b-served Gastronomy
Gutai Gastropub
From Moscow to Barcelona
The invasion of Barcelona’s food scene with ramen, sushi, yakiniku and other Japanese inspired restaurants is happening apace. There seems to be a new tempting option opening every other day in every city neighbourhood. One recently opened restaurant however stands out amongst the others; Gutai gastropub. A lesson in cultural fusion, the owner Anna Vitoshinskaya a Russian national who spent time as a kid in Barcelona (the original Gutai gastropub is located in Moscow) describes the food as a culinary juxtaposition rather than traditional fusion between East and West.
The mise-en-scène is impacting, created by Lázaro Rosa Violán that is organised into different zones, the entrance with dining tables and cocktail bar, the middle with open plan kitchen and a rear dining area that feels like an annexe also with a bar counter. Posters, artworks and natural wood and finishes come together to whet the appetite in a warm and cozy ambience.
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Aubergine and Thai tomatoes
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The Barcelona restaurant going public is not overly fond of spicy cuisine, Gutai walks the line between savoury and spicy while never going too far. The chef Jonathan Aria Rojas is responsible for interpreting the signature dishes created by Igor Su at the flagship restaurant in Russia. The idea is summed up by the owner, “to take dishes and concepts and create new versions recalling Asian tastes.” Just like the Moscow menu, but with more sushi and more pork here because in Russia pork is not so popular, there are dishes from around the world.
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Tuna fish and spicy prawns
The menu is divided into different sections; appetizers and snacks, main dishes, soups, dumplings, woks noodles, rice, sushi and sashimi. Starting with the house snacks: Korean carrot and cabbage pickled with citrus. The starters include finger food options like Beef buns, duck salad, eggplant and Thai tomato, squid with Korean sauce or wasabi prawns with condensed milk sauce. One of the highlights are the tacos, with Iberian bacon, snow crab or guacamole and prawns.
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Beef Bun
The selection of soups includes miso, ramen and Tom yum with prawns; followed by Gutai’s home amde dumplings, sushi, sashimi, noodles and rice-based dishes (sautéed with egg, with veal, shrimp, chicken or vegetables and kimchi rice with egg), to end with a choice of desserts that also narrow the eyes: panna green tea cotta; chocolate and praline cake; Homemade green tea ice cream, wasabi or passion fruit, and homemade condensed milk or ginger mochi.
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Vulcan
The rolls include Tuna with spicy prawns, California with tobiko, "Chinese Roll" with eel and sesame or "Vulcan" roll with snow crab and sriracha. A final roll plays with the diner in taste and name, becoming the only "gastronomic" wink of Gutai with Mother Russia. This is the "From Russia with Love" roll, a size with ‘snow crab’ crab, tobiko, avocado and salmon. "The most usual seafood in Russia is the crab, and here it is presented as in a crêpe, similar to the blini that all Russians are in love with," explains the ideologist. Love. By the way, the other Soviet wink of the place is in the dishes, imported and designed by the Russian artistic collective Redneck Ware.
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The pub part of the ‘gastrobub’ element is recalled by the selection of cockails, originally cretaed by the executive barman of the business of the Russian capital, Ivan Sablin, are creations that accompany the local cuisine, many of them also with Asian wink. Demands at any time of the day (accompanying an afternoon gastronomic menu based on starters, soups and dumplings), the cocktail bar is one of the pillars of Gutai, also at the last minute, when the light goes down and the music goes up.
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- Gutai Barcelona
- C/ Mallorca 196
- 08036 Barcelona
- + 93 676 0884
- http://gutai-gastropub.com/en/