La Cova Fumada

La Cova Fumada, in Barcelona, is one of my favorite restaurants in the world which I think is saying a lot seeing as I have lived in Italy for the past three years! We discovered the restaurant last year after reading about it on Food and Wine's website (FYI their website is a great place to find awesome restaurant recommendations). I have to say that if we had not read that recommendation we probably would not have gone in because the outside doesn't look like much...





Waiting out front of the Cova Fumada for a table. The wait isn't so bad when they have already served  you your first round of beer.



The inside doesn't look like much either, the whole restaurant including the kitchen is contained in one big, open room, but we knew it would be good by the crazy amount of people inside. Every seat in the place was occupied and there was a crowd of people standing around the small bar sipping Estrella Damm beer and eating and another crowd of people occupying any space they could while they waited for a coveted spot at one of the few tables.



This is the entire inside of the restaurant. The kitchen (pictured below) is just to the right and is completely open to the room.


 


The kitchen - I love the grandma looking lady in the apron.







The beer fridge - packed full with Estrella Damm.


When you order a beer here you don't say what kind you want you just say big or small.



Our meal was delicious. Like in many places in Barcelona, here they serve small plates of food so you can order and try a lot of different things. I think we must of ordered almost everything on the menu but some of our favorites included the small artichokes cooked alla plancia (the flat grill) and doused in butter (the butter dribbled down my hands and wrists while I ate), calamari also cooked alla plancia and mussels on the half shell served with a dollop of creamy, smooth garlic aioli atop each one. This place is also credited as being the creator of the Bomba - a mashed potato and ham mixture which is made into a ball and fried and served with the aforementioned garlic aioli and a fiery red sauce.

To finish off the meal and revive us from our food induced coma we always have a Pirata. It is a hot coffee drink created by the crew at the Cova Fumada which consists of a slice of lemon, an espresso shot and I think at least two different kinds of liquor (it was a little difficult to keep track at that point of exactly what was going into our drink).



The two gentlemen on the outside are both part of the family that runs the restaurant. The man who is second in on the right is named Peni. We met him last year during our first visit to La Cova Fumada and we were able to reconnect with him this year thanks to the man in the blue shirt and some great pantomiming from Andrea :)



Of course, we had to get a photo with the grandma.

 

We absolutely love this place. To us it feels like real Barcelona and a place we could easily imagine ourselves visiting with strict regularity if we lived in Barcelona. We love it so much that during the last year, after our first visit to La Cova Fumada, we often found ourselves saying that if we could find a cheap enough flight we would go to Barcelona just to have lunch at La Cova Fumada. In fact, it was at the top of our list of things to do when we returned to Barcelona and on our first full day of our vacation we found ourselves there enjoying a nice, leisurely and delicious four hour lunch.

If you find yourself in Barcelona, please pay these guys a visit and ENJOY!