Barcelona self-pick seafood restaurant

The first night in Barcelona, a Spanish friend took me to a self-pick typical seafood restaurant. That experience gave me a big welcome as a food traveler.

As he was telling us that most people go to have dinner starting at 9pm, because we want to avoid crowd, we went there at 8pm. Actually, we went there 15 minutes before 8pm, the restaurant has not yet open to the public.

This is how it works: pick the fresh seafood that you want, they cook for you right away, you wait till they call a code, you pick up the cooked food from the kitchen window.

That night we picked 7 kinds of seafood for 4 people with a bottle of cheap white wine (more like champagne, a bubbly white wine). Each person paid 17 Euros, which is really cheap for the quality of seafood in Europe. My favorite one is the razor clam (see up right pic). In Toronto China town I sometimes see them too but not as big as those in Barcelona. In the restaurant, they cooked with a special green sauce, which gave a very unique flavor to the chewy clam flesh. The dish is so simple yet amazing because they are alive right before cooking. They have to be alive.

In the restaurant they sell those tiny whole fish, which I saw them often in Italy. They are deep fried like calamari. Depends on how small the fishes are, some ones with big head can taste very fishy. I normally eat the whole fish, but sometimes when it is too strong, I left the head alone on the plate.

If you ever visit Barcelona, you have to try those restaurants. They are so good that the next day I want to go there for lunch again. But they only open from 8pm everyday and some hours in the Saturday afternoon. I guess people normally do not eat seafood for lunch???