Cinc Sentits, Barcelona

I read about this restaurant on one of the food forums (egullet.org) and I've always wanted to go and try it. Its relatively new in the Barcelona restaurant scene (2-3 years) but has had lot of great reviews already.

The Restaurant is owned by Jordi Artal, who is also the Chef. He is a Canadian Born Catalan who once worked is SIlicon Valley as an executive. His passion for cooking brought him back to his homtown Barcelona and open his own restaurant, Cinc Sentits. He describes his cooking as 'Contemporary Catalan', following the trend of the famed Ferran Adria of El Bulli. We had lunch reservation and as soon as we got there we were welcomed by the mother of the Chef and his sister (who both work and run the restaurant). We decided to have the 'esencia' degustation menu so as to try as many dishes as we could.

We started off with his signature CS shot. Starting from the bottom up - warm maple syrup, chilled cream and cava sabayon, with a few crystals of maldon salt. Great way to start a meal.


Next was a deconstructed pan con tomate. Served in a big dish came a tomato sorbet on a bed of toasted bread, green tomato cubes,garlic foam and arbequina extra virgin olive oil. It also came with the typical fuet/llonganisa (typical Catalan salami). Another great way to start a meal.
Our next dish was the Scallop with sunchoke puree and escalivada sauce and. Escalivada is a typical Catalan dish which consists of several types of grilled vegetables (eggplant, sweet red peppers and tomatoes). Once cooked , it is peeled and sliced in strips and seasoned with olive oil and salt. The Scallop was huge and very fresh and blended very well with the escalivada. The small piece of crunchy bacon gave the dish a bit more of contrast and texture.
Next Dish - CANELONES - Roast Chicken, Bechamel and Black Truffle. Another Catalan classic/typical dish served with a little twist.
Then came the fish plate: Mediterranean Denton with wild rice risotto, squid ink reduction and 'allioli'. Denton is a typical fish from Catalunya and is only found in the Mediterranean sea. From this dish, I particularly loved the wild rice risotto...something I have never tried before.
The main dish was Magret de Pato (Duck breast) with apple compote. For me this was the weakest of all the dishes since there was really nothing special about it. I would have preferred to have had the other option which was the ox tail. Nevertheless the duck was a great dish too.


For dessert, we had Strawberries from Maresme (a region in Catalunya), Milk Ice cream, fennel and rose.


Over all a great tasting experience and well worth it. I would like to go back soon to try the other signature dishes like the Coca de Foie Gras and Iberian Suckling Pig which I think is only served for dinner.