Review: Chiringuito Banys Lluís

When it comes to food, Sant Pol de Mar is famed for two places: Carme Ruscalleda’s venerated, three-Michelin starred Sant Pol, which occupies an unlikely spot on the side of the train station platform, and Banys Lluís, a family-run restaurant situated about a kilometer away if you head north along the seafront. The latter has been going strong for 90-odd years, churning out exceptional fish and seafood like espardeñas (the sea cucumbers hallowed by Ferran Adrià), cigalas (crayfish) and coquinas (dainty purple lipped clams) from the nearby port at Arenys del Mar, as well as beautiful navajas (razor clams) from the Delta de l’Ebre. Little wonder it is something of an institution on the Maresme.

Of late it’s become my cunning plan to squirrel a proper weekend into the space of a Sunday afternoon. One that kicks off with a vermut and some olives somewhere en route, followed by a late lunch (I usually take the 3.30pm sitting) making sure to reserve a "platja" table, which means you’ll get a plastic table spread with a snowy white cloth right on the sand so you can kick off your shoes and listen to the swoosh of the sea lapping against the shore. It’s perfect, too, if you have kids in tow as you can pack them off to play while you tuck into an indecently long lunch with buckets of local wine.

The weak point I suppose is the salads, that get a little silly and experimental—by that I mean tomatoes come dotted with cubes of goats cheese and drizzled with basil-infused oil instead of just going with the simple, sturdy Catalan staple of beautifully ripe tomatoes and sweet Figueres onions, or even just torn basil leaves if you have to—but otherwise the food is excellent so long as you stick to simply grilled or fried seafood, fish or rice dishes.

My pal was visiting from Paris and we made short work of a plate of pristine chipirones (baby squid, dredged in flour and fried) and the pinkest, sweetest grilled prawns recently hauled from the waters of Arenys del Mar, followed by a dark, sticky arros negre that I can safely say was the best I’ve had in some time. Generously studded with crayfish and more prawns, sepia, clams and mussels, and accompanied by a not-too incendiary aioli, we kept eating long after we were full, washing it down with crisp, cold glasses of Picapoll from the Bodegas Abada in Pla de Bages.

The best thing about booking the late sitting is that you can stay until the sun starts to go down. But you’ll also get a glimpse of several generations of the Lluís family gathered around several tables pulled together in the main dining room, and that always moves me. When I finally get the bill, the youngsters, still ushering out stragglers like myself, ask if we’ve enjoyed it and remind us of the mid-week lunchtime menu for €15. With summer fast approaching, and with it that irresistible urge to bunk off school, I know it won’t be too long before I’m back for more.