El Suquet de L'Almirall (Barcelona)

July 2013

Passeig de Joan de Borbo, 65, 08003, Barcelona, Spain
Tel: +34 932 21 62 33
www.suquetdelalmirall.com

Barcelona is beautiful in the summer. Though it tends to get very hot and sunny, the cool sea breeze and relatively low humidity (and long days) make its beaches extremely popular with the locals as well as other European tourists. The beach at the Barceloneta, in particular, is packed on Sunday afternoons. Sundays in Barcelona are also days where it may be difficult to find a nice place for a meal as many of the restaurants and tapas bars are closed. Fortunately, the locals love to have their leisurely seafood lunch on a Sunday, so the restaurants by the beach tend to be open in the day.

In Barceloneta, and in particular, along the main road of Passeig de Joan de Borbo, there are countless dining options, some more legitimate than the others (you can tell by which has a waiter outside touting and which don't). We looked up our trusty Maribel's guide and made a booking at El Suquet de L'Almirall (which I think is Catalan for "the stew of the Admiral"). Despite the 30 degree celsius temperature, the shaded temperature was closer to 20 so it was quite pleasant to sit under the large umbrellas outdoors. Moreover, the views from the outdoor seating were much better and we spent the whole afternoon having a slow and relaxing lunch and watching the interesting rabble of beach-goers walk past.

The seafood at El Suquet was very fresh and their cuisine was to cook it in the simplest manner possible. For example, their prawns were lightly pan-fried and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. 

The cured anchovies with red peppers and lettuce was also very good.

The food came with a side dish of sautéed onions, peppers and tomatoes.

Although the house special was its paella, we were unable to have such a heavy meal, so instead had the salt-baked seabass which was very fresh and succulent. This was paired with a nice glass of white wine and was delicious.

In this heat, the ice cream that they had made sense. The lime sorbet (but the creamy sort) was very good and the mojito sorbet was also very refreshing.

Final Thoughts: El Suquet was a nice and casual seafood restaurant from which to people-watch and chill out on a hot summer's day. The food was good and reasonably priced too.