Building a loyal clientele on Muntaner Street, packed with restaurants, is not easy for someone who has just lifted the blinds. The Remedios bar has achieved this with astonishing speed, and since its inauguration five months ago, it has been full almost every night. Its success is not due to promotion on social networks, as is the case with many other establishments in the area, since its owners –Alejo Ventosa and Llorenç Balaguer, the latter also in charge of the Lorenzo de Sarrià bar–, refuse to use them to to become known, but rather word of mouth has been the culprit that has made it a fashionable bar.
If you walk through the door for the first time, don’t expect to find a formal atmosphere in this establishment, with tablecloths and beautifully laid tables. Nor is it an overly complicated gastronomic proposal, with creative dishes or amazing combinations. If Remedios triumphs it is because of that casual and scoundrel air that is breathed. This is what its owners wanted, who have opted for a very simple snack menu to share and who have decided that the tables are a little closer together than usual so that customers can interact.
Even so, chef Joan Donadeu, currently in charge of the kitchen, although he will leave them shortly, has known how to successfully reinterpret some of the great hits of popular bar culture. There is no shortage of ham croquettes on the menu, for example, nor bravas, nor gildas with a twist. Nor the Russian salad or a tomato salad (at this time already quite ripe and tasty) with belly belly and capers in which the use of a high quality product can be appreciated.
The potato omelet also stands out, with onion, which is presented freshly made in small units with the egg slightly curdled and the potatoes cut into thin slices; the delicious beef sirloin with foie sauce; or the boneless oxtail, melty and crunchy at the same time.
The other strong part of the new Remedios proposal is the cocktails, since not everyone comes to this place for dinner (on weekdays they open until 2:00 a.m. and on weekends until 3:00 a.m., so they also there are those who come to drink). They don’t serve risky drinks, but rather classics that never seem to go out of style – like pisco sour, Moscow mule or paloma – well executed. The wine selection of this establishment, in our opinion, is too broad in reds and falls a little short in whites and rosés; although they have good references.
Fernando Guijarro is responsible for running the room with grace and ease, and the clientele themselves are responsible for the good atmosphere in this bar.
Something we didn’t like too much? Without a doubt, the chosen tableware, with the sign of the restaurant’s name written in red, a recently recurring formula in many restaurants that have just opened in Barcelona.
