Mediamanga
Mediamanga, the most recent venture of Iván Castro and Manel Arjó of the popular Mont Bar, opened in spring this year at the intersection of Aribau and Diputació. Chef Domenico Ungaro’s cooking has a clear direction: great ingredients prepared traditionally, but with a little twist—an added ingredient or technique—that elevates the food to the level expected of a trendy city centre restaurant.
Ungaro excels at this gastronomic goosing, taking a dish like roasted wild mushrooms with garlic (rovellons al ajillo) and giving it his own slant. The result was a heavy stone and copper crock of red pine mushrooms bathed in a salsa americana of fish broth, garlic, oil, guindilla chilli, tomato, prawn heads and brandy. The dish was a bit strange, but certainly wasn’t lacking in creativity nor flavour, and it ended up being one of the most memorable of the evening. Sadly, though, the taste and delicate texture of the thin sheets of pancetta laid across the top of the mushrooms was lost amidst the competing flavours of this potent dish, a trend that continued throughout the meal.
The meal began with oyster carbonara—a pair of raw, briny oysters (delicious on their own), topped with egg yolk, bacon and grated Parmesan cheese. I tasted the oyster, I tasted the cheese, but the yolk was really just texture and I would have thought the bacon was missing if I hadn’t spotted it as I prepared to slurp the lot down in a single mouthful. The tuna tartar with aubergine—cubes of raw Atlantic bluefin tuna, dressed in a light mayonnaise with chives, guindilla chillis and spicy Japanese radish—tasted predominantly of the smoky aubergine bed on which the tartar lay. Similarly, the pillowy pile of shaved foie gras micuit atop a vibrant carpaccio of figs with pistachios looked delicious, but was completely overpowered by the jammy fig flavour.
Seated at a high, two-person table practically inside the kitchen, I really enjoyed the up-close view of the team of chefs carefully slicing, grating, saucing and plating the cold starters. Just a few steps away, the chef and sous finished each dish while a team of three cooks worked the hot line, nearly back-to-back. The restaurant space is relatively small, with a handful of high tables, a bar and a section with a couple of low tables that can seat four and eight guests, respectively. The interior design is Art Deco-inspired with a bit of Art Nouveau thrown in, and everything from the copper cookware to the elliptical wooden trim and jade stone countertops feel brilliantly planned down to the smallest details.
After the oysters, came a burrata salad drizzled with pesto, dotted with toasted pine nuts, and topped with paper-thin slices of raw porcini mushrooms (ceps). The burrata was rich and creamy, as any good burrata should be, and the mushrooms lent a subtle earthy flavour, though I wished for a bit of seasoning, pickling or searing to turn up the mushroom flavour another notch.
My favourite dish of the night, and the one for which I would return to Mediamanga, was the red mullet with mini vegetables—a perfectly seared fillet of red mullet (salmonete) with a slight crisp to the skin, dotted with brunoise peppers, courgette and carrots, and leaned across a basil lemon potato parmentier. A sweet and citric apricot emulsion served as a foil to the savoury potato purée, and the finishing sauce, a reduced jus of chicken stock infused with red mullet bones, added a lovely richness, resulting in a plate with both balance and finesse.
Beetroot cheesecake served inside of a hollowed out beetroot (stem, leaves and all), balanced on a bed of chocolate ‘soil’ and topped with a sweet beetroot confiture and beetroot sorbet, offered a not-too-sweet, ideal end to a worthwhile meal with highs and lows. On several occasions throughout the meal, plates arrived with ingredients meant to lend flavour and complexity to a dish that were either completely lost or outshone the main ingredient. All in all, however, my dinner at Mediamanga was enjoyable, and I understand why it has become so highly regarded.The menu shifts with the seasons and I would happily return to discover what springtime has in store.
Mediamanga. Aribau 13. T. 93 832 5694. Mon-Sun 1-4pm, 7.30pm-11.30pm.