Alapar - Restaurante Japonés-Mediterráneo — Restaurant in Barcelona

I had the privilege of dining at Alapar with my sister during my visit to Barcelona. I had a wonderful experience. We did the omakase Alapar, which had about 19 courses. I found it to be a fun experience, and I was pleased by the subtle and thoughtful ways in which they created a fusion of Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine. Our chef worked at a feverish pace, but kindly accommodated us by explaining the dishes to us in English. Because of the noise level, it was a little hard to hear everything he described about each course, but to be fair, he had to speak English to us, then switch over to Spanish for the other couple sitting with us. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of the traditionally East Asian ingredients are also grown in Spain, as I understood it, about 2 hours from the Barcelona area. At one point, the chef showed us a huge wasabi plant up close, which I saw him grinding into a paste when we first sat down. The first 2 courses had tuna and squid on top of a type of bread. It had good mouthfeel and felt like it melted in my mouth. This actually worked really well. Other dishes incorporated Mediterranean flavors by including citrus juice and/or spices like paprika, which also worked well for me. Towards the end of the main courses (by that I mean before dessert), there was a nice transition from cold dishes to warm dishes. The warm dishes included an udon noodle dish that was fun to mix the egg yolk into. I also appreciated that they had non-alcoholic wine, which was nice to pair with the omakase. They even chilled it for me between refills, which was a thoughtful touch. I don't recall or know the details of how they incorporated Mediterranean flavors into the oils and sauces used in the dishes, but it was a great fusion of two types of cuisine. In my experience dining at other restaurants that do fusion, it's actually quite hard to do well. Some places don't blend the cuisines smoothly or creatively to create a new flavor experience. Alapar succeeded greatly in this aspect. Besides the high quality of flavors and fresh fish ingredients, the price point is amazing for what you get. This would cost 2-3x more in the US, where I'm from. Another thing is that the hospitality was great. We had a situation where my dining partner had indigestion resulting from a chronic medical condition, and Alapar kindly accommodated this by fulfilling our request to take home some of the omakase courses. It would totally have been their right to refuse this for quality consistency/reputation purposes, but they respected our wishes. I have to say, the creativity extended to the desserts as well. Wasabi flavor works surprisingly well in ice cream and the ice cream sando with thinly shaved figs on top was reminiscent of ice cream-filled taiyaki, which I am familiar since there is a Korean version of that dessert. I would totally go back to Alapar the next time I am in Barcelona. Shout out to our chef who graciously answered all of our questions about the food and accommodated our indigestion situation, which probably caused some disruption in his work process that was intensely fast because he was preparing for not only our omakase but also other tables. I follow Alapar on Instagram now and look forward to the new ideas for fusion that they...

When I was doing research for Barcelona, I stumbled on Alapar. I opted not to book a table at Alapar because we had just come back from 2 weeks in Japan and I felt like I didn’t need another pricey omakase. Besides, I’m in Barcelona to have tapas!

A friend was in Barcelona the week before us and he highly recommended Alapar. He live texted the experience to me and I was convinced. I somehow managed to snag a reservation for 2 bar seats for 8pm, which is when they open. We were seated right in front of the chef himself and got to watch him in action the entire night.

To start, we had the sparkling white tea. This was delightful and I highly recommend it if you’re not looking to drink. We had a total of 18 courses, with 6 nigiri/handroll courses, 5 cooked courses, 3 raw, 3 dessert courses. Our meal started off with a fermented fig and pineapple drink that opened up the palate and our appetites. After that, we had tuna tartare on wasabi mochi, montadito style. This was fantastic and I loved the mochi. It was followed by a squid sashimi montadito, with the added 9 EUR supplement for caviar. The next few courses were nigiri, cooked dishes, and assorted raw dishes. Dessert was wasabi ice cream, followed by their signature shaved vanilla ice cream with a fig tart. The last dessert course was a chocolate filled mochi with olive oil ice cream. All the desserts were fantastic.

All the nigiri were pretty unique in the sense that they were Mediterranean fish paired with Japanese and Catalan flavors. The wasabi is grown locally and they also use a ton of local ingredients. It truly is a classic Japanese omakase with heavy Mediterranean influences and flavors. Chef Marambio was very happy to answer our questions about the dishes - we learned that the uni served during the meal is local and in his opinion, more flavorful as a result.

Service was absolutely fantastic and we felt so well taken care of. I am so glad that my friend talked me into making a reservation at Alapar. The flavors were definitely very different from other omakases that...

This was my first Michelin restaurant, well actually they are on the Michelin guide 2023, so not sure if that really counts.

Alapar, has a really nice atmosphere, the place is really welcoming and has some nice background music playing. It is furnished with Japanese style, their food is mostly a blend between Japan and Spain, and their speciality is mostly sea food.

It is really important to make reservations, tables are taken fast! They have turns of two hours at night, at 20hs and 22hs. So the whole experience is made so you can enjoy the food at a good pace, without any rush.

I had dinner at this place only by recommendation of family and friends, sea food is not my thing, so it was a tough choice for me to come here.

Despite that, the food was so well prepared, the flavors were so very well balanced and the dishes were made to work in such harmony that I barely noticed that I was eating sea food. The portobellos and “montaditos” were by far my favorites. Don’t forget to try their desserts, they are also really good!

The staff and service were excellent, I wish more places would have staff like they have at Alapar. Thanks for the great service!!!

Different payment methods were accepted.

I can’t recommend more a visit to Alapar if you are in Barcelona, I know that my next time there, I will go again to try something else...