Before we start talking about our new location (ooh, mystery…) I want to share some pictures from a very special dinner we had in Barcelona. Our nephew turned 12 and because he loves food we took him for a fancy Japanese dinner as a present. Sushi is one of his favorite foods but we wanted to show him that there’s more to Japanese cuisine besides raw fish that comes around in little boats on conveyer belts.
Wagakoro is a small and simple-looking restaurant in Gracia, with one waitress, one chef and one menu. Tiny and perfect.
The menu, which changes every few months, is set with six courses but diners can choose to add a seventh or eighth course as well. In our case there was a sashimi course and a wagyu beef on offer so we each chose one as an extra seventh course. (Because eight is just too much…) The food was so good and each course was exciting and new again, I forgot to take pictures of some but here are a few of the delicacies we got to try:
First course: salmon sashimi with ponzu sauce, green beans with miso sauce, duck with mustard and octopus and apargus with a tart cherry sauce.
A tofu mushroom dumpling, steamed with miso soup and sugar snap beans.
Kaku and his - very tasty - wagyu beef.
Noodle soup with an egg dropped in, dried onions and scallions to taste.
What was left of the sea urchin dish.
Chef Nakamura slicing fish for the sashimi course. This was done fresh for every new table so we saw him do this several times.
Dessert: black sesame mouse. And the one dish Kaku didn't like. (I'm pretty sure at twelve years old this would have been the ONLY dish I would have even tried on the menu...)
Missing from this impressive line-up is the sashimi plate and the tempura basket. The presentation for each was flawless, so much so that when a piece of tempura in my basket fell on its side when the waitress put it down in front of me she got quite upset and I think for a second even considered moving it back into its rightful place but stopped herself since that would have been an even worse breech of etiquette.