We had our last Barcelona dinner close to home, at the Arola restaurant at our hotel. Sergi Arola is a Madrid chef who runs La Broche, probably our favorite restaurant there. His Barcelona outpost had opened just a few days before our arrival, and we were quite eager to try it. Decor was very funky, a bit space age mixed with a '70's, Wallpaper magazine furnishings style. The restaurant was very high energy, and the whole place felt like a crowded bar rather than a restaurant. Service was fun and friendly, although a bit off in a couple respects, probably because it's a new restaurant. The best example of this is when the maitre'd seated us and handed us our menus, he put his hand in the candle on the table, setting his sleeve on fire.

Food was great, although less grand and less experimental than the Madrid restaurant. It was basically a tapas style restaurant. We mangled the ordering, though, because the waiter insisted we order lots of starters since they were tiny, and only one main, because they were substantial. This didn't sound very tapas-like, but we did as we were told, which was a mistake, as the starters were huge, and everything else was tiny. (Food-17, Decor-17, Service-18)

We departed early the next morning, which was a disaster. We took some no-name airline, Spanair, from Barcelona, and check in took an hour due to the idiocy of the check in person. Then they managed to lose one of Somchai's bags on the 45 minute direct flight. We had to choose between waiting for the lost bag or catching our flight to Bangkok, so we sacrificed the bags. Unfortunately this bag was full of Somchai's new clothes, so he was very moody, but when our Thai Air flight stopped in Rome, we got the good news that they had found the bag and it would be following us on the next flight to Bangkok.

Dinner was at alkimia, one of about one hundred Barcelona restaurants opened by El Bulli alumni. It's a small place, decorated in a minamalist style with very dramatic lighting. It's much more of a neighborhood bistro than the destination restaurants we'd been going to, but the cheaper prices and bustling atmosphere makes it extremely popular. Somchai was particularly taken by the ambiance, while I thought the foie gras with bitter chocolate sauce was an inspired combination. (Food-17, Decor-17, Service-16).

We had dinner at Restaurant Drolma, at the Hotel Majestic. I saw photos of the place which made it look dramatically baroque. They must have had a good photographer, because it's really fairly conventionally luxe, which was a bit disappointing. But the decor is certainly in keeping with the food, which is haute French cuisine, with some Catalan touches. Service was a highlight, formal but not stiff, and hyper-attentive. (Food-16, Decor-15, Service-18).

For lunch we walked to a fairly hard to find but worth it restaurant, Comerc 24. It was probably the best looking restaurant of the trip, hard edged industrial design but with a strong lounge vibe in the music and seating that made it comfortable. Service was laid back and cool, and food was funky. The dinner menu was more substantial, but lunch was arranged more like a tapas bar, albeit with pretty experimental tapas. The first course set the scene, six test tubes with rubber stoppers holding different soups, plus a beaker if you wanted to combine them. The solid food was also interesting, but not in a gross ingredient kind of way, just offbeat combinations and cutting edge presentations. (Food-18, Decor-19, Service-14)

Had a great dinner at our first Barcelona restaurant, although since Madrid has pretty much been taken over by Barcelona culinarily speaking, there wasn't much of a difference in the two cities. The restaurant is sleek minimalist, and very serious. There are only a dozen or so tables, very widely spaced, and the numerous staff glide about the room noiselessly but with great professionalism. The overall effect is more of a temple than a restaurant, which I really hadn't expected, because it was a pretty new restaurant in a fairly funky part of town. The chef is a local celebrity, and he's famous for making very challenging food combinations, and for creating a different menu from scratch every night. Typically that approach puts a lot of strain on the kitchen and waitstaff, but it felt like everyone was old pros at serving the evening's menu. Unfortunately I don't remember what we had so I'll have to leave this with just these general comments. Oh, and a news flash, that two months ago (November '07) Abac received its second Michelin star. (Food-18, Decor-17, Service-17)