Butikfarra (CLOSED)

Is the butifarra sausage one of Catalonia's great institutions? We think so, and to make sure this Catalan speciality continues in as rude health as its near-cousin, the burger, a restaurant has opened in Barcelona called Butikfarra, in honour of said sausage.

Unlike many restaurants specialising in burgers, the Butikfarra aesthetic is not to allow you to walk the streets with bits of meat stuck between your teeth, nor, miracle of miracles, is there the waft of overused oil in the restaurant. In Butikfarra, they treat the star product with care, to such an extent that they seem to have developed an array of magical formulas: Duroc pork butifarra with bacon, pepper and fried onions; Duroc pork butifarra with fresh spinach, goat's cheese and dried figs in sherry; beef butifarra with roasted vegetables and lettuce hearts; beef butifarra with fried pepper, caramalised onion and cheddar cheese; fried butifarra with caramalised onion and quince aioli; butifarra with ratatouille and mushrooms; butifarra with black rice, cuttlefish and roasted pepper aioli... From this extensive list, I ordered battered lamb butifarra with lettuce hearts and tartar sauce, which was delicious, except they could have skipped the lettuce hearts. For a starter, I ordered a salad of lettuce, celery and apple with a yogurt and mint sauce, perfect for a main course of meat.

One of the good things about Butikfarra is that, if you're not a meat eater, you can choose, for instance, a fresh salad with seasonal fruit, or battered artichoke hearts, and if you don't want butifarra, you can enjoy roast beaf with baked apples and gravy or boneless pig's trotters with white ganxet beans. And if you're in a hurry, you can eat at the bar or get a butifarra hot dog to take away. Places like this will tell you it's possible to turn black pudding into a trendy dish.