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Uncle Orson's Restaurant Guide
Neichel

		Restaurants in Spain Caminetto (Italian) Neichel Agut d'Avignon Ciudad Condal Gelateria Dino Senyor de Perelada

Unlike the proven็al restaurants it resembles, the dress here is rather upscale — mostly business suits and dignified evening wear. This did not stop me and Kristine from wearing what we had, and there were a couple of men without jackets and women in something other than a dark suit or Simple Black Dress. The service is gracious, and the menus are available in English as well as the local languages, while if your foreign language happens to be French, that can be useful, too.

The Catalan habit of serving shellfish "complete" (i.e., with shell and head) was respected here, but so were the squeamish attitudes of Americans, for on my shrimp, lentil, and lettuce-heart salad the shrimps had already been shelled except the tail, then placed back in connection with the head. Thus Catalans could indulge the gruesome (to me) habit of treating the shrimp's head as a delicacy, while I could set it aside and eat the sweet, deliciously fresh and delicately sauced shrimp without performing surgery beforehand.

Much as I enjoyed my salad, however, Kristine's lobster and asparagus salad with artichoke hearts was declared the winner of the evening. The salads were not tossed, but rather arranged, with the greens kept separate from the fish and some of the seasonings, so you could mingle them as you wished while eating. The result was both appetizing to look at and a pleasure to eat, as we could experiment with many different combinations of flavor in the same salad.

My second course was perhaps the most perfectly cooked tenderloin I have ever had. The thin-sliced sauteed onions and the sauce were thinly arranged atop the beef; inside, the chef proved that he, almost unique among chefs, understood how to slow-cook tenderloin so that a request for medium-well could be met without either burning the outside or leaving bloody-red meat inside. A tiny portion of sauerkraut and a wedge of very thin quiche-like pie were surprisingly apt flourishes.

Kristine had seabass — dourado, actually, though we can't detect the difference — under a huge thin flat noodle and stuffed with wild mushrooms. She is more easily excited by vegetables than I am, and I don't care for cous- cous, so while I wouldn't have wanted to trade with her, she was more than pleased with her main course. The breads were delicious, and offered frequently throughout the meal — though beware, for if you ever refuse more bread, they will try to take away your bread plate and then you'll never be offered any again!

I tried the cheeses, and while I very much enjoyed the three I asked for, my favorite was the Catalan goat cheese with a thin patina of olive oil that the waiter put on my plate as a bonus. It can't be purchased just anywhere, but that's all right — I will simply have to come back to Neichel to get more of it!

The dessert carts — that's right, it takes two carts with two shelves each to display all the desserts — showed astonishing variety, even for someone like Kristine with an allergy both to strawberries and to any kind of alcohol used in cooking. Kristine had the white chocolate mousse and the chocolate cake, while I asked for the dark chocolate mousse and the lemon tart — yes, that's right, we had two desserts each, but they balance the sizes of the servings so neither is too much. And again, our waiter surprised us with a fig and a slice of kiwi fruit on each plate, both of which were perfectly ripe and full of flavor.

After an evening of good food, good company, and a pleasant but never- intrusive staff, the crowning surprise was that as we left the restaurant, having asked the hostess to call us a taxi, the doorman entered to see if anyone wanted the cab that had just dropped someone off. So we stepped into the taxi without a moment's wait and returned to our hotel ready to check our email, write this review, and go to bed at the early hour (for Catalonia) of one a.m.

Neichel
Avda. Pedralbes, 16-bis
Barcelona, Spain
203-84-08

You'll want reservations. Remember that Spanish suppertime begins at 8 p.m at the earliest, but most usually around ten. Neichel is actually off a side- street and even the sign can't be seen easily from Pedralbes. But it's worth finding.