If you thought we are done with Spain just because I have moved to Switzerland, you would be sorely mistaken. I still have a few months-worth of Spanish eating and I am more than happy to share the places we have visited over the summer months of 2022.
Tasca La Farmacía, calle de Diego de Léon, 9, 28006
We start our Spanish retrospective with quite an unusual place on my food map. It is a relative new restaurant serving food since 1993 and it is definitely a very weird mix of hipster-ness, old-school pharmacy vibes and traditional Spanish food. I could not figure this place out then and I cannot figure it out now. My suggestion – just take it as it is.
The dinner started with a complimentary plate of freshly made garlic potato crisps and these were the goddamn best potato crisps I was ever served in Spain. My God, maybe they were a tad oily, sure, but the crunch of a fresh potato crisp and the tang and bite of garlic and herbs were just SO RIGHT. I could have eaten four platefuls of that and asked for more.
On another note, the bread was good too. If you cared to remember, the average bread served in Spain was never too great but this one was actually delicious and also much needed because the food that followed was sauced to the max.
Conejo escabechado (€13.80) or rabbit stew was actually very delicious. There was not a lot of meat but it was very tender. The only problem was the broth/soup/sauce as it was rather oily. Nothing a good chunk of bread could not fix though!
Bacalao al pil-pil (€16.80) or salt cod with pil-pil sauce was rather disappointing. The sauce was really thick and rich and there was absolutely no balance to the dish. Everything was way too salty and it was quite difficult to get those bites down. I am not sure if we were served a bad dish or if salt cod/pil-pil combo is always in this ballpark of where it does not tickle my fancy.
To finish the dinner off, we were served a sweet wine with some cookies. It worked wonders in washing away the salty/sticky/rich sauce off and we left the dinner on an overall good note.
The whole concept of Tasca La Farmacía is a little too gimmicky for me. Although gimmicky might not be the right word. I guess the whole idea of this restaurant does not compute for me (quite recent/1993, old-school pharmacy vibe, traditional Spanish food, quite hipster on their website). Anyway, Ieva’s seal of approval does not apply today. It was an interesting place, the food was decent, I am just mightily confused by the whole vibe.