Geist

  Bo Bech opened this restaurant in April 2011. A restaurant aimed at everybody, regardless of race, wealth and tastes. This is a really special gastrobar, probably the only one of its kind you can find in the whole world that can rival with Vuelve Carolina and L’Atelier. You can both eat in an informal atmosphere sitting at the huge bar that surrounds the kitchen, or gazing at the wonderful square it is located on, one of the most important and attractive in the city. You can also opt for the dining room, more formal, or for the inner terrace. 200 guests come along on a daily basis and leave the place thanking the gastronomic gods for the great moment the have spent.
Bo’s cuisine can’t be compared to any other, except its meats section which, despite of having character, doesn’t propose any impacting constructions. Originality, infinite and extreme elegance, with subtle contrasts that don’t lead to any controversy. Silky creativity. The best word to define the chef is “talent”. Yes, “talent”, definitely. I would even say “TALENT”. An good example of the cook’s imagination and essentiality is the cake-like square of thin slices of avocado, lubricated and polished with Marcona almond oil and magnified with a little quenelle of caviar, which gives a sapid and salty touch to the naturality of the avocado. The guest can chose whether eating the ingredients separately, or mixing them all; playing or discovering. Audacity is also present in the succulent –utterly succulent– green –utterly green– salad. The Scandinavian shrimps, extremely fresh and raw, served with smoked milk, burnt leek, elder and watercress sprouts is another demonstration of fantasy in the form of a sun: under a pile of tomato hearts and seeds, previously cooked with their juice like a sauce, a king crab salad awaits the guest. An unprecedented –like almost everything in this place– vision of tomato that is really impacting and appetizing; very warm on the palate. At that point of the meal, we called the chef, gave him two kisses and tempted him: “We are entirely at your disposal. Just do anything you want”. He answered: “Anything I want, really? Let’s go on then”. At that moment, a grilled Norway lobster impregnated with peanut oil, many cherries and flowers of spring onion came up. Majestic! I mean the composition, not the seafood. I mention this because Bo breaks with the established values and uses caviar, king crab and Norway lobster as complements of vegetables, which are the real main characters, considered as top quality products, regardless of the humility they are associated with. In other words, vegetables take precedence over meat. Bravo. And the reflexive crazy proposals went on: al dente asparagus, pertinently cooked with egg yolk and butter, and burnt yogurt; tartar sirloin steak and veal heart with oyster sauce; and so on. We couldn’t help calling the chef again to ask him: “Isn’t there anything classical in this house?”. Five minutes later, the best mushroom consommé we had ever tasted came up –we frankly don’t remember eating any better one. Not content, the chef brought a tough, tasty and medium cooked cauliflower, laid onto a truffle sauce and covered with some more grated truffle. Our eyes glowed and our mouth started dancing when we saw the turbot with yogurt sauce and raviolis filled with fennel cream and cow cheese aged in straw. A real blaze of glory. This idyllic madness was followed by a scene that can be considered as gastronomic sadomasochism: smoked eel heated at low temperature with wild watercress, grilled baby spring onions and horseradish yogurt. If you like vice, I mean real vice, then you are ready for major culinary sensations. This artistic and nonconformist feast was completed with some lamb sweetbread served with black sugar and mustard: another exquisiteness, more academic than the rest, in line with Bo’s culinary philosophy, that expressed the sweet/spicy, spicy/sweet contrast in perfect harmony.
A democratizing model. A visionary and scientific cook.
The mark of this restaurant can vary from 7,5 to 9/10, depending on the guest’s ability and taking into account the wide range of proposals.