30 October 2005
updated 12 December 2005

A three course dinner with a bottle of wine from the lower reaches of the list came to about $112 per couple before tip and as a first impression, we felt it was a reasonable value. On a subsequent visit we ran up a tab of about $120 a couple before tip, with fewer desserts and slightly better wine. Unfortunately we were less impressed with the cooking this time.

Barça 18 is louder and darker than I prefer, but I could manage a conversation across a table and see my food.

Dress is casual. Atmosphere is that of a lounge.

Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, with brunch offered on Sunday.

225 Park Avenue South at 18th Street

212.533.2500

Barça 18

New restaurants are fraught with difficulties and rarely deliver food or service on the level they should or will in a few months, but we ate very well and had excellent service at Barça 18 the other day. All in all it seemed like smooth sailing and a welcome addition to the city's dining choices. [A visit in early December was far less satisftying. See the update below.] I should note that our reservations were made by a companion with known culinary journalistic credentials and contacts, and that was acknowledged by a few comped dishes for the table. I didn't strain to look closely at the food at other tables, but service seemed to run smoothly all over the room. When we originally called for a reservation, we were offered "too late" and "too early," but told they save a number of covers for walk-ins. It's a large restaurant with over 200 covers. Barça, is the nickname for the Barcelona football (read soccer) team and for those who don't read Catalan, "ç" is a soft "c" and it's pronounced barsa. My guess is that many will call it barka.

While the food is easy to recommend, purists should be aware that authenticity is not the long suit. Paella is not a Catalan dish, nor is it a dish that's dependably done well outside the provinces of Alicante and maybe Valencia, although ordered, and sought out, especially by tourists, all over Spain these days. In Barcelona, I'd order an arròs caldós and the Paella Negra at Barça 18 pays as much homage to the Catalan arròs negre amb sípia as it does to paella, but few diners west of Alicante, and even fewer west of Madrid, are going to care. That it doesn't seem to have the authentic taste and mouth feel of a Catalan rice dish is not even going to stop me from enjoying it again for what it delivers. I'm sorry they missed the chance to introduce a version of fideus, Catalan pasta, cooked much like rice in a concentrated broth or quid ink, that deserves better representation among the world's noodle dishes.

Barça 18 doesn't particularly resemble any tapas bar or restaurant I've seen in Barcelona or anywhere in Spain, but it's none the less appealing for that either. It's hot and cold tapas seem well suited as appetizers in a three course meal, although I assume management doesn't mind a table grazing its way though the list. Everything we had was easy to recommend. I might single out the Buñuelos de Bacalao, but it would be unfair to the octopus salad among other dishes. While two of us were pleased with the black "paella," two other diners ordered fish. Neither of them are known to withhold criticism if displeased and respectively they expressed great satisfaction with the swordfish and the rare tuna. The only criticisms from the table were that I had ordered a second bottle of white wine when swordfish and tuna would have been better supported by a red. All three dishes were under $25 each. Tapas, as I recall, ran from about $6 to $10 or 12 each.

Desserts were another high point, although the Fondue sounded much better in concept than I found it in practice. Skewers of raw apple, puff pastry disks and ice cream--also in disk form--were to be dipped in caramel sauce and whipped cream. The sweet ice cream had to be eaten quickly before it melted and that left the tart apples. The caramel sauce didn't stick to the ice cream and I resorted to using a spoon to deliver a combination to my mouth. It looked good arriving at the table, but I'd put in an appeal for sauteed apples and a plated dessert. The churros, not really a dessert item in Spain, were excellent and so were the other desserts. All of them a bargain at $6 each.

The food is no more, or less, authentic than at Casa Mono near by and I'd give the latter an edge perhaps for intensity of flavor, but Barça 18 offers both tapas and real main courses and it's a far more comfortable place. Again, we had a table originally set for six and I might have walked away with an exaggerated sense of space and comfort. I think we've had the discussion about how restaurants try to influence the press on the eGullet forums and I'm sure the topic will run forever. If anyone's displeased with the food, I'd like to hear about it and if a party of six is ever squeezed into a banquet for four, let me know. Hopefully I'll be sitting at a large table and you can wave.

The wine list is predominantly Spanish, with a page of American wines. My one strong criticism of the service was that if you order a cheap ($32) white wine, it will be served in stemless tumblers. This is counterproductive as an inexpensive white wine usually benefits most by staying chilled, which is precisely where having a stem comes in handy. The stemless wine glasses are out of character with what is otherwise a very luxurious table for the price. The menus and wine list are handsomely bound in leather, although the vinyl wine list page covers cheapen the effect, and the table itself is covered in a fitted leather tablecloth. It's a nice effect even if I couldn't get Ricardo Montalban's voice out of my mind. I suspect they've received some special finish or treatment, but I wonder how well they'll hold up to wine and food stains and it was clear that rice wouldn't loosen its grip with just a pass of the crumb catcher.

These are minor amusements. It's the food that will draw us back and it will be a tough choice whether to repeat the dishes we already love or move on to the other choices that made it hard to decide on the first visit. Well, that's not so true. The black rice was a no brainer for me, but the rabbit is tempting as Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page say it's both crisp and juicy. Neither was an adjective I'd have used for a disappointing rabbit that followed excellent tapas (appetizers really) at Bolo some time ago.

Update:
The food drew us back, but after the second visit, I find it harder to recommend the food. The paella lost its freshness. The portion seemed meager and the shell fish seemed over cooked from what I saw. I ordered the rabbit this time and found it anything but crisp or juicy. It arrived in a broth too thin to coat the meat. It's listed on the menu as slow cooked, so I didn't really expect crisp, but it should either have been slow cooked longer or roasted for a shorter time. Actually the rear leg wasn't badly done, but it too should have come off the bone more easily. The loin was just tough and not easily carved from the bone. It was, as one of our companions noted, "nothing special." It could have been an off night, or it could be that they're cranking out the courses with little care. With six people, we got to try a larger range of Tapas. These held up quite well and so far we've found no clunkers. We wanted to try the tortilla with blood sausage, but they were sold out. The "Fondue" was off the dessert menu. The only desssert I tasted this time was the Crema Catalan, deconstructed into a sundae of sorts with ice cream, caramel and custard foam. I found it exceptionally pleasing.