For the Love of...: ...El Caballito Blanco (Barcelona)

Overall - 8/10

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Food - 9/10

Service - 8/10

Ambiance - 7/10

Mallorca 196

Barcelona, Spain

934531033

Called the "Little White Horse" in English, this place definitely fits the description of old school. With all the new and wonderful restaurants popping up all over Spain specializing in molecular gastronomy we were kind of worried we would only be eating dishes cooked with liquid nitrogen and garnished with foam. Thankfully we stumbled upon this quaint little place that has been serving the locals of Barcelona great seafood for years and years. From the seasoned waiters in white jackets to the 'old fashioned decor' you can tell this place has a lot of character.

We started off with a combination plate of various cured iberian hams and sausages and good old fashioned gazpacho. The plate of cured meats was very generous and each slice was quite thick allowing you to really sink you teeth into it and taste the rich meat.

 Never having tasted gazpacho before, the thought of a cold tomato soup brought back traumatic memories from my youth of taking a huge gulp of Clamato thinking it was 'strawberry juice.' Surprisingly my apprehension disappeared once I tasted the perfectly chilled gazpacho which was rich, creamy and bursting with tomato flavour.

For our main courses we went the seafood route and had the 'chipirones' or baby squid and Merluza or hake. The baby squids was perhaps one of the single bests tastes of seafood I've ever had. Each little squid was tender and bursting with fresh briny flavour and was complemented perfectly with the herb and butter sauce it was served with.

The hake was exceptionally fresh, seasoned simply with salt and grilled perfectly a la plancha.

Desert was a simple catalan tart called 'coco' which was made of layers of flaky pastry, pastry cream and pine nuts. Like all the dishes that preceded, it was unpretentious, traditional and delicious. 

If you find yourself in Barcelona and are looking for a place with food you can really sink your teeth into, this is the place.