I'm going to Barcelona in June and I have been hearing lots about El Bully, is it really worth it? Distance and price?

Its "el Bulli" and yes it is.

It is likely that it is way too late to get a reservation in June. They are open May to Sept and start taking reservations for the next year in October

You'll never get in -- all reservations for 2007 were filled in January. I know, I tried. I have a note in my January 2008 calendar to try to get a reservation for 2008.

Of course, you may get lucky with a cancelation, but, for all I know, El Bulli may have a waiting list.

Is this a restaurant, hotel, flamenco show, etc.? thanks.

It is a restaurant. Probably the most talked about in the world right now with super star chef Ferran Adria.

ttt

Is it a restaurant? Good question! IMO it's a lab where chemistry turns into 'inventive cooking'.
Check out the photographs in the general catalogue on the website http://www.elbulli.com/
The ones of 2005 give good examples of what molecular cuisine looks like. Although I'm not sure what to expect of <i>'tramontana passion fruit paper with gorgonzola'</i> (photo 1115) ...

I'm another who tried but was told it's sold out for all of 2007. The chefs love this restaurant as well as Michel Bras in the Auvergne.

It is actually booked for this year, any other suggestions of great restaurants in Barcelona?

I rather like the spelling of &quot;El Bully&quot; - that has a nice ring to it! I can imagine the chef intimidating diners to try a specialty that he would insist they try, whether they wanted it or not!

Yeah..the chef as bully!

That website is a classic...what a document. Like the book, I guess.

I certainly would go to the area to eat there if it wasn't such a pain to get a table. But guess what, there is another restaurant in the same town, Roses, that sounds even better to me..the name is Rafa's Place or something similar...

ooops..sorry...the town is not Roses, it is Rosas...

..I need to take a break..I was right the first time..

We were in Barcelona in March when El Bulli is not open, so we ate at Commerc24 (Carrer del Commerc24 in the El Born). It is run by a chef Carlos Abellan, who spent 7 years at El Bulli. It was fabulous!! We had the 7 course tasting menu and it was fantastic and the service perfect. There is an article in a recent Travel &amp; Leisure (I think April) about his newest restaurant Tapac24, which I believe is in the L'Eixample.

The only other 3* Michelin in the area that I know about is El Racode Can Fabes, in San Celoni, about 30 miles from Barcelona..

Other restaurants to check out in Barcelona are Jaume de Provenca, La Dama. and Neichel.

Some writers have the last 3 restaurants ranked higher than the two 3* restaurants there.

I've not tried any of these, just trying to give you highly ranked restaurants. Start with La Dama.

To give PalenQ more of an answer: el Bulli has been ranked as the best restaurant in the world. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferran_Adria for more. He's famous for making extremely weird technical flavor and texture creations, such as beet foam or mushroom paper.

fnarf999,

You also need to qualify this by saying &quot;by some people&quot;.

Ultimately, it becomes a hype game with the 'over the top' restaurants. In the U.S., the best example is the French Laundry. There are 5-7 restaurants in the Bay Area alone that are better or equal to this restaurant. However, the French Laundry is at the top of the hype game.

Thanks you all, I guess the Bully is the right name since its so hard to get a reservation. I am going to try other places for reservations but since I need a table for 12 people I think it might get messy..

Rastaguytoday, I don't think I need to qualify &quot;ranked&quot; with &quot;by some people&quot; because it's implied. Any subjective ranking is &quot;by some people&quot;. How could it be otherwise? The word &quot;best&quot; doesn't have any objective meaning in this case, or any other non-numeric qualification.

I believe that the best restaurant in the world is a taco truck on Aurora Avenue in Shoreline, Washington -- and I'm not wrong. Neither French Laundry or el Bulli appear on the list because one of the qualifiers is &quot;must be a place I can afford to go to&quot;.