Celleteca Cal Bayó

Chris P. • 3 reviews

May 30, 2024

10/10

We went to Celleteca Cal Bayó on 30 May, and as we got home, Donald Trump was found guilty in a New York court. However, all I went to bed thinking about was the incredible food we’d just had at this beautiful little restaurant in Rápita. When we arrived, we parked on a back street by a railway line. I’d be dishonest if I said we weren’t worried that we were in the wrong place until we saw the door and upon entering, were blown away by the beautiful garden, the kitchen on our right and then how charming the restaurant itself was. Our hosts, David and Mercè only open on Thursday-Saturday night, because they both work full time. It shouldn’t be possible to create food this good when having another job but somehow they manage it. David in the front of the restaurant displayed a passion for the food and wine and despite apologising for his English (which was actually very good) was both attentive and not overbearing. He chose our wine very well and explained the dishes flawlessly. On to the food: an hors d’ouevre of pan con tomato but unlike any you’ve ever seen. A glass-like flour based pancake fashioned into a hollow cuboid, with a tiny bit of tomato and olive oil pellets, with the fat of the jamon iberico drizzled over the top. In your mouth there was both nothing there and the wonderful flavour of pan con tomate. I’ve eaten in many great restaurants and this creation belonged in any of them. For starters, we enjoyed the “monocycle”, a truffle potato rosti on jamon Iberico with an encrusted egg yolk on top, the mushroom cannelloni, a prawn based salad and a smoked scallop with a chilli jam. All of them were amazing. For mains, the wonderfully named “mutes and in the cage” was the highlight, but that takes nothing away from the steak tartar with bone marrow (unlike any steak tartar you’ve ever had) or the monkfish. After two courses, I thought surely the standard couldn’t stay this high for dessert. How wrong I was. We finished with a flourish: a pineapple carpaccio with pistachio ice cream candy floss that dissolved in your mouth; red wine bread and olive oil ice cream under a chocolate dome, melted with a chocolate sauce. Just when we thought we were done, Mercé came from the kitchen with a gin tonic jelly. The jelly cube flavoured like gin and tonic with a lime and cardamom jam like syrup around it, with edible flowers in there and cucumber ice. What a way to finish! We drank beer, wine and sweet wine and everything that passed our lips was delicious. In the end, we paid in total what we would have paid per person for a comparable meal in London. If it were my choice, I would transport David and Mercè to London and eat with them every weekend. We were back two days later because as I said, it was the only thing we thought about for the next 48 hours. A restaurant dreamed up during the pandemic - it might be the best thing that came out of COVID

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Celleteca Cal Bayó • Owner

Thank you very much for your words. We are very happy that you enjoyed it. We hope to see you again. Or maybe we come to London…