Lasarte — Restaurant in Barcelona

This is a completely honest and valid review, not an exaggeration, I promise.

TL;DR based solely on the food for those too impatient to read the whole story- the food is "good" but not great whatsoever. Three Michelin stars be darned, a large number of dishes completely missed in a big way. And for the outrageous price tag, it is AT BEST a 2.5 or 3 out of 5 stars.

So why am I giving it 1 out of 5 stars? My wife became violently ill after the meal, likely from food poisoning. The restaurant refused to even respond to my attempts to contact them.

Introduction: bad first impression, so the place doesn't open until after 8pm...but our reservation was for 8:00 so we arrived 10 minutes early, naturally, and waited almost 30 minutes to be seen and seated.

Drinks: we are not much for alcohol. My wife ordered a mocktail which was essentially apple juice mixed with 2 or 3 other elements that were completely lost and indistinguishable behind the apple juice base. That didn't stop them for charging us €18 for it. I asked for a beer menu, but the waiter insisted he recommend me a beer based on my preferences. I said I like German and Belgian style wheat beers. He recommended a pilsner...and it becomes apparent he doesn't actually know anything about beer, so I politely declined and ask for a local Spanish Lager instead. It was just okay. I wish I actually got to see a full beer menu.

Appetizer: we ordered the tasting menu. The first bites and appetizers are mostly pretty good! The mushrooms and clams appetizer was tasty. The fennel was interesting, not bad but nothing special. The shrimp tartare tasted like almost nothing, which is honestly fine with me given that it was raw shrimp. The steak tartare also tasted like nothing, which was a shame because I love steak tartare.

Bread: I hated the bread service here. They have 6 different types of bread, 5 types of butter, and a house made olive oil. All that is great. The main problem is they portion the bread out for you 1 to 2 pieces at a time between courses. You never get a chance to try a type of bread more than once, and if you get a type that you don't like then you're just sort of pressured to eat it anyway. Why does the customer not have the liberty to get all the bread at the table and once to taste and portion themselves their favorites? I experienced far better bread services at 1 and 2 Michelin star restaurants in the past.

First courses: the courses here really struggled to land for me. The sea cucumber and octopus were alright but nothing special (there is a theme here). The "pineapple 5 ways" dish was utter slop: it was a contrast of texture and temperature preparations of pineapple that confused and annoyed the palate as opposed to tantalizing it. The scallops were fine but the mucousy base textures in the sauce surrounding it were offputting, to say the least. The ravioli was the best of the middle courses, it was al dente and delicious, and the foam around it gave it a nice textural contrast.

Main course: the biggest miss of the night had to be the pork trotters. When your menu only has 2 main "meat" dishes and one of them is a piece of pork that is 90% fat and collagen, then it feels like a cheap experience. I like fatty meat as much as the next guy, but this "meat" ate like a foreign delicacy that locals would enjoy, not a main dish at a 3 Michelin star restaurant. Horrifyingly bad dish. The venison, in contrast, was absolutely delicious. Best venison I've ever had.

Dessert: my favorite dish of the night might have been the white chocolate and pistachio dessert. It was amazing and unique. The second dessert was called "baba spheres" and that was pure nonsense. The spheres were tasteless, not sweet, not herbaceous, not bitter. Nothing. The petit fours were also just okay.

Verdict: I've had better experiences at 1 Michelin star, 2 Michelin star, and fine dining restaurant without any stars across both Europe and the world. This was my first 3 Michelin star experience and will probably be my last. To pay a grand total of $875 USD for...

Have visited numerous Michelin star restaurants for a decade now. On our recent trip to Barcelona we dined at Lasarte, Disfrutar, Cocina Hermanos Torres & Angle.

So, Lasarte. Their intention were good. Everyone were trying. They were friendly. But they failed to provide an experience. Especially when they carry a 3 stars credentials.

First, the food. Food is measured, among other criteria, by whether or not we had at least one course that makes us want to revisit the restaurant. For us those were: "Scarlet Shrimp soup, tomato, celery and green apple" "Warm salad of red prawn and seafood, rutabaga, crispy sweetbreads and citrus". Lasarte offers excellent food but most can be found, in a similar form, in other restaurants as well.

Service. The risk in any high-end restaurant is getting a cold, military service. The challenge is to be extremely professional while giving a sense of warmth and welcoming. Despite everyone practicing welcoming behaviors, we didn't feel welcomed and the service was too robotic to our taste.

Wine service. Failed. Overshadowed the entire experience and we couldn't overcome it. Though we described precisely the likes and dislikes, we kept being served the "dislikes". Reds and whites. It wasn't just the wine matching. The entire wine service, top to bottom was bad and unprofessional. We tried blaming ourselves for being incoherent. Ensured that there is no language barrier. The other 3 restaurants we visited understood us immediately and perfectly. I can only assume that the lead sommelier was absent and that the next person inline is just not ready.

Atmosphere. Intimate, warm and spacious.

Value. Poor. Most expensive restaurant and the most disappointing.

On another note, the Michelin guide is very inconsistent in Barcelona. We ate at terrible one star restaurants in the past and overrated 3 stars. Michelin overrated Lasarte. You can almost feel that the restaurant is well past its peak and is declining. Allegedly they retain their 3 stars due to "mysterious" reasons.

According to the Michelin guide: 1 star = A very good restaurant in its category 2 stars = Excellent cooking, worth a detour 3 stars = Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey

Lasarte offer a 2 stars food at best but failed on all the rest. Defiantly not a 3 stars institute.

Sure they are all working extremely hard, with passion but that wasn't enough...

I am incredibly embarassed! I swore I had already written a review for this extraordinary restaurant where we had the pleasure of dining a few weeks ago! I must agree with a few of the other reviewers -- this restaurant deserves more than five stars! Let's just begin with the layout of the space -- it is incredibly private. There are only two groups seated in each space, which is partitioned off with either a half glass or a half wooden wall. And the seating is usually a two top in a cozy corner and then a 4-6, far enough away that you feel entirely in your own world! This was followed by the most sumptuous amuse-bouches, of which they were abundant, at least seven, each equally as delectable as the previous! Being a Spanish speaker, I was able to gush tirelessly about every dish, and being a gastronomy aficionado only lent itself to impress the manager enough that after our meal, we were invited to meet the entire staff in the kitchen! Meticulous kitchen, 14 staff, all so proud of their jobs! When we were ready to leave, the manager called a taxi for us and had us wait at our tables until it arrived. This kind of exceptional service must be noted very much at the top of this review, given this has never happened anywhere else. And not to be forgotten the food, every single dish was of course nothing short of heavenly! A quick example -- the wagyu beef was served with dollops of probably seven different flavors around the edge of the plate -- one was a mushroom and beet mixture, very earthy with a wonderful scent and one we just couldn't deconstruct. My husband was certain there was some type of mustard or radish involved. Once in the kitchen we were able to speak to the chef directly who told us it was a homemade umeboshi paste! It was an explosion of flavor in my mouth, and forced me to request more so I could repeat the experience on the pretext that I needed to make sure it was the right one, but they knew! This restaurant truly lives up to what a three-starred restaurant should be-- we've been to many, and none can compare to Lasarte by many furloughs! They win! Thank you Chef Paolo, Joan Carles Ibáñez, our brilliant restaurant manager, Antonio Coelho, our Maître, and the entire staff for the BEST experience ever, we will certainly be back to see you soon! Con mucho cariño le...