Barcelona restaurants: Caña de Azúcar, a taste of Venezuela

This week, we visit a restaurant we discovered thanks to its media success. It's been featured both by Catalan public broadcaster TV3 and on El Tenedor's recent list of its users' 50 favourite restaurants in Spain where it comes in 35th, the 3rd highest from Barcelona, just behind Estimar and Hoffman. Allow us to take this opportunity to express our complete disagreement with the list.

Caña de Azúcar's offering is new to us Miguelines: Venezuelan food. The world is huge and its culinary traditions are hugely varied, we try to try everything but we have to be honest: this is our first time trying Venezuelan. The novelty stimulates our minds and puts us in a state of positive, anticipatory nerves. The restaurant, in Barcelona's Eixample neighbourhood (on calle Muntaner just below calle Aragó), is small, seating 40, and decorated in a colourful, informal, Venezuelan style. The service is fine, notably motivated and involved in the food they serve.

The owner and chef, Adnaloy, is the restaurant's soul. Venezuelan by birth, he has studied in Barcelona's Hoffman culinary school, as well as working in great Michelin-starred restaurants like Mugaritz. Finally, barely thirty, he's ended up setting up his own restaurant, Caña de Azúcar, calling on the recipes he'd eaten his whole life in his now poor, deteriorated Venezuela, but incorporating many of the techniques he has learned in the northern hemisphere.

Venezuelan food is characterised by a strong mix of all the culinary trends in Latin America. Native roots, influences from the cultures of both South and North America. There's also a "creole" influence, in Spanish usage meaning those descendents of European colonists who were born in America and reinterpreted their parents' dishes, but influenced by the customs and ingredients of the places they were born and lived. This mix is reflected in dishes which include ceviche (Peruvian marinated fish), pulled meat, cheeses, sobrassada (a sausage from the Balearic Islands) or those characteristic South American confections using banana in savoury dishes. Nor are corn, beans, chilli or avocado missing.

Ceviche del día (Ceviche of the day)

Cachapita (Little "cachapa" corn pancakes)

Arepa galipanera (Galipán-style "arepa" corn patties)

Pabellón criollo ("Creole pavilion")

Pulpo a la brasa y chicharrón de calamar (Grilled octopus and fried squid)

Tequeño parrillero (Grilled breaded cheese sticks)

Dulce limón (Lemon dessert)

At Caña de Azúcar they are well aware of their uniqueness. As such, they have decided to offer their dishes with a choice of seven different set menus, from "Sabor a Venezuela" (Taste of Venezuela) to "Vegetariano" (Vegetarian), passing by the intriguing "Criollo" (Creole). This makes your decision much easier, you just have to let them take you. There's no better way to see what Adnaloy's small kitchen is capable of. The "sophistication of Latin American street food", the affordable price and the exotic touch of a cuisine currently little known amongst Catalans make this casual option ideal to leave your routine.

Address: Carrer de Muntaner, 69, 08011 Barcelona

Telephone: (+34) 936 81 75 57

Website: restaurantecaadeazucar-wec.com

Opening hours: From Wednesday to Saturday, from 1:30pm to 3:30pm and from 8pm to 11pm. Sunday, from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. Monday and Tuesday closed.