A year and a half ago, Teatro Kitchen Bar, the Iglesias brothers' house that had previously hosted Tickets, lifted its shutters. He did so entangled in controversy, just a year after the El Barri Group was dissolved after filing for bankruptcy and Albert Adrià was left out of the business. The businessman Manuel Lao had just bought the Iglesias Group and when Teatro raised the curtain for its first performance, there were many who, after sitting at the table, criticized this establishment for its lack of creativity, ensuring that there were still many dishes on the menu. of the Adrià universe.
Today chef Oliver Peña, who stopped running the Enigma kitchen to focus on Teatro, defends himself against these accusations: “At that time, like any restaurant business, we needed to walk. A year later we have changed, today I see yesterday's photos and I am ashamed,” he explains. He also assures that it is logical that this establishment has decided to follow a line similar to that of its predecessor, because in the end, it is what he, as a disciple of Albert Adrià, has absorbed and learned.
But let's focus on dinner...As soon as you open the menu, which is presented as if it were a theater script, divided into acts and scenes, you will find the 'finger foods' they offer to start whetting your appetite. They occupy a good part of the proposal, although there are many fewer snacks than before because they recently decided that the product would have more presence.
We start with the Km 0 quelites taco, which also has ibiscus meringue, very soft and sophisticated. We continue with the Catalan cannolo, a salty version of the Sicilian sweet, which is followed by other snacks such as the trout roe brioche (not very original, as is also the case with the beef piccolo from Cárnicas Lyo which they present in an air baguette) or the glass toast with chicharrón and prawns (the latter delicious). The broad bean mochi with ham doesn't convince us because of the frying, but the nori, foie gras and eel tartlet does, an evolution of that cube of nori seaweed with caviar that Enigma presented to the world a few years ago.
Then come the oysters with apple kimchi, very tasty, and the cold dishes, among which the tomato salad with spherical kalamata olives and crusty bread stands out. Among the fried dishes, it is worth trying the Korean-style octopus, and among the hot dishes, the sardines in saor, one of the new dishes of this season. To finish? Grilled carabinero, with the tail marked on the robota.
The Theater room is taken care of by Pedro Iglesias and Joan Romans, who take care of every detail so that the diner feels at home. The wines are chosen, wisely, by Marc Dot. The rest of the team is made up of 11 chefs in the kitchen and 4 in production, because things are no longer as they were in the past: “We have half the staff of Tickets.”
