El Buli
 

Heard so much about the restaurant. Planning to go to Spain and hopefully can be able to dine there. Can anyone give me their location and telephone so I can make reservations ? <BR>Anyone eaten there before ? I Any reviews apprecaited. <BR>Thank you

Jasmine, <BR> <BR>There was a fairly recent article on El BUllI in the LA TIMES; I'll attempt to email it to you. Also, I am pretty sure I read a glowing review on this forum recently; I think it was Clay's trip report. Try a search. I know I have read both favorable ( innovative, wonderful) and unfavorable (just plain weird stuff) reviews in several food magazines. I would try it if I were you. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

Jasmine, <BR>I just remebered that when I was in S'Agaro I met a group of people who had lunch at El Bulli and loved it. <BR> <BR>Here's the address , fax, and phone: <BR> <BR>FAX: 011 (34 972) 15 07 17 <BR>PHONE: 011(34 972) 15 04 57 <BR> <BR>El Bulli <BR>AP. 30, Cala Montjoi <BR>17480 Roses (Costa Brava) <BR>Girona, Spain <BR> <BR>Please send us a review if you eat there. <BR>Michele <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

Hi Jasmine, <BR>While waiting to hear from Clay you can <BR>read Patricia Well's and F&W's reviews of El Bulli at <BR> <BR>www.iht.com/IHT/DINE/pw090597.html <BR>www.pathfinder.com/FoodWine/tarticles/803.html <BR> <BR>Hope Clay will give us all a full report, because I'm now even more intrigued, and I actually have an "El Bulli" file (yep, a food addict...) <BR>Seems the word is out about Ferran Adria (who has no formal culinary training). In the last yr the "foodies" and famous chefs (C. Trotter/T. English) have made the pilgrimage to Roses to check out the "highly experimental, innovative, controversial, avant-garde, etc" cuisine of Ferran Adria, and most (but not all) have come back raving about this "Salvador Dali of cuisine". Therefore, so many recent articles, I suppose. <BR> <BR>These are the ones I've filed away: <BR> <BR>Gambero Rosso: "Is the greatest chef of Europe cooking on the Costa Brava?" <BR>El Pais: "The Best Chef in the World" <BR>Joel Robuchon: ditto <BR>NY Times (9/15/99): "In Spain A Chef to Rival Dali" <BR>Food & Wine (9/99): "Brava New World" <BR>Gourmet (10/99): "The Chef of the Future" <BR>Brit. CN Traveller: "Serves You Right" <BR>and on and on... <BR> <BR>My husband read only the few negatives and vetoed it when we were nearby (didn't want to be "experimented with"), so we compromised. We dined instead at "Mas Pau" outside of Figueres (Avignonet de Puigventos) also owned by Adria and his partners (we were staying there) and had a wonderful meal in a lovely 17th c farmhouse filled with antiques-romantic decor, creative cuisine, sophisticated wine list, BUT with a mere 1 Michelin star compared to El Bulli's 3! Plus we missed the adventure of finding the place down that twisting, pothole-filled (?) road! <BR> <BR>If you can't make it up to El Bulli between 3/15-15/9, when he's open, Adria has been hired to oversee (probably not much, if any, "hands on") the dining rm. of "Hacienda Benazuza" outside of Seville (Sanlucar La Mayor), that is, when he's not whipping up new creations in his ultra high tech Barcelona laboratory. <BR> <BR>Clay, Did you have the lollipops or the potato omelette "foam" served in a martini glass or the hot ice cream? <BR>Could you share your menu? <BR>Is the degustation menu really 20 courses? And what's the drive REALLY like? <BR> There's a Fodorite who is on her way to El Bulli (and staying at Hostal de la Gavina, by the way) in just a few days, so Clay, please tell us more! Thanks. <BR> <BR>Maribel <BR> <BR>P.S. El Bulli's email: [email protected]

Jasmine and Michele, <BR>While we're waiting for Clay's review, just wanted to share one more note- <BR>A critic in this month's F&W ("drinks-passions") gives high praise to the bottle of white Albarino, "Granbazan" that El Bulli's sommelier recommended to him. <BR>Reasonably priced.

I missed going there (as it was closed in January). However, I have heard from some friends who dined there in the last year that the dishes are plain bizar. There was an article in last week's Wall Street Journal that described a trend in dining of serving unusual dishes--El Buli was tops on that list.

We're off to Spain tonight. We do have reservations at El Bulli, and of course are looking forward to it. I was so pleased to read Clay's positive comments as I had read a letter in Gourmet mag saying the whole experience was awful. I do trust Michelin and they have given El Bulli three stars again this year. So we shall see. We are not looking forward to the drive to El Bulli and even tried to schedule the trip by boat from Cadaques. The schedule didn't work out though. At this point, I think we'll taxi from Roses. After Roses, we're headed to S'Agaro to the Hostal Gavina for a few days. We're also staying at Mas Pau (thanks to Maribel). I'll be sure to post when we get back in June and not only let you know about El Bulli but the trio of restaurants in San Sebastian. <BR>Just want to thank everyone on this forum. Your information has been so important in planning our trip. However, a special special thanks to fantastic Maribel!!!