Gracia Gastrobar de Barcelona
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Every year on our anniversary, we go out for a fancy dinner. Last year, we took in a 15-course marathon at Le Sputnik, and earlier this year for our engage-aversary we had an excellent French meal at Restaurant Unique. Recently, after a tasty lunch at Henry’s Burger, we got dressed up and went out to an under-the-radar spot serving up creative Spanish food in the heart of Tokyo.
Gracia restaurant at Eat Play Works
Gracia is located in the Hiroo neighborhood of Tokyo, not terribly far from Roppongi. It’s a part of the Eat Play Works “The Restaurant” complex, which hosts a number of eateries in a building that’s a bit off the street such that you might miss this complex entirely if you didn’t know it was there.
Inside, the space is like a big open food court, except the restaurants are much fancier than standard food court restaurants. The idea of a fancy restaurant in a big open space with other restaurants would be strange in America, but in Japan, there are plenty of nice restaurants in department stores and big buildings. That said, even for Japan, this restaurant is pretty fancy for the space it’s in. The chef is a veteran of three-Michelin-star restaurants, and the fare that night was an eight-course tasting menu.
It was a Thursday night, so there were only a couple other tables with guests, and the pizza place next door had only two customers, making for a quiet atmosphere. There was an extensive wine and drink list, though since we don’t drink, we went with juices that were pretty good but not spectacular. There was no need for menus since we were doing the chef’s course menu, so we just sat back and waited to see what they’d bring us.
Starter courses: squid ink croquettes and Jamón ibérico
Our introductory course was squid ink croquettes that were crispy and very full of squid ink. Do you like the taste of squid ink? My wife does, and loved these things. I can take it or leave it, and I wasn’t enthralled. The paste inside was really thick, but the outside was nicely crisp, so I can’t fault the technique here - this one just comes down to taste. 10/10 for Eriko, 5/10 for me.
The second course was Ibérico ham that had been fed only acorns (nothing but acorns!) and bread with tomato and olive oil. I tasted the ham first, and it was fine but not the greatest in the world. Then I put it on the bread and took a bite. Oh, my. This was transcendent. The bread, the tomato, the olive oil, and the ham all worked together to create the perfect taste. I could have eaten a pile of this the size of an elephant’s poop. Those folks who wanted to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? This is what they were going on about. 50/10 all day long.
Soup and mushrooms: mix thoroughly for best results
The next course was cold tomato soup (which I believe is called gazpacho) with shrimp, sweet jelly (meaning gelatin) and cherries. The soup tasted like not much on its own, and the shrimp looked weird in its sort of square shape. I was worried about this one.
But then I cut the shrimp and jelly with my spoon and mixed it all together, and bam! Everything just worked. The shrimp mixed with the tomato to add a savory hit, the jelly added sweetness, and the cherry just a bit of tart. It tasted great. Individually, these elements weren’t much, but when put all together, they were sublime. I do not know how someone would come up with this dish, but I’m so glad I tried it. 7/10, only criticism is there was a bit too much tomato soup compared to the other elements.
The creativity was on further display with the next dish, mushrooms topped with a runny egg and truffle shavings, along with olive bread. This one was not made for me: I don’t like mushrooms or olives, and I’ve never understood the big to-do about truffles. But I had to admit, even as someone who doesn’t like mushrooms, these were pretty good. And like the last dish, once I mixed it all together, it came to life. Mixing the egg and mushroom and truffle created a synthesized flavor that transcended the individual elements. I didn’t finish mine because I wanted to save room, but Eriko gobbled hers up while I was in the bathroom. 6/10 for normal people but 3/10 for me because mushrooms and olives are gross.
Seafood and meat: oh yeah here we go
Then came squid and rice with a saffron butter sauce. It looked a bit like an inside-out sushi roll, with the rice in the middle of the squid. The preparation looked nice, but what mattered was the taste, which was absolutely superb. The squid wasn’t tough, but juicy and tasty, and went great with the rich sauce. The rice was well-cooked and helped deliver even more sauce with each bite (I took it down in three bites, eating each piece whole because why not). This would have made a great main dish but for the fact that any more than three of these guys would be a bit overwhelming. 9/10 really tasty.
The big dawg of the night was the meat course: Wagyu beef with corn fritters, a pepper, and celery sauce. The pepper and corn and sauce were all just fine. But that beef. Oh, that beef. It did not need sauce or anything else. It was perfect.
We don’t eat much meat these days. We used to buy Kobe beef steaks and cook them at home, but now we cook vegan at home and save our meat-eating for when we go out, so it’s been a while since I had a really good fancy steak. The marbling on this guy, the exquisite cook, the savory orgasm of… orgasm. It was fabulous. Even if you didn’t care about any of the other courses, it would be worth it just to taste this. 10/10 for sure.
Dessert and a special surprise
With dessert, Eriko got tea and I had a coffee. My biggest complaint with this restaurant would be that they didn’t have an espresso machine, only regular coffee and not very good coffee at that. Definitely not at the gourmet level of the food.
The first dessert course was an ice cream with salt and olive oil. Like everything else we had that night, what made it work was the combination. When you mixed it up, it was perfect consistency: cold but not too cold, sweet but not too sweet, salty but not so much that it affected the taste. Lovely dessert to have at the end of a big meal. 10/10.
But we weren’t done. For our special night, they brought out Basque cheesecake with a sparkler in it on a plate decorated with a special message in chocolate sauce. If you didn’t know, Ricky is our dog. Very thoughtful of him to ask them to do that for us. The cheesecake was some of the best baked cheesecake I’ve ever had. Runny on the inside, not too hard on the outside. I’m normally a NY cheesecake kind of guy (I’ve been known to make a no-bake Oreo cheesecake so rich it causes governments to crumble), but this slice may have converted me. 10/10.
Conclusion: is Gracia good enough for your special occasion?
We had a great time at Gracia, and it was perfect for our anniversary. We got a great meal with enough courses that we could try lots of different things without getting overly full or tired of the meal. We’ve had some fancy meals at some really expensive restaurants, and this one was up there with them, yet only cost around $170 for the two of us. If you have a special occasion coming up, definitely consider Gracia, because if people get wind of this place, it could easily become the hottest ticket in town.
Location and info
Address: 〒150-0012 Tokyo, Shibuya City, Hiroo, 5 Chome−4−16 EAT PLAY WORKS THE RESTAURANT 2F
Phone: +81 03-6432-5013
Website: http://gracia-tokyo.jp/
Reservations can be made at TableCheck. The restaurant is also open for lunch and has an a la carte menu, but we haven’t tried these, so we highly recommend the tasting menu. The building is off the street, so go get yourself a latte at the Blue Bottle Coffee next to Hiroo Station, go out the back door, and you’ll see the elevator for The Restaurant. Take it up to the second floor and walk through a few places to get to Gracia.
