caravelle
November 29th 2012
We went to a birthday party at Caravelle last Saturday, a fairly new restaurant in Raval, owned by a friend, Australian chef Zim Sutton. We shared most of the dishes on the menu and 20 or so people dived in at once, suffice it to say, it wasn’t a great photo opportunity – never mind, that gave me a very good excuse to go back!
Zim has concentrated on a short menu with 4 or 5 items in each category and in my opinion that’s how you produce the best food.
bbq prawns
To start we had delicious, smokey BBQ prawns with lemon, feta and oregano,
pumpkin risotto
followed by pumpkin, sage and goat’s cheese risotto.
luganica sausage
Our main course consisted of a fantastic, home made, Luganica sausage with sage, fennel pollen and peperonata,
lamb with dill and lemon yoghurt
succulent leg of lamb with dill and lemon yoghurt,
white-bean gratin
baked white-bean gratin with mascarpone and parmesan,
peas
and a little mountain of peas, lemon zest, feta and mint.
The lamb was particularly tender Spanish lamb and I thought the white-bean gratin had a slight hint of marzipan.
spiced plums
We didn’t eat dessert, but the meringue with mascarpone and spiced plums
crumble
and the toffee apple and pear crumble looked excellent!
zim – hard at work
On Saturday we ate the meatballs in tomato sauce, which would easily satisfy a hungry Catalan customer, as would the amazing fried salt cod with smoked tomato allioli. The chicken with piri piri was succulent and contained the perfect amount of chilli. I don’t normally eat much cake, but the birthday cake (made in house) had me going back for more – I believe it was down to the use of mascarpone instead of cream…
más amor
To go with our dinner we drank a perfect local rosado called Más Amor (More Love) – what a great name!
Caravelle is at: C/ Pintor Fortuny 31, 08001 Barcelona
The food and service here is excellent.
Looks like a wonderful birthday celebration – love that wine too!
I’d vote it the best named wine in Cataluña 🙂
It all looks delicious – what a great celebration! And the photos are lovely….although I don’t want to take away your excuse to go back again!
Zim’s a friend and the food’s great – so there’s a always a good excuse to go back 🙂
What a lovely meal! I also agree with you on restaurants with short menus. Looks like your friend Zim does great work!
Thanks Tessa 🙂
Now this is how a birthday is celebrated! What a meal! I would love to find out how the white bean gratin was prepared. It sounds delicious.
I agree with your observation about menu size. It’s always a disappointment to be handed a menu that resembles a book rather than a short list of options. Less is definitely more when it comes to the quality of the dishes prepared. 🙂
Definitely – if the menu looks like a book, then nothing is fresh – if it’s small, the food should be excellent 😉
Terrific set of dishes! Particularly into the lamb and peas…having just purchased some baby lamb chops for a special treat with my little man!
Brilliant – I hope Leandro enjoys them 🙂
OK, one does not say ‘OMG’ on a blog like yours but this, to me, is absolute perfection of which I would so have liked to have ‘partaken’! Either I wax lyrical for a dozen lines, or just say: ‘Thank you for having allowed us to be there . . .’ Nought wrong with my imagination 🙂 !
Thanks, it was great food 🙂
Food looks wonderful. I like the idea of a white bean gratin.
They were excellent 😉
What a brilliant restaurant – top menu. Lucky bugger:)
Very lucky 🙂
Hello Mad One from the Southern Hemisphere …we are a global family . Love and food is all we need … and more love and more food is paradise. How cute that there was one BBQ option … xxx
Hi Audrey – I hope they are feeding you well in New Zealand – come back soon 😉
When a menu is small, you know each dish is special. The whole meal sounds delicious.
Less is more 🙂
Todo tiene una pinta buenísma MD. Si alguna vez voy a BCN lo tendré en mi lista de sitios a visitar 🙂
Gracias Giovanna. Estoy construyendo una buena lista ahora 🙂
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