Espai Sucre: Last meal in Barcelona

I picked Espai Sucre (Sweet Space) to be my last meal of my summer in Spain.  I wanted it to be somewhere unique and memorable, and Espai Sucre delivered both.  It is known for being one of the top dessert restaurants in the world.  The chefs, Jordi Butrón and Xano Saguer opened it 10 years ago with a daring vision to be the first dessert only restaurant in the world.  Their cuisine blurs the definition between sweet and savory cuisine with daring flavour combinations.

I managed to convince my work colleagues from Y! to join for my going away dinner.  It wasn’t your typical after work drinks goodbye!  Eight of us went: Myself, Diogo, Neill, Peter and Dirk, Eraldo and Valeria, and Ivan. We split the tasting menus between us to enjoy the full range of what they had to offer.

My favorite dish by a small margin was the ”Ginger ale”, cucumber and pineapple-tarragon sherbet, from the first tasting menu. The “ginger ale” was an effervescent foam that was astounding with the cucumber. I also really enjoyed the first two meet dishes from the second tasting menu. The cheek of Iberian pork with onion ice cream was the overall favorite among everyone at the table. The first controversial dish is the “Idiazábal” cake with cherry + beet and black beer, with the bitter beer foam that was dividing.  Another dish that divided tasters was the Truffle mushroom, butter, hazelnut, cocoa, which was perhaps overwhelmed by the truffle flavor.  Here are the photos from the night:

Espai Sucre Starters
Sundried tomato sesame sticks

Cracker with chorizo-like sausage and pear

Pumpkin soup with sour cream and pumpkin seeds on the bottom.
(The best pumpkin soup I’ve ever tasted.)

Tasting Menu 1

Cod rice with tomato ice cream, artichoke and honey

“Ginger ale”, cucumber and pineapple-tarragon sherbet
(My favorite dish overall)

Extra virgen olive oil cake, white peach, green olive and “San Simón”

Truffle mushroom, butter, hazelnut, cocoa
(A controversial dish)

Tasting Menu 2

Scallops with dewlap, algae and ginger
(another favorite, a fun take on sushi)

Cheek of iberian pork, onion ice cream, wheat and liquorice
(the overall crowd favorite of the evening)

Passion fruit-coffe, “lemon-cress” and mint sorbet keffer

“Idiazábal” cake with cherry + beet and black beer

Empyreumatic 2

The petit fours at the end of the meal were also not to be dismissed. The curried biscotti was a relevation. The sour cream and black pepper “haribo” melted into an efferfescent foam in your mouth with an exposion of unexpected spiciness. I really enjoyed it, but others didn’t. One thing that drew a lot of interest was the “bacon chocolate stick” which turned out to be chocolate with smokedlapsang duschon tea. It was astoundingly good. The coffee was the best I had in Spain.

Honey sesame round and cocnonut popsicles

Candied ginger, sour cream and black pepper “haribo”, and lapsang duschon chocolate “bacon” sticks

Honeydew melon soup palette cleanser

Curried biscotti
(a personal favorite for a daring combination)

We sat down for dinner at 10pm and didn’t leave until almost 1am. It was a truly memorable experience. Thank you to all my friends who shared it with me.

I would highly recommend going to Espai Sucre for a romantic special occasion.