Dinner at Estimar

Dinner at Estimar

at Estimar on 18 May 2019
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Little sea food restaurant run by the former El Bulli chef Rafa Zafra and his wife Ana Gotanegra in the gothic district of Barcelona. The restaurant is in a small street very close to the Santa Maria del Mar church, very hard to find it without local knowledge or GPS. The dining room is a small space with rustic interior and an impressive fish display in front of the open kitchen.
On the menu they only offer fresh, properly cooked seafood dishes without any unnecessary frills just high quality ingredients at their best.
After the snail and olive nibbles we had marinated mackerel, crayfish carpaccio, fried anchovies, sautéed clams and red prawns to start, baked John Dory, tomato salad, Portobello mushrooms and white asparagus for main dishes.
The highlights were the baked John Dory shared by all of us which was exceptionally fresh and tasty and the delicately cooked prawns from Roses-Costa Brava.
Our dessert order was a portion of home made Catalan cheesecake to share. The texture is very similar to the famous Basque cheesecake but a little bit creamier. It was simple divine.
The wine list is limited but well balanced with high quality international and Spanish wines.
The service was very professional all along our dinner with different really good dish recommendations. This was very important as the written menu is short and not very detailed. All was perfectly explained by our lovely young waiter. The restaurant is clean, friendly the atmosphere was relaxed.
Delightful experience.

9 / 10

Nibles- Snails and Olives

Marinated mackerel with Jerez dressing

Crayfish carpaccio with caramelised onions "tribute to El Bulli 1995"

Fried anchovies marinated with lemon

Sauteed clams with Fino Quinta wine

Roses red prawns

John Dory

Candied and spicy portobellos

Natural tomatoes salad

White asparagus with romesco butter