that we either couldn’t find or were at exorbitant prices”.
They say that they were able to interact with a Danish clientele that was not foreign to them, because they usually visit Barcelona with a very well documented list of places that cannot be missed, explains Romero, who confesses that he is “more in love than ever with the varied pantry that we have here and the gastronomic offer of this city that when you go out you appreciate even more and you realize that the prices are very reasonable”.
We visited Suculent a few days after that happy return and we found a proposal summarized in the menu, for that regular clientele looking for a certain variety and two tasting menus (at 60 and 80 euros). The chef from Nules (Castellón) takes up the thread of seasonality, rushing the last days of some ingredients that he catches by the hair, such as morels, asparagus from Navarra or Galician sea urchins and with the illusion of receiving what is to come .
With its apparent informality, Suculent could pass for a simple restaurant, when it is actually one of the great houses of Barcelona. And that is something that is valued by both the regular local clientele and the gastronomic tourists who visit it. As a synthesis of Romero’s cuisine, they could serve us a couple of dishes in which the vegetable ingredient is important and where we see that balance of flavors, with intensity and nuances; dishes that can go from subtlety and nakedness to the forcefulness of a classic stew: such as Navarre asparagus caressed by the embers with an emulsion of tarragon and botarga (Greek, somewhat sweeter), miso butter and flower petals. They serve it accompanied by a cold cream from the stems, which adds intensity to that asparagus flavor; on the other, the morels stuffed with duck with foie cream and duck juice in armagnac, a stew that reflects those registers of a chef who always opts for very recognizable tastes and who feels attracted to classic haute cuisine and their sauces. These are two examples among many other interesting dishes, some of which have been on the menu for years, such as the sweet roast duck croquette, the smoked maitake (mushrooms cooked like meat), the skate with black butter, hazelnut praline and mashed potatoes, royal porcini with sea urchin and caviar or steak tartare with marrow.
He has just released another dish with marrow, in this case on coca bread, crowned with some grilled sardines and a vinaigrette of their interiors and chervil; The red mullet (what a delicious fish!) prepared on the grill with an allioli of roasted black garlic, saffron and tarragon oil with wild fennel, is also exquisite and balanced, with an intense and delicious bouillabaisse with red mullet. Also interesting is the meatball that they prepare with txuleta of old cow and jowls, with cauliflower puree and raw and sautéed perrechicos. There is no dish in which the flavor of the raw material is not enhanced or in which the ingredients involved do not provide interesting nuances.
