There are plans that one does not know are popular, and that is why the first thing that surprises at the Mandarin Oriental brunch is that the majority of the public are Barcelona families who have decided to treat themselves to breakfast as it should be done: with all the calm in the world.
This is what it takes to approach one of the top unlimited brunches in Barcelona, the Blanc, which is served every Sunday in the most luxurious hotel in Barcelona.
The brunch with sushi, ham cutters and paellas.
The Mandarin Oriental’s brunch has been redesigned with gastronomic stylist Laura Ponts and executive chef Marc de Martin, who have sought an experience in which the food enters through the eyes before even through the mouth.
In other words, it’s an unlimited brunch in the hotel’s restaurant, which has a luminous apple courtyard as its roof. Under its light are distributed several stations, which must be attacked with hunger, but above all, with care, so that anxiety does not overcome us.
Our itinerary began at the Iberian ham station, where a knife-cut ham is served, along with bread with tomato and good olive oil. Nearby, cold seafood: oysters, shrimp cocktail, mussels and clams, razor clams or different types of smoked salmon with their dressings waiting with open shells.
Next to them, assorted canapés, cooked vegetables and quinoa or rice to assemble a fresh salad to help the process.
Next come the cold ones, a showcase that combines seafood, preserves, local cheeses and vegetables with almost surgical precision. Then come the hot dishes: cuttlefish and shrimp fideuada, mountain rice, low-temperature veal shank or small bites served at the table, such as gyozas with ponzu, rostit cannelloni or octopus with parmentier.
Among the chef’s novelties are bagels, quiches, pastrami, brochettes and a seafood reinforcement with oysters and steamed razor clams, as well as a sweet nod to the territory: a honeycomb of Montseny honey that looks like something out of a postcard.
The end, of course, is sweet: tiramisu, lemon pie, macarons, brownies, jelly beans, éclairs, fresh fruit and a collection of small temptations made in the hotel itself.
And all this for 65 euros per person: the price of a dinner in a good restaurant.