Playing with the new iPad in our hotel room on our 'tourism day', the day after our meal at Can Roca, a Google search led us to discover that CR is not alone as a Michelin starred restaurant in Girona, there's a one starred venue called Massana. Click on the i icon next to the restaurant on the iPad map function and this clever little gadget uses your GPS signal to locate you and plot a route from where you are to the restaurant: a touch too convenient perhaps, especially when you discover the restaurant is only 10 mins on foot and you were already wondering where to have lunch. A quick call secures us a table for a late lunch (2pm) though we discover that by Spanish standards, we're early birds.
From the outside, Massana is discrete: wood and glass frontage with the shades pulled down. Unless you know there's a restaurant behind the clean but innocuous exterior, you would just walk on by assuming its a graphic design studio. Inside, it's reasonably modest in scale, eight or so well spaced tables, but clearly in the Michelin spirit with pressed white cloths, waiters in smart black uniforms and challenging artwork on the walls. With our taxi driver telling us the previous day that Can Roca is outside the budget of most locals, Massana is we guess the best 'other restaurant' in town: it takes the role quite seriously.
The menu looks impressive views through the description of what's on offer but we're immediately presented with a dilemma: the tasting menu consists of six finger type snacks and eight tasting plates followed by petit fours and coffee. The food sounds fantastic, so what's the dilemma? Well, we've been to plenty of one starred restaurants that were, quite frankly, not that good. What if this is one of them and then we have to eat eight plates of not so good food? Set against that, the menu is priced at around €68 and with paired wines taking the per person cost to just €100. We're cautious but we've got little to do in the afternoon (the alternative is walking around Girona which seems a little too close to exercise) and since we're on a gastronomic mini-break, it seems that we really should sample everything the restaurant has to offer (and pray that we've discovered the next El Bulli). In fact, the restaurant has significant aspirations we're sure and nearest Michelin starred neighbours El Bulli and Can Roca have clearly left their imprint on Massana's offering.
One thing that we immediately notice is that the chef, Pere Massana is in the dining room chatting to a couple of guests; we assume their regulars/friends. With the restaurant at 2pm still only three tables full, we're not overly surprised that on his way back to the kitchen he decides to stop by our table and say hello, it's good business to do so. With both our Spanish and his English sketchy, it's a short exchange but a nice and friendly touch. We are surprised however when it is Chef Massana himself who comes over a second time to take our food order. In fact, through the afternoon, Massana must have spent around 60% of his time on the restaurant floor rather than the kitchen and during the course of the meal, visited our table no less than four times. We can see how this might work as a strategy to make diners feel special but we wonder if he's really got staff of sufficient talent and training in the kitchen who can turn out food at the desired quality without the full time oversight of the chef.
From the outside, Massana is discrete: wood and glass frontage with the shades pulled down. Unless you know there's a restaurant behind the clean but innocuous exterior, you would just walk on by assuming its a graphic design studio. Inside, it's reasonably modest in scale, eight or so well spaced tables, but clearly in the Michelin spirit with pressed white cloths, waiters in smart black uniforms and challenging artwork on the walls. With our taxi driver telling us the previous day that Can Roca is outside the budget of most locals, Massana is we guess the best 'other restaurant' in town: it takes the role quite seriously.
The menu looks impressive views through the description of what's on offer but we're immediately presented with a dilemma: the tasting menu consists of six finger type snacks and eight tasting plates followed by petit fours and coffee. The food sounds fantastic, so what's the dilemma? Well, we've been to plenty of one starred restaurants that were, quite frankly, not that good. What if this is one of them and then we have to eat eight plates of not so good food? Set against that, the menu is priced at around €68 and with paired wines taking the per person cost to just €100. We're cautious but we've got little to do in the afternoon (the alternative is walking around Girona which seems a little too close to exercise) and since we're on a gastronomic mini-break, it seems that we really should sample everything the restaurant has to offer (and pray that we've discovered the next El Bulli). In fact, the restaurant has significant aspirations we're sure and nearest Michelin starred neighbours El Bulli and Can Roca have clearly left their imprint on Massana's offering.
One thing that we immediately notice is that the chef, Pere Massana is in the dining room chatting to a couple of guests; we assume their regulars/friends. With the restaurant at 2pm still only three tables full, we're not overly surprised that on his way back to the kitchen he decides to stop by our table and say hello, it's good business to do so. With both our Spanish and his English sketchy, it's a short exchange but a nice and friendly touch. We are surprised however when it is Chef Massana himself who comes over a second time to take our food order. In fact, through the afternoon, Massana must have spent around 60% of his time on the restaurant floor rather than the kitchen and during the course of the meal, visited our table no less than four times. We can see how this might work as a strategy to make diners feel special but we wonder if he's really got staff of sufficient talent and training in the kitchen who can turn out food at the desired quality without the full time oversight of the chef.
The pre-menu finger food has hits and misses. A Bloody Mary with mussel is served after sweet potato crunchy. The Bloody Mary itself is a mousse and has all the notes of a real Bloody Mary. With deconstructed cocktails a currently popular start to a meals (such as El Bulli's mojito), this is very much in keeping with the trend. That said, neither of us quite get the point of the mussel. Pumpkin cream, black pudding and pine nuts offers a smooth cream soup but the pine nuts are best, fantastically rich in flavour and texture greatly benefiting the impact of the dish. The liquid mushroom croquette meanwhile is close to being a good dish but the case is too thick and a little too chewy to declare it finished. The asparagus tempura too has flaws with the batter not quite light enough and the over product a touch greasy on the finish.
Foie gras caramelised with coffee, and toffee ice cream
The first main menu course is a brick of foie gras, caramelised with coffee and toffee ice cream on top. The dish has us a little worried: the coffee doesn't come through at all and the toffee ice cream on top adds nothing that either really gets. Is Chef Massana over reaching? Is he being too creative at the expense of taste and balance? We're worried too about the portions, it really was a big lump of foie gras and even we have limits on how much of this stuff we feel we should ingest in one sitting, especially when it's only okay rather than the 'to die for' kind.
wild mushrooms carpaccio, marinated prawns and pine nut vinaigrette
Wild mushroom carpaccio, marinated prawns and pine nut vinaigrette had us talking. Did this work? It's nice to see a chef doing something different with prawns and a mushroom carpaccio was certainly different. Taking a bit of everything on the fork at the same time allowed the earthy mushrooms, sweet prawns and sharpness of the dressing to combine to ultimately satisfy. Accordingly, the dish earns a tick mark.
rabbit shoulder, pickled vegetables and preserved small wild mushrooms
Rabbit shoulder with pickled vegetables and small wild mushrooms followed with the rabbit shoulder excellently cooked so offering up a Catalan favourite. The cold pickled vegetables seemed a slightly strange choice to accompany it but we wondered if there's local tradition at work here that we do not fully appreciate. Internet reviews that we read before arriving suggested that Massana is a home to authentic local food though clearly not in the rustic style.
line-caught hake with roasted vegetables, mushrooms and squid
Line-caught hake with roasted vegetables, mushrooms and squid was next; Massana does like his mushrooms it seems. This was a dish that also worked well and a fantastic piece of hake, except that one was served up with a large part of the skeletal structure still attached. It was a basic error but telling. If Massana really wants a second star, he'll need to think about some basic shortfalls - at this level, on what is a relatively small piece of hake, it should have been obvious and not served with 3 inch bones in (was this his absence from the kitchen being felt?). At the start of the meal bread was served but no olive oil or butter offered. We wonder if the restaurant is getting enough real feedback to recognise the small mistakes it's making that result in a good meal being diluted?
The duck breast (served MASSANA style, their capitals) was again plentiful but as can be seen especially in the middle photo, came generously coated in rosemary oil. With the fat on the duck itself, it really didn't need anything extra and duck flavours were lost to the oil which was a real shame.
Pork neck, black sausage, orange and apple compote
Pork neck, black sausage, orange and apple compote was the final savoury and offered beautiful pork. Careful observation of the picture though shows that the pork layer itself sits between two equivalent layers of fat. We doubted that a top UK starred restaurant would serve up quite such a fat rich piece of pork but again this might be cultural. We were also getting worried by this stage that we might die before Christmas given the foie gras and duck already consumed: the pork might just tip us over the edge so we judiciously pushed it to one side. To be fair, I tasted the fat and it was rich with flavour but I just couldn't clean the plate and do that to my body after what had gone before. The top surface however was disappointingly soft, not crisp while the separate serving of crackling didn't quite offer the light crunch that perfectly cooked crackling should. The pork, apple and orange combination though was first class.
mandarin sponge, cream of white chocolate and mandarin ice cream
The first dessert of mandarin sponge, cream of white chocolate and mandarin ice cream was incredibly well done with multiple textures including a mandarin 'disappear in the mouth' snow like component that reminded us of desserts offered by the very best three star restaurants. The whole dish was fresh, light and not excessively sweet. A definite hit.
liquid chocolate fritters, orange custard and vanilla (sic) ice cream
The key element of the second dessert was liquid chocolate fritters. Put the whole thing in your mouth, bite and warm chocolate oozes out coating your tongue. This was a great dessert too for those inclined toward sweeter chocolate orientated plates but again, the casing was too thick undoing the balance between what you have to chew and what just flows across your mouth. It's the difference between a good dessert (which this was) and a truly great dessert (which this could be). It's where the likes of Heston Blumenthal goes 'in search of perfection' and finds it. In many ways, it is the theme, good and bad, to Restaurant Massana.
Overall, this is a good restaurant that deserves its Michelin star. It's certainly in the top half of restaurants that have one Michelin star. Is it in the top quartile though, possibly nudging at two stars? We think not and somewhere like Martin Wishart could lay better claim to that. For value though it is without question a winner and if you are in Girona for a few days, certainly worth a visit.
However, this is a restaurant that wants at lest two stars, that's clear from the menu, the food style and the ambitions laid bare on the website. They will though almost certainly fall short of the second star if they don't push harder to achieve their goal. The service needs to be a little sharper, obvious mistakes need to be corrected (big bones in fish) but more than anything else, while the menu is in the style of a two star restaurant, the quality threshold has not yet been passed. This is where Chef Massana must show he's up to the job. With the liquid chocolate fritters, a good dessert we said but not a great dessert; Massana needs to keep toiling to thin up the fritter walls so that when its in the mouth, it's as if the wall isn't even there and then, it becomes a dessert that will leave diners agog with wonder. That's true across the whole menu, that's the challenge.
From our one visit there, we can't say whether Chef Massana has the talent or not to deliver on this and if he does, it of course marks him out as a very special chef indeed, we're not saying it's easy. However, from what we observed, if he continues to spend more time in the dining room than the kitchen, the achievement of the goal will almost certainly be elusive because subordinates, no matter how talented, will never do it for him.
Bottom line: worth visiting, great value, a solid one star.
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However, this is a restaurant that wants at lest two stars, that's clear from the menu, the food style and the ambitions laid bare on the website. They will though almost certainly fall short of the second star if they don't push harder to achieve their goal. The service needs to be a little sharper, obvious mistakes need to be corrected (big bones in fish) but more than anything else, while the menu is in the style of a two star restaurant, the quality threshold has not yet been passed. This is where Chef Massana must show he's up to the job. With the liquid chocolate fritters, a good dessert we said but not a great dessert; Massana needs to keep toiling to thin up the fritter walls so that when its in the mouth, it's as if the wall isn't even there and then, it becomes a dessert that will leave diners agog with wonder. That's true across the whole menu, that's the challenge.
From our one visit there, we can't say whether Chef Massana has the talent or not to deliver on this and if he does, it of course marks him out as a very special chef indeed, we're not saying it's easy. However, from what we observed, if he continues to spend more time in the dining room than the kitchen, the achievement of the goal will almost certainly be elusive because subordinates, no matter how talented, will never do it for him.
Bottom line: worth visiting, great value, a solid one star.
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