Pere Valls Isart is passionate about his restaurant, Bilbao, which his family bought, with the name already in place, in 1954. “This is the thing that I most love in the world,” he told us. “This is my life!” Bilbao is an old-school neighborhood restaurant of the first degree, with two comfortable rooms appointed with mismatched vintage – yet impeccably maintained – marble tables, colorful paintings, photos, drawings and infinite memories.
Over the years, the restaurant has become one of Barcelona’s culinary institutions, a bastion of traditional Catalan cooking. Isart was always a defender of this gastronomical legacy – it’s in his blood. His mother was the first chef of “El Bilbao,” as it is affectionately known, and his grandmother was the chef of the family’s tavern in the village Els Hostalets de Pierola. They cooked the great standbys of the time for locals. Eighteen years after it opened, Valls took over Bilbao. He saw that times were changing, and he wanted to do something more and better. He sourced better ingredients and improved the contents of the dishes and the wine cellar, adding excellent Catalan and Spanish bottlings. He has updated the menu through the decades, bringing in eel, seafood, morels, oysters, Iberian ham – but at the same time always staying true to his roots. At one point, there were lines waiting for a table, and the media sought Valls out to talk about the present and future of traditional gastronomy in Barcelona.
These days the city’s dining scene is more complex, and the opportunities to eat well here are much greater and more diverse than they once were. Restaurants like Bilbao continue to keep alive – and current – Catalonia’s rich popular culinary traditions. And Bilbao does so with refinement.
The kitchen is now helmed by chef Jordi Olivet, who upholds Valls’s legacy with his own contributions. To begin with, we love the amazing oxtail, which is marinated for 24 hours in a mixture of wine, orange and lemon peel, onion, garlic and carrots, then stewed for four hours and served with a delicate wine-poached pear. The beef has become luscious, velvety and melting, with the sweetness of the pear a perfect counterpoint to its rich, meaty flavors. Another customer favorite is the risotto-style rice, and we also love the Palamós prawns, a huge local red variety, which are lightly grilled and seasoned with flaky Maldon sea salt. The black truffle caneloni with boletes and foie gras is one of El Bilbao’s greatest hits. And while it’s in season, we recommend a dish of salted artichokes with fine shavings of ham, a well-balanced flavor pairing.
On our next visit, we plan on ordering the cod morro with garlic mousse and cardinale sauce – because, yes, Bilbao is that special kind of place where as soon as you’ve finished feasting like a king, you can’t help but begin planning your next meal there.
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