• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Tiny Urban Kitchen
  • About Me
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Michelin
  • Subscribe
  • Taiwanese
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About Me
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Michelin
  • Subscribe
  • Taiwanese
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • About Me
    • Travel
    • Recipes
    • Michelin
    • Subscribe
    • Taiwanese
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » Restaurant

    Rias de Galicia Barcelona

    Published: Dec 20, 2016 by Jennifer Che

    Rias de Galicia
    This is the fourth post in the Hello Barcelona series. Other posts include Cafe Viena and ABaC Barcelona

    Barcelona is right next to the ocean. There is a huge seaport filled with cruise ships as well as industrial ships. It’s no surprise, then, that seafood is a big part of the cuisine.

    When I told my chef friend Tracy Chang (who, by the way, has soft-opened her new restaurant PAGU this week!), about my Sunday/Monday restaurant dilemma, she suggested one of her favorite restaurants, Espai Kru, which happened to be open on Sundays. The restaurant focuses on raw preparations of seafood (“kru” means raw in Spanish).

    Unfortunately for us, Espai Kru was not open on Monday, the day we wanted to go there. However, their sister restaurant Rias de Galicia, a more casual version that still serves phenomenal seafood, but more in the traditional Catalan style, was open.Rias de Galicia
    The environment at Rias de Galicia is friendly. The servers speak English, and they have an English menu. The environment is pleasant, but not stuffy. Most diners were dressed smart casual.

    I was thrilled to see that there was crossover between the two restaurants’ menus. Items from Espai Kru (e.g., the raw seafood items) were marked with an asterisk indicating they were from the sister restaurant. There were also many more traditional Catalan dishes. It was hard to choose, but we ended up getting a few items from each section. It was our way of sampling Espai Kru without actually being able to visit the restaurant.

    The menu is rather extensive. There are tasting menus (80 Euros or 95 Euros) which allow you to sample many of their best dishes. You can also order a la carte, and the last page has several appetizers and entrees consisting of various seafood that can be grilled according to several different styles.

    Finally, there is an entire two pages worth of small plates. Bryan and I decided we didn’t quite have the stomach space or time for the tasting menu, so we opted to order several small plates to share from that section.
    Barcelona-50.jpg Rias de Galicia
    They began by serving us complimentary crackers topped with a smoked fish mousse.

    The server highly recommended the Shrimp and Crab Croquette (3 Euros a piece), which was very flavorful, yet quite rich and a tad greasy. I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t imagine eating more than one.
    Rias de Galicia blue lobster
    Next, from the Espai Kru menu, we ordered Galician Blue Lobster and Wild Sea Bass Tartare, topped with caviar (33 Euros). Looking back, I should have listened to the server when he told us he preferred the other lobster dish, a lobster salad made from cooked lobster, mango, and avocados. This dish was fresh and executed well, but just did not really blow me away with the flavors.
    Rias de Galicia
    I couldn’t taste much flavor in the lobster or even the caviar. Their flavors were unfortunately drowned out by the very heavy-handed sour dressing. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t seem worth the cost of using such expensive ingredients considering I couldn’t really taste the them that much.
    Rias de Galicia
    The Lettuce Salad with bonito (skipjack tuna) belly, roasted red peppers, and a green chili vinaigrette (15.50 Euros) was quite pleasant.
    Rias de Galicia Rias de Galicia Barcelona
    The roasted red peppers and tuna were served on the side, so we could add as much or as little as we wanted. Hee hee, like my attempt at making a heart?
    Rias de Galicia Barcelona
    Cuttlefish and sea cucumber bomba

    From the “cooked” section of the menu, we ordered a “Bomba” rice with sea cucumber and Mediterranean cuttlefish (32 Euros). Bomba is a Spanish rice similar to Arborio that is typically used in making paella. Bryan and I had never had sea cucumber in any application other than in Chinese cuisine, so we were very curious to see what it was likely.
    Rias de Galicia Barcelona
    The dish was very flavorful and we loved the texture of the rice. However, we actually had a hard time figuring out which was the sea cucumber. Cooked sea cucumber Mediterranean style is so different from the Chinese style we had a hard time recognizing it. Instead of being gelatinous in texture, this sea cucumber was more firm (still tender, but firm) and was white in color, which really reminded us of squid.
    Rias de Galicia Barcelona
    A special bomba spork!

    We eventually concluded that the white tender bits were sea cucumber, and the more firm, chewy cubes in the rice were small pieces of cuttlefish.

    In any event, this dish was very good, probably one of our favorites from the meal.

    We decided not to order dessert, but they did give us some complimentary mignardises, a sweet chocolate cup filled with chocolate cream and a lovely sunflower brittle (yum!).
    Rias de Galicia Barcelona
    All in all, the restaurant makes excellent food.

    I wonder if it's worth focusing more on the “cooked” side of the menu. At least in our limited experience, we were not as impressed with the “kru” dishes at this Catalan restaurant. I am sure Espai Kru is phenomenal (we shall find out in a future post from when Bryan goes there by himself), but we were most impressed with the cooked dishes here at Rias de Galicia.

    Rias de Galicia
    Carrer de Lleida, 7, 08004
    Barcelona, Spain

    More Restaurant

    • chocolate
      La Dame de Pic - Paris France
    • Mono HK
      Mono Hong Kong
    • Five Guys Hong  Kong
      Nostalgic Reminders of Home: Five Guys Hong Kong
    • Divino Restaurant
      Divino Patio Hong Kong

    Recent Posts

    • Restaurant Virtus Paris March 27, 2023
    • NE/SO Paris (Neso Paris) March 24, 2023
    • Les Enfants du Marche Paris March 18, 2023
    • Wong Kee Restaurant 旺記打冷小菜館 March 14, 2023
    • Frenchie Wine Bar (Frenchie Bar à Vins) March 13, 2023
    • Dublin Ireland Trip Report March 12, 2023
    • Palazzo Parigi Milan, Italy March 9, 2023
    • Ricard Camarena Valencia Spain February 28, 2023

    Reader Interactions

    Trackbacks

    1. Dos Palillos Barcelona - Japanese Spanish fusion - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
      December 23, 2016 at 6:49 pm

      […] This is the fifth post in the Hello Barcelona series. Other posts include Cafe Viena, ABaC Restaurant, and Rias de Galicia. […]

      Log in to Reply
    2. Canete Barcelona - off the beaten path (Cañete) - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
      November 11, 2017 at 3:52 am

      […] is the sixth post in the Hello Barcelona series. Other posts include Cafe Viena, ABaC Restaurant, Rias de Galicia, and Dos […]

      Log in to Reply
    3. Serge et le Phoque Wan Chai - French restaurant One Michelin Star - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
      January 23, 2018 at 9:48 am

      […] had always associated Galicia with seafood (based on my brief dining experiences in Barcelona). However, it appears that in just the past couple years, beef from older bullocks […]

      Log in to Reply

    Primary Sidebar

    Jennifer Che Tiny Urban Kitchen
    Jennifer Che Tiny Urban Kitchen

    Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am an expat who moved from Boston to Hong Kong 5 years ago. Born and raised in Ohio to Taiwanese immigrant parents, I am a chemistry nerd, patent attorney by day, blogger by night, church musician on weekends, and food enthusiast always. Feel free to explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!

    More about me →

    Explore

    • Recipe
    • Restaurant
    • US Travel
    • World Travel

    Popular Posts

    • peas tart
      Restaurant Virtus Paris
    • NE/SO Paris (Neso Paris)
    • Les Enfants du Marche Paris
    • Wong Kee Restaurant 旺記打冷小菜館

    Recipes

    • Appetizer
    • Snacks
    • Meat
    • Vegetables
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Seafood
    • Noodles

    Recently Traveled

    • Hong Kong
    • France
    • Belgium
    • Boston
    • California
    • United Kingdom
    • Germany
    • Spain

    Support Us

    Recognition


    Featured on the front page
    of the FOOD Section: 2015

    Best Food Blog Awards:
    Restaurant & Dining 2012

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • About Me
    • My Equipment
    • In the Press
    • Project Food Blog
    • Privacy Policy

    Eating Guides!

    Eating & Travel Guides
    Trip Reports
    "Kawaii" (Cute Foods)
    Around the World

    • Pinterest
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • Mail
    • RSS Feed

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Shop at Amazon

    Copyright © 2022 Tiny Urban Kitchen