Foodie Review: El Quim, La Boqueria, Barcelona, Spain

Today I'd like to share with you one final post from our recent Spain trip detailing our amazing lunch at El Quim in La Boqueria.  If you missed any of my Spain posts, you can check out all six here or by filtering for "Spain" in my labels (located in my sidebar).  El Quim is a restaurant that we saw endorsed by Anthony Bourdain, as well as being highly rated on both Yelp and Tripadvisor.  It's located inside of La Boqueria, the large open market off La Rambla in Barcelona (to learn more about La Boqueria, check out my revious post on the market here).  El Quim is a small restaurant with a bar wrapping around three sides of the kitchen.  Go early for the shortest wait, but even if there is a line don't be too worried.  The kitchen whips out dishes quickly, turning diners at a reasonable rate because this team knows what they are doing.  Ordering is easy: you can get a paper English menu, check the boxes of the items you want, and then wait for the dishes to start being passed over.  Please scroll through for photos and more details on the delectable dishes we enjoyed at El Quim.

 

This first dish I'm showing you was the richest dish by far: sauteed wild mushrooms with caramelized fois gras and a fried egg.  Because fois is currently illegal to serve in California, our friends from San Francisco were in heaven on this trip.

Shrimp (aka gambas) in garlic with cava reduction, one of El Quim's specialties.

Acorn fed ham (aka jamon) with potatoes and fried egg, a quintessential breakfast/brunch dish.

Grilled baby squid, very simply prepared but so fresh and tasty.

Steamed clams in white wine sauce.

Bulls' tail risotto, my favorite dish if I had to choose.  The rich, creamy sauce and tender bites of oxtail were irresistible--we ordered two of these dishes because the first one disappeared so fast!

Giant grilled prawns, with tripe in the bottom corner.  Another simply cooked dish, but so fresh and delicious.

Wagyu beef tartar, another one of El Quim's specialties and definitely one of the most photogenic.

 

Finally, a photo of part of our happy group, food in hand and sitting at the bar.  Every dish we enjoyed at El Quim was delicious, and I will definitely return when I have the opportunity to visit Barcelona again.  I hope you enjoyed these photos, and please do reach out if you would like recommendations or more information on Barcelona or Pamplona.  Thanks so much for visiting my blog today, and I hope you have a great week!