Moo - Review

Intro
Moo - Highly Recommended
C/ Rosselló 265
08008 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34 934 454 000

Checked out this place based on Barcelona Girl's recommendation and she definitely led us in the right direction - all her other rec's were spot on as well. Moo is a beautiful restaurant and the plating matches the decor. And don't worry my friends, the food is delicious here. This was our only "fancy pants" restaurant in Barcelona since I was in love with the casual food scene, but this definitely makes me want to check out other high-end restaurants. Overall, I give the restaurant an 94/100.

Our Menu
1) Amuse - Chicharron, Red Pepper Chips *, Chocolate Cookie with Foie Gras **, Goat Cheese Pastry *, Ice Cream Cones filled with a mousse (?)
2) Endive Salad with Fish Skin *, Sardine, Sangria Sorbet ***
3) Octopus and Potato Cream **
4) Strawberry, Tomato and Basil's Soup with Cockles
5) Dublin Bay Prawns with Curry, Roses, and Liquorice ***
6) Apricot with foie gras and almonds **
7) Rice with seaweed and black sausage ***
8) Guineafowl with plums and dried peach
9) Wild turbot with tender garlic **
10) Parfait with almonds, hazelnuts, and orange ***
11) Petit Four - Chocolate covered strawberry sorbet **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way


Dish Comments
1) Didn't know what to expect, but the amuse had nice and light flavors and was a great palate opener. I don't 100% remember what was in the ice cream cone and didn't make any notes on it, but the foie gras with the chocolate crisp was a phenomenal combo. Not punch you in the face flavor, but really fun.
2) The sangria sorbet was amazing - nice, sweet, and fruity which matched the really salty and meaty sardine. Definitely a nice WTF eye opener of what they're doing here - playing with big time flavors combining savory and sweet. Awesome stuff. The side endive salad with the fish skin was nice as well.
3) Another odd but delicious combo for me. One of the most tender octopus dishes I've ever had with a heavenly potato puree. I've bitched about NY's fascination with overly buttery potato purees, but this made sense here and matched perfectly with the octopus.
4) This was a case of sense memory making me dislike a dish. When I read strawberry soup, I thought a nice light and sweet soup that would match with the salty cockles. However, it was more like a gazpacho that was salty and sour which threw me off and it actually didn't taste good to me. The sweetness would have been perfect to play off the salty and tender cockles.
5) One of the biggest WTF moments ever on this humble blog for me. This was the best shrimp or lobster dish I've ever had. Ripert wishes he could have this dish at Le Bernardin. The prawn was a matter of perfection in texture and flavor. It had such a meaty initial texture that was ridiculously tender at the same time. The flavor of the prawns were times 10 and so incredibly sweet and succulent. Then add the perfect curry mayo that really enhanced the sweetness - don't worry were not talking authentic tandori spices, but just a really light curry that made the dish pop.
6) Great foie gras mousse that paired nicely with the peach that was either barely poached or even served raw. The peach could have used a teeny bit of cooking though. The white almonds were a great touch and really flavorful.
7) Perfect rice texture and ridiculous earthy flavors of seaweed. The fried oysters put this dish in to another spectrum for flavors. Add in the surprisingly perfect zucchinis (sweet and the perfect texture of a little crunch) and you had a phenomenally satisfying rice dish.
8) Guineafowl pate was good at first, but the flavors were too intense for me. Too much demi or something. I still finished it, but needed to be toned down.
9) Another seafood dish, another example of perfect execution. The turbot was perfectly cooked - so tender, so succulent, and so flavorful. Paired nicely with the spring onion, what looked like squid ink (salty), and a nice cream (may have been alioli, but not sure)
10) A homerun dessert for me - completely happy WTF moment. Almond ice cream was delicious and not too sweet. Combine that with the ridonkulous toffy (great crunch), perfect chocolate parfait, and orange gelee and that was bliss for me.
11) Perfect way to end the meal and again completely surprised. The strawberry sorbet was so intensely flavored and had the perfect texture with the chocolate wrapped around.











Overall Restaurant Experience (94/100)

• Food 9.4/10 – This place reminded me of Ko challenging your conceptions of food - rocking the sweet with the savory. Playing around texturally with food. But, I feel the technique here is much better. Some of the proteins here were sublime like on a level of Le Bernardin and in some cases surpassing it. The dishes started strong and ended strong which is quite rare...
  
• Service 9.0/10 – Waiter's were great - very attentive and food came out actually slightly too quick. Towards the end they paced the meal better.
• Atmosphere 9.3/10 – Gorgeous place - kinda like eating at MOMA or something. Good spacing between tables and loads of light in the restaurant. By the window, there are large bamboo trees which are really nice to look at. Place was empty at 1:30 on a Tuesday and due to the size (seats 50-70), it really felt completely empty. Another couple arrived though at 2:30, but that was about it. The other couple was Spanish speakers and in there 40's or 50's. Oddly enough, although the place looks like it should be in a museum, it was really not stuffy at all - felt very relaxed and casual. Had reservations and were seated immediately even though we didn't need it.
  
• Price 9.3/10 – Phenomenal deal here for lunch - 45 Euro per person for all that food and wine. The only thing I supplemented was the prawns which were to die for.
  

Closing Comments
If I went back to Barcelona for one day only, one of the stops would be Moo for that prawn dish. Granted, I would eat 10 times that day, but that prawn dish would be at the top of the list for me :)