Almost a year to the day since my last lunch at Blavis (C/Saragossa 85, 08006, www.restaurantblavis.com), my wife and I were in the area and unexpectedly in possession of a couple of child-free hours of liberty. We hadn’t reserved and we were lucky to grab the last remaining table at the end of the last lunch sitting.
Blavis is still great value, still a cracking little restaurant. The “2 starters, 1 main, 1 dessert” system is unchanged. Some of the menu choices were no longer available but the alternatives on offer were all excellent.
I’m not writing a full review but I’ll briefly describe what we chose. Some chicken fajitas to start:
The smoky paprika and fresh coriander (cilantro) combination made the dish. My esqueixada (a Catalan salt cod salad) was similarly good, with a strong olive dressing on the cod.
My wife had salmorejo (an Andalusian tomato and bread soup) which was just as it ought to be.
For our main courses I had mackerel with a timbale of vegetables. I loved it — crisp skin, melting flesh and rich vegetables drizzled with black olive paste. I’m always a sucker for mackerel — it’s one of my favourite fish. This was a fairly small portion considering the budget nature of the main ingredient but on a menú costing only €12.95 I’m not going to complain too much.
My wife had gnocchi in a mushroom sauce which was seriously rich and delivered a massive umami hit.
To finish she tucked into puding de formatge, a slab of cheesey deliciousness drizzled with red fruit reductions. The microscopic taste she allowed me to have suggested that it was very good indeed…
I had a coffee ice cream, also excellent. The desserts were a weak point of my last visit so it was great to see that the standard’s improved since then.
Blavis now offers take-away food to order for picnics and parties which I’m sure is worth checking out if you live nearby. It’s a restaurant that seems to do all the simple things right and it deserves to get as much business as it can handle.
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