In Barcelona, you are seated at an immaculate table, the cutlery perfectly aligned, just like in any three-star hotel. Then arrives a glass container that looks like a UFO, which you will have to carry at arm’s length without touching it with your lips. The first burst of laughter erupts when the liquid lightly splashes on the napkin. Haute gastronomy has already left its pedestal.
This somewhat destabilizing setting plays out at 163, rue Villarroel, at **Disfrutar**, a three-star restaurant in the Michelin Guide and voted best restaurant in the world 2024 by the *World’s 50 Best Restaurants*, now in the circle of “Best of the Best”. Behind this place, the chefs **Oriol Castro**, **Eduard And there, the hand becomes a real tasting tool.
Disfrutar Barcelona: a three-star that drops the cutlery
The restaurant’s name, which means “enjoy”, sets the tone. The house boasts creative, technical but emotional cuisine. , explain Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, cited by Nouvelles Gastronomiques. Everything is said: the hand, like the look or the sound, serves this quest for emotion.
As soon as the first dishes arrive, the guest regularly finds himself without cutlery. An Americano is served in a traditional porrón, then in an astonishing three-tank porrón: you tilt, you raise it high, you draw back the spout, you laugh when it squirts a little. Later, a tomato “liquid salad” presented in a cup is drunk by bringing the container to the mouth, without a spoon. At **Disfrutar Barcelona**, these playful gestures are not a gimmick, they break the distance usually imposed by etiquette.
At Disfrutar, hands become the first cutlery
The meal continues with a spoon biscuit glazed with passion fruit mojito, placed on a rock. Its airy and fragile texture requires you to grasp it with both hands, almost like a little treasure. Next comes a composition of micro-greens to be picked up one by one with tweezers, following a tasting sheet. This “flavor lesson” was born from weekly creativity work with the team, where the chefs discovered to what extent each microgreen could influence a dish.
Further on, the “vegetable art palette” transforms the guest into a painter: dots of vegetable creams are arranged like colors, to be stretched with a spatula before tasting them. The hand gesture here precedes the bite. Elsewhere, an amaranth coral with oyster and caviar is grasped with the fingertips in a black mirrored box, which blurs the markers the moment the hand moves forward. Even the crispy egg with warm mushroom jelly is eaten following precise instructions from the maître d’hôtel: take it by hand, bite it from the bottom, let the liquid center mingle with the jelly hidden in the egg cup.
Caviar at your fingertips and chocolate rings: tactile luxury
Perhaps the most spectacular scene remains that of the **panchino** stuffed with caviar and sour cream. This emblematic bite, obtained using a siphon, is taken with the fingers and tasted in one go: the fragile exterior gives way to release an intensely creamy heart. A bread with airy smoked butter and caviar, placed on a black stone, can also be grabbed by hand, under the amused eye of a magnifying glass which highlights the texture. Each time, the caviar is eaten without protocol, but with extreme care taken in the gesture.
At the end of the meal, the room is transformed into a jewelry store. Rings in dark chocolate, white chocolate, yuzu or cinnamon are presented as a collection of rings, symbol of the link between the house and its customers. The ring slips on the finger before being bitten into, like a little gourmet wedding ring. Then comes the “garden of sweets”, where rocks, mochis, marshmallows, liquid chocolate candy and purple cotton candy are pecked among the moss and flowers. After the trompe l’oeil and the spherifications, we end up in childhood, our fingers covered in sugar.
How much does a menu cost at Disfrutar Barcelona?
Two tasting menus are offered, **Disfrutar Classic** and **Disfrutar Festival**, both priced at $325, excluding drinks. Each takes place in around thirty successive sequences.
Do we really eat everything with our fingers at Disfrutar?
No, the entire meal is not done without cutlery. Many bites are taken with the hands or directly from the glass, but certain dishes are enjoyed in a more classic way, with the accompaniment of the room.
Do you have to be used to three-star hotels to enjoy Disfrutar?
Not necessarily. The experience plays on laughter, play and surprise to make haute cuisine more accessible. The service explains each gesture and accompanies guests step by step.
What types of dishes make up the Classic and Festival menus?
The Classic menu features emblematic creations from the house’s first decade, such as Disfrutar olives or caviar panchino. The Festival menu highlights seasonal research and the chefs’ latest creations.
