“Tomás has retired, but we are still the same, you are going to eat very well,” Josep Ribot assures some customers who take a look at the magnificent counter where barnacles, turbot, crayfish and baby squid are displayed. We are at the bar of El Camarote d’en Tomás, the small and historic seafood restaurant on Lleida Street that has reopened its doors, and that would be the envy of any fishmonger.
It closed at the end of last year, but as Ribot explains to the local faithful who come back in, everything remains the same. The helm on the back wall, the blue walls and the classic decoration of this place that would be easy to pass by without realizing that one of the best seafood in the city is handled here. A mutual friend – remembers Nuria Espallargas, also the owner and manager of the room – notified them of the closure and one dinner was enough for them to fall in love with the place and take over.
They decided, with Tomás’ permission, to keep the name (previously it was El Camarote de Tomás) and the philosophy almost intact. During that month that it was closed, they also took the opportunity to change some details, update the tiny kitchen and expand the proposal and the staff a little.
The formula had been working for three decades, so there was no need to invent anything: good seafood and fish, just the right touch in the kitchen and high prices (the average ticket is around 100 euros) but controlled where possible, as with wines. We must not forget that a few meters away is Rías de Galicia, the great seafood restaurant in Barcelona. If that house is a symbol of elegance and distinction, here the more informal proposal and treatment are the key. It always has been and they want to maintain it.
Although the couple runs more restaurants in the city, they are now focused on this project. The affection and that personal commitment is evident in the treatment of the client, who always returns with a certain distrust to what was his house to check that everything is still in its place.
There is no menu beyond some fixed dishes, such as cod esqueixada, a much-loved classic prepared by Montse, Tomás’s cook and wife. The idea is to choose from what is on the display. So working in the room is key to knowing how to understand and direct the diner. On a Friday at noon the dining room is almost full, with some celebration and a lot of meetings that seem to be business. A couple of red shrimp and some canyuts make everything flow better.
Its purpose is to take care of the usual customer and attract new audiences (now they are open from Tuesday to Saturday, midday and night). A complex objective, because memory is often unfair. The suppliers are the same, the shrimp are the same, but there are clients who in the first days said no, the new managers have a smile.
Although there is now a meat option, fish is king. Sea bass, turbot and scorpionfish, among the offer of the day. Oven or griddle? The client chooses. And the dessert options have been expanded and the Santiago cake includes a lemon pie, tiramisu… All made at home and presented as a cart, but without it, because there is no room, of course.
