RíasKRU — Restaurant in Barcelona

This dish exemplifies modern Spanish cuisine: Tartare of raw squid, carbonara ibérica, pine nuts.

Carbonara is a Roman pasta sauce of cured pork jowl (guanciale), Pecorino cheese, and egg yolk.

The guanciale here is not the typical industrial pork aged for 2 months, but one made by famed Spanish jamón producer Joselito using the finest pigs and aged for 12 months.

If you've never had the rendered fat of jamón ibérico, it's hard to describe but the closest thing would be bacon fat, except no smoke but more intensity and astringency from the longer curing process. This fat is mixed into the carbonara sauce and turned into a foam.

This dish is delicious, inventive, yet totally Spanish in its ingredients and techniques.

I find many fancy restaurants are making dishes that are too international, lacking Spanish identity. That's fine if you're a local, but if you are visiting Barcelona, you don't want to have a dish that a restaurant back home can make too.

Photo 1: Sea urchin, paired with Lustau Del Tonel oloroso sherry 20 years old

Photo 3-4: Anchovy, smoke

Photo 5: Raw razor clam, pickled quail

Overall, RíasKru is an incredible seafood restaurant that creates modern, creative dishes with a distinct...

As a non-shellfish eater, my options were limited but I tried the fish specialties and found them to be mixed. The smoked anchovy starters were fun and smokey alright! The raw fish main courses were so-so. The tiradito was a little on the bland side but the mullet served whole and sashimi style on a bed of ice chips was good. The biggest disappontment for me was the deep fried turbot. Creatively served on a bed of its own fried skin, the pieces were small which meant a lot of batter to get through. It came with dry spices and an aioli but neither blew me away.

Dessert was also disappointing, with the lemon lime yuzu and bergamot ice dessert tasting like a basic lemon sorbet. The torrija was more pleasing.

The meal was expensive overall and while I appreciated the freshness of the produce, the attentive service, surprise offerings of little bites from the kitchen, helpful English speaking staff and English menu, it was not overall a place I’d recommend at this price point in a city bristling with seafood. Maybe a different experience for those who...

Very dissapointing. Totally rude and arrogant staff from maitre to waiters. They offered us the worst possible table when I specifically requested for a quiet, comfy spot (as I was there with an elderly). Nicer tables were available and at first they refused to switch us. Too much trouble, I guess. After finally accomodating us, they informed us that most of the popular options plus the tasting menu were not available. C'mon; you should inform your customers in advance if you plan to screw up or offer a sub-par experience. I bet the majority of us wants to either experience the tasting menu or order the most popular dishes like salmonete. To top it all, we found a cockroach happily running around the restroom. We left while the maitre, instead of offering excuses and alternatives, mocked us very disrespectufuly in the most passive-aggresive way possible. Worst hospitality experience ever. All the fame and social media marketing spend should not translate into arrogancy....