REVIEW: Ca'n Josep, June 2015

[Harters]

Ca’n Josep has two things really going for it. First is the view. I really can’t think of another restaurant which offers quite so fine a view of the bay. And, second, is the staff. This is a crew who know that the first rule of the hospitality industry is to be hospitable. I’d love to say that the food matches these other two elements but I’m afraid it just didn’t. That’s not to say that there was anything actively wrong with it – it’s just it could have been so much better without much extra effort. A shame really.

King prawns in a tempura batter were light, crisp and not overcooked. Now that’s a tricky thing to achieve if you’re preparing them from scratch which made us wonder if they are bought in from the catering wholesaler and go from freezer to fryer. It’s what many restaurants will do to achieve this quality. They come with tartare sauce and a handful of salad leaves. The leaves were undressed – there’s no oil or vinegar on the table and I couldn’t attract anyone’s attention to bring them,

Mussels were a generous starter portion and came in a flavoursome tomato sauce. More bread was offered to mop things up.

Cod “ in the Mallorcan style” was a bit of a let down. The fish seemed dry and overcooked. The “style” was nice – a tomato based topping of peppers, onions , raisins and pine nuts. It came with a solitary new potato and some carrot and cauliflower (which were stone cold).

Pork stroganoff was strips of pork, pepper and mushroom in a cream sauce, along with carrot & cauli (these were hot). This was OK but the cream sauce was slightly sweet and, for me, this just didn’t work. Much better, to my mind, would have been to ditch the sweet and replace it with a little background heat from pimenton, giving a Spanish spin to the Russian classic (which flavours with sour cream and mustard)

We didn’t want dessert but coffee was good. We declined, with thanks, the offer of a free “after dinner” drink so, in the spirit of hospitality, our coffees were on the house. Much appreciated.

[kate1]

This review encapsulates one of the reasons (apart from being overcharged) that we didn't venture back to Ca'n Josep after an underwhelming meal a couple of years ago. It gets such rave reviews here and on Trip Advisor that I have always worried that I was unduly harsh - but perhaps not? I do remember being very disappointed in my Mallorcan cod dish at the time.... I want to like this restaurant more, as the staff are amazingly welcoming and it always seems to be packed with happy customers - but it just didn't do it for me.

[animagic21]

Josep certainly reads the comments on this forum. I feel sure he will do everything he can to have another look at the issues raised.