This little trip was a tad different than other short trips we take. The reason, it all revolved around a restaurant reservation, a place you may or may not know, El Cellar de Can Roca. But more on that below.
As times worked out best, we flew into Barcelona, grabbed the hire car and hit the road for the reasonably short drive to Girona. Despite getting stuck in the desperate Barca traffic, we made pretty good time arriving just after lunch.
We’re staying in the Nord 1901 hotel which has a good location near the old part of the city. After navigating the car into the very small basement carpark, we checked in, dropped the bags and hit the streets in search of lunch.
We did not have too far to go as the Plaça de la Independència was a two minute walk from our hotel and it’s surrounded by dozens of places to grab a bite to eat and there’s plenty of outdoor seating. As we knew what was ahead of us for dinner, we kept it simple and popped into a small tapas bar to have something small to eat, a few shared tapas did the job nicely.
There was however time (and room) for dessert and probably the most famous ice cream bar in the city, just happens to be owned by the same family we’ll be dining with later.
The Rocambolesc ice cream parlour is actually tiny, but has several options from frozen sorbets, soft serve and large tubs to take away, with crazy flavours such as parmesan cheese, asparagus and so on. We kept it relatively simple, C opted for the baked apple and caramel, with elderflower marshmallows as a topping. I had the no nonsense chocolate with the same mallows and chocolate and caramel sprinkles. The ice cream was fantastic, things were certainly shaping up well for dinner.
For the remainder of the afternoon we walked around most of the old city, taking in a few of the sites. Girona is a very walkable city and has a very easygoing feel about the place, it’s a lot more laid back in comparison to say, Barcelona or Madrid and a lot less touristy.Evening rolls around. After putting on our (almost) finest, we ordered a cab and headed to the restaurant. Here’s a little bit more about our dining option and why we flew, just to get here.
El Cellar de Can Roca is owned by three brothers, Joan, Josep and Jordi. Each has their own part to play, Joan is the head chef, Josep head of front of house and a sommelier, Jordi the youngest, is the pastry chef.
It’s currently 2nd on the Worlds 50 best restaurants list, it has been 1st in 2013 and 2015. It has won countless awards and it goes without saying, it holds the coveted 3 Michelin stars.To say we were excited would be an understatement, after all, the booking was made 12 months previous.
One big plus was on arrival, we were greeted by Josep and brought to our table. The interior of the restaurant is in almost a triangle shape, with a central glass atrium, the seating is comfortable, the staff very well presented and very friendly.
To start we were offered some Cava, made exclusively for the restaurant, it was very tasty. Next we were asked if we’d like to see the wine list, which we did. The photo below, does not do the wine list justice and that was just the “white” wine list, the red was as big with the champagne about half that size.
For now though, I’ll let a few of the photos do the talking…..
Phew, that’s not every course, there was also a sweet trolly with dozens of different types of sweets to choose from. So after all of that, was it worth it, the journey getting here, booking so far in advance with a “chance” you may get a table and did the food live up to the hype………
Yes, yes it did and we’d do it all again. The one criticism we probably both agreed on, there was nothing out of the ordinary over the entire meal regarding original flavours, yes everything was in season, the flavours of Spain and the Mediterranean with classic French techniques were well represented, however these were flavours we’ve tasted before, but thankfully everything was done really well.
The following morning, we grabbed a very light breakfast, before hitting the road towards the Pyrénées and Andorra.
The drive, once off the motorways, was fantastic, the scenery was impressive, even at this time of the year there’s plenty of snow topped mountains. This along with amazing valleys and some spectacular lakes, made the almost three hour drive fly by.
There’s really only two reasons to visit Andorra, especially its capital, Andorra la Vella, you’re here for the duty free, or you’re here to ski. Due to the duty free there’s plenty of day trippers from both France and Spain here to pick up bargains, with the usual duty free stuff available, along with quite a few electronic stores. The ski season usually goes from November to March.
For us though, we just wanted to visit a new country and enjoy the road trip getting here. We stayed at the very fancy Andorra Park Hotel and as it’s a quiet Sunday, we reckon there was no more than a few dozen guests staying, plus it’s still out of season, just after the ski season and the summer season yet to kick off proper.
Our room was a fantastic size, with a balcony offering great views of the surrounding mountains. The bathroom was a good size with double sinks and a hot-tub.
We decided to have lunch in the hotel, they have a very nice area out on the main grounds called the La Pergola. We were the only ones there, it was great, it was like we had our own butler. We ordered just a few tapas, some green salad and a drink, it was very relaxing, just what we needed before hitting the streets.
We spent the remainder of the day wandering around enjoying the sites, although mostly window shopping. We stopped in the odd coffee bar for a snack and a coffee, it’s obvious that these places would be “the” après ski bars during the season.
As evening rolled around, we had spotted a pizza bar earlier in the day called Mama Maria, given the meal the night previous, we kept it simple for dinner. The pizzas were fine, the service was rubbish, but we were not bothered, no tip for you then J.
The following morning, we grabbed breakfast, which was really good, eggs, omelettes and the like, cooked to order, freshly squeezed OJ, fresh breads etc. After a hearty breakfast, it was time to leave for the drive back to Barcelona to catch our flight home. The drive back was equally enjoyable and we both agreed to do it again at a later date, but continue on into France.
Until next time,
C&J
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