Xemei

After eating and drinking my way through Barcelona, Xemei is my favorite ! I’ve been fortunate to eat the finest Italian in Florence and in New York, this is on par with those. I will be back to BCN soon, and with again enjoy then amazing food and great service.

One of my favorite restaurants in Barcelona.
They do the 3 course Italian oriented menu with a Starter then pasta, then meat dish. Everything I tried here I enjoyed.
One thing though, they do not open at 1:00 for lunch it’s 1:30.

De todos los italianos que he estado en Barcelona, este es en el que mejor que comido.
Es un restaurante veneciano, así que nada de pizzas. Excelentes pastas con salsas sorprendentes.
No le doy 5 estrellas porqué considero que la decoración del local es pobre. Aun teniendo unas mesas cálidas, la cocina está demasiado encima de los comensales y la idea de «decorar» las paredes con pintadas de los clientes les ha dado un resultado final un tanto cutre.

The Venetian brothers who run this wonderfully charming neighborhood spot mean business. Rumor has it Woody Allen’s reservation was cancelled due to tardiness. So if you go — and you should — show up on time. And yes, a reservation is recommended.
We started with the burrata, which comes from a friend’s farm in Italy, and we later found out, many of the items come from small purveyors in Italy. The burrata was not like the cheese I’ve had stateside, which i’m sure is due to the Italian cow’s diet. The platter of rich, creamy cheese was served with the sweetest of sweet tomatoes that nicely offset the cheese. It paired nicely with an Italian white from Livio Feluga.
Next came pasta, for which Xeimei excels. They hand make bigoli — the only authentically whole wheat pasta in Italy. It is a thick, spaghetti-​like pasta with a hole running through the middle of each strand. The Venice speciality, pasta with anchovy sauce (bigoli in salsa) was simply put, amazing. Yes, amazing sounds like hyperbole, but I’m not kidding, that sweet, briny anchovy sauce over the chewy bigoli pasta was heavenly. I had to ask our waiter how it was made, thinking complex, multiple ingredients, but really it’s anchovies and onions stewed for hours, almost to the point of caramelization. I can only hope I either come across that dish again or get my hands on a recipe so I can recreate it at home.
My husband’s squid ink pasta was also exceptional. Earthy and flavorful, it tasted like no squid ink dishes I’ve had in the U.S.
Next came the grilled octopus, which was a life-​changing dish. I’ve never had octopus grilled or any way, for that matter, outside of a Japanese restaurant. The tentacles were so tender and flavorful, it almost melted in my mouth. Life-​changing, I tell you!
The evening ended with tiramisu, which happens to be one of my specialties. I make it traditional and boozy and I was curious to see how a «real» Italian tiramisu would stack up compared to mine. I have to say, I think I prefer mine, but Xemei’s was a nice ending to a special meal.

Cocina italiana de primer nivel, muy familiar, responde un poco a la idea que tenemos sobre la típica trattoria de película de la mafia, de aquellas en las que Michael Corleone esconde una pistola en la cisterna del baño. Cuidan extraordinariamente el producto, tienen siempre el mejor pescado, elaboran unas salsas muy sabrosas, preparan un limoncillo artesanal estupendo, y además de todo esto se hace obligatorio recomendar la burrata y el tiramisú. Tiene una terraza ideal para verano (muy cerca del Grec) en la que uno siente que, de repente, ha desaparecido de la ciudad, y se encuentra perdido en algún pueblo italiano.

Antes vivía justo al lado de este restaurante a los pies de Montjuic.
Lo vi nacer y crecer. Vi la dedicación y el amor que pusieron en este proyecto los gemelos (xemei, en dialecto veneciano) Stefano y Max.
Decidieron apostar por algo único y de calidad: versionar la cocina veneciana.
En su carta presentan platos típicos de Italia del norte en calve moderna, utilizando ingredientes tradicionales y siempre frescos, de manera original. Spaghetti al nero di seppia, hígado a la veneciana, bigoli in salsa, bacalao, buey de mar… hasta dulces, como tiramisú.
Todos los platos están acompañados de una óptima selección de vinos.
El restaurante está siempre animado. Pequeñito y sencillo, pero con estilo, en una zona tranquilla de Poble Sec, con una terracita que da al Paseo de la Exposición.
Mejor reservar porqué está casi siempre lleno y, ojo, prepararse para una cuenta un poco salada!
Merece la pena probarlo… por lo menos una vez!