Barcelona is increasingly international: less ours and more everyone’s. It’s a trend that not even Mayor Ada Colau can change, one that we like more than others – we’re talking about the trend, okay? – which leaves money for the city but more importantly defines our free-time options: money talks. Food is no exception, and even though our land beckons us and our cuisine is cutting-edge in products and recipes, places keep cropping up just like fads: they are as good as they are similar to restaurants in other European cities.
There’s room for everyone, so no need to panic. You have to keep an open mind, like the French chefs who have opened Agust, one of them Arab, with experience with the great Étoiles Michelin and a teacher at Hoffmann for several years. Don’t let the Catalan name Agust throw you off: there’s nothing Catalan about it. It is an eclectic, hybrid place where ingredients and recipes from all over the world mix and mingle in a totally natural, and skilful, way. People from all over, culinarily quite cultivated… really very interesting.
The venue, which is located in a neighbourhood overrun by foreigners, Carrer Parlament near Paral·lel, is cool. It has two storeys, the lower one less formal with tall tables and a bar, and the upper one quieter with low tables, no tablecloths in sight. The atmosphere is warm and clearly foody-friendly. The day we went there most diners were international, and their level of beauty was truly astonishing – if we may – even though this is always subjective and our métier is not to judge this aspect. In this sense we fall short, but not food-wise. Hey, it’s something!
Let’s see if you agree with the hybridity and eclecticism which we have claimed. We begin the menu with an “Assortment of oysters”, each prepared differently: The Mexican with aguachile and pico de gallo, The Tokyota with ponzu sauce and salmon roe, The Parisian with drops of lemon, and The Hirosaki with green apple and wasabi. We continue with Shellfish assortment with seaweed butter, which sounds more exotic than it is. To finish this first round, we sample one of the restaurant’s star dishes, Avocado cannelloni, beautifully composed of avocado serving as the cannelloni pasta and stuffed with prawns, avocado and sunflower seeds. Delicate, exquisite, feminine.
Assortment of oysters
Avocado cannelloni
In the second part of the menu we sample Sardine fillets with pistachio ‘ajoblanco’, a dish that also comes with yoghurt and raspberries, an accomplished contrast of flavours and colours, a unique dish worth trying. We follow it with an intriguing Veal carpaccio, topped with cockles, a curious and quite effective combination.
Sardine fillets with pistachio 'ajoblanco'
Beef carpaccio
The last round of savoury dishes: Smoked eel with kabayaki sauce, a sauce which consists in a sweet soy-based sauce we had never tried before. Finally, the chef serves a beautifully plated Beef loin smoked with grape vine shoots with Café de Paris sauce and creamy potatoes with truffles. It is all quite precious, with varied flavours and coherence in all the dishes, which is a feat bearing in mind their different styles.
Smoked eel with kabayaki sauce
Beef loin smoked with grape vine shoots
The desserts are worth it. Note the Cactus, a dessert invented by chef Hicham Houmididey which will compel you to take out your camera.
Cactus
It’s a curious place, a posturing place, which of course is reflected in the price. But Agust is different, informal, quite romantic, gourmet, far from homemade and closer to cosmopolitan. It’s a great choice for a dinner out on the weekend, taking advantage of the cocktail bar housed in the restaurant’s bar. And while you’re there, have one on us!
| Score | ||
|---|---|---|
| Food | Wines | |
| 71 | 69 | |
| Service | Venue | |
| 68 | 69 | |
| Price | MIGUELÍN STARS | |
| 50€ |  |
|
| Per person: 2/3 appetisers to share, 1 main course, 1 dessert, 1 glass of wine | ||
Where is Agust?
Address: Carrer del Parlament, 54, 08015 Barcelona
Telephone: 931626733
Timetable: Monday to Friday: 7 pm to 12 midnight. Saturday and Sunday: 2 to 4 pm and 7 pm to 12 midnight.