H
Harters
New member
A review not of your actual La Llonja restaurant but La Cantina on the ground floor. We’d gone down to the Moll Vell for the Fira del Pescadors and it seemed like a good spot for lunch. They offer a snacky menu of a handful of tapas, sandwiches, things and chips and so on.
A tapa of albondigas was half a dozen meatballs, well flavoured with pimenton, as was the rich tomato sauce.
I have a general rule of never saying that I don’t like something until I’ve tried it. And I’ve tried a lot of things. My sole exception is tripe which I am not prepared to have a bash at, although I have tried the French Andouillette tripe sausage. It was horrible. Anyway, back to lunch. I’d never tasted cuttlefish (sepia) before going to La Cantina. And can now say I don’t like it. I’ve had overcooked rubbery squid before. It’s unpleasant and this was worse. Far, far worse. Thicker, even more rubbery, this was tasteless “stuff” in a thin tomato-ey sauce. Just nasty.
The large amount of sauce with both these tapas made us suspect that they are bought in as frozen catering portions and then micro-waved to order.
A main course lasagne was also disappointing. Whilst the flavour of the meat and the béchamel was OK, it looked unappetising and, again, was almost certainly microwaved as there was no sign of browning that you’d expect if it had come from the oven.
The other main – breaded chicken escalope, chips and salad – was much as you’d expect and, again, almost certainly straight out of the freezer and into the deep fat fryer. Not the salad, of course, which was the freshest and tastiest bit.
The bill, with a couple of beers and waters, came to €33. No matter how much or how little I’ve been charged for a meal, I always feel ripped off when it is obvious that a place just doesn’t give a damn about the food it’s serving. Heaven knows if this attitude also applies the main restaurant upstairs – but we weren’t about to go back and find out.
A tapa of albondigas was half a dozen meatballs, well flavoured with pimenton, as was the rich tomato sauce.
I have a general rule of never saying that I don’t like something until I’ve tried it. And I’ve tried a lot of things. My sole exception is tripe which I am not prepared to have a bash at, although I have tried the French Andouillette tripe sausage. It was horrible. Anyway, back to lunch. I’d never tasted cuttlefish (sepia) before going to La Cantina. And can now say I don’t like it. I’ve had overcooked rubbery squid before. It’s unpleasant and this was worse. Far, far worse. Thicker, even more rubbery, this was tasteless “stuff” in a thin tomato-ey sauce. Just nasty.
The large amount of sauce with both these tapas made us suspect that they are bought in as frozen catering portions and then micro-waved to order.
A main course lasagne was also disappointing. Whilst the flavour of the meat and the béchamel was OK, it looked unappetising and, again, was almost certainly microwaved as there was no sign of browning that you’d expect if it had come from the oven.
The other main – breaded chicken escalope, chips and salad – was much as you’d expect and, again, almost certainly straight out of the freezer and into the deep fat fryer. Not the salad, of course, which was the freshest and tastiest bit.
The bill, with a couple of beers and waters, came to €33. No matter how much or how little I’ve been charged for a meal, I always feel ripped off when it is obvious that a place just doesn’t give a damn about the food it’s serving. Heaven knows if this attitude also applies the main restaurant upstairs – but we weren’t about to go back and find out.
