The Garden Flat Barcelona - Eixample

La Xina (in Catalan) or la China (in Spanish)..literally "The Chinese" is the Tragaluz Group´s latest eatery, and its first foray into the more touristy end of town, just off Las Ramblas on Pintor Fortuny.

It´s dead easy from the flat: just get the train down to Plaça Catalunya from Provença (one stop, 5 minutes...). Then walk down Las Ramblas and you´ll find it on the right after about 5 minutes.

We tested this recently, and had a great meal. The food is fusion Chinese with quite a few Japanese dishes thrown in. There´s Dim Sum on the menu (I thought Dim Sum was late breakfast?) and plenty of delicacies with noodles, fried rice dishes, fish, meat and steamed vegetables.Here´s the full menu.

The restaurant is on 2 floors- it´s a fun informal atmosphere (you might be sharing a table bench if its busy, but they´re big tables), and the setting is quite a draw in itself. High ceilings, with a huge backlit paper dragon lantern suspended from the ceiling downstairs, and a "tepenyaki" type layout upstairs where the diners sit around the chefs cooking on hot plates.

We´d recommend the beef carpacio and black cod- both mouth watering. There´s also a good selection of wine including some fine Riojas if you like your reds. It´s not really a place for great Dim Sum (the only place you´ll get that in Europe is London in our view, and we´ve got strong views on that one being ex Hong Kong residents!). But for Asian fusion food a lá Ken Hom with a buzzy atmosphere, it hits the spot. Anyway, who eats Dim Sum at 9pm?

Address:
Pintor Fortuny, 1
(esquina Las Rablas )
08001 Barcelona
Telephone: 93 342 96 28

Hours:
Sun to Thurs
13:00 toa 23.30
Friday, Sat
13:00 to 24:00

WEBSITE

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