Maleducat l Restaurante Eixample — Restaurant in Barcelona

Featured on an Eater article a while back, and has been on my to-do list. Glad I went to Besta and others before Maleducat, though. Typical Eater - fluff and hype. Cheeky name aside, highly overrated, highly overpriced, miserly portions and generally diner-unfriendly. I came on a night between Michelin tasting menus, expecting a low-key, casual and classic Catalan experience. Instead, I cut my stay to only 2 courses and vamanos’d out of there to another spot in Eixample. Restos need to understand their positioning. Clearly. Besta, Nairod and Bar Suru do, with reasonable prices, interesting menus and dishes that can be easily half-portioned to try many, to create your own tasting menu. Casual, affordable comfort. On all counts, Maleducat failed. Pricing for mains is 30-50% higher than comparable places, portions 30-50% smaller, which is pretty ridiculous. Look at the pics - really tiny dishes. A small, unimaginative menu. The white prawn tartare - everyone does a riff on the same thing. The beef tendon stew, tiny and delicious - to be fair, and richly priced. Why? For the scallop slices whose taste and texture are entirely lost in the richness of the stew? What a wasteful whimsy. When I asked the waitress if portions could be half-sized, for the mollejas for example, it was a quick and flat no. Paellas, I get, can’t be half-sized. But sweetbreads? Easy! Any resto from Miami to Montreal and even here in Barça would be happy to do that. If a kitchen puts out great food, don’t you want your customers to try as many dishes as possible? Especially in an empty dining room at 9:30pm on a weeknight. But I guess the kitchen recognizes how small the dishes already are, and cannot be practically halved. SMH. Clearly a resto that doesn’t care. And its neighbors and neighborhood are reciprocating. Americans and tourists need to stop supporting places like this. Two...

In my personal opinion, there’s a new wave in Barcelona’s food scene—small plates to share, reimagined classics from Catalan and Spanish cuisine, proximity-sourced ingredients, natural wines, and beautiful, retro-inspired interiors. Maleducat fits right into this trend, and honestly, it does it really well.

We had lunch on the terrace and enjoyed every dish. The coca de calamar was probably my favorite—delicate, packed with flavor, beautifully assembled. The tomato tartare was fresh and clever, and the carpaccio de corvina was simply perfect in texture and balance. Presentation across the board was creative, nice for the eyes without being fussy, and the combination of flavors and textures showed a lot of intention and skill.

The wine choice is solid—mostly natural, local producers, younger labels, and something for every kind of taste. Service was good: the waiter was kind and professional, though things could be a bit more fluid and attentive to really elevate the experience.

Overall, I’d absolutely recommend it—especially for foodies, couples, or small groups looking to try thoughtful dishes in a cool setting.

So why 4 stars instead of 5? Simply because some of the smaller bites felt a bit overpriced for their size. Quality is there, no doubt, but a slightly better price-to-portion balance would make it feel more...

Cute place. Friendly staff. Tries too hard with some dishes. Maybe aiming for a star? I think may take a while.

Highlights were the starters: toast of white prawn tartare, toast of raw squid with cured iberian pork jowl, and seabass ceviche with tomato sorbet and strawberries. You could come here just for these and you should be good.

Two mains ordered missed the marks for me.

Rice, prawn tartare was too salty.  A modern take on paella that I wished I had enjoyed more. There is a sauce that was drizzled around the rice and even that was salty. The saltiness really masked the freshness of the prawn tartare. What a shame.

Sting ray, black garlic sauce and brown sauce (pardon the lack of name). Really looking forward to this having tried this fish in several restaurants across Asia and the Americas. Visually this dish didn't look that appetizing given the rather dull colors especially after you have seen what they did with the starters. The protein itself is soft and succulent but accompanied sauces are redundant. The black garlic sauce, especially, overpowered the flavors of the fish. Then there was a thin smear of pommes purée which I reckon was totally overshadowed as well. The chef could have doubled up the purée, halved the sauces and this dish could have been a winner....