Best Meal Ever.

On Friday night, after a month of trying to find a time to go, Dave and I set out to Cal Pep, Barcelona's best tapas bar and the highlight of every visitor's guide. We walked into the small, unassuming restaurant filled with people behind those seated at the bar, and took stock. Apparently, people wait upwards of an hour in line before they are seated to eat, and those eating are in no rush to leave. So we teetered about whether or not to stay, and at the end, inertia won out.

An hour and fifteen minutes and three glasses of wine later, the bartender/waiter motioned us over to two of the seats. We had previously taken not that most people didn't order with a menu, so we observed anxiously at which plates we wanted. When the waiter came over, before we could open our mouths, he proceeded to tell us our order. We said sure, added one or two of our own observations, and then sat.

At Cap Pep one sees the beauty of tapas. Within a minute we had pan con tomate and our first plate, a bowl of clams. Just as we finished the clams came a plate of raw tuna, which was excellent, followed immediately by a spanish tortilla. Tortilla, an omlette thick with potato slices, is normally a peasant food; yet this was spiced with bacon and was absolutely incredible. After the tortilla came mixed fried seafood, which included some less than identifiable items, and some tiny fish in their entirety. Next was the squid, bathed in a broth (of their own ink?) and boiled the perfect amount of time as to have impeccable texture.

At this point there was a pause in the continuous flow of plates, and we thought that we had exhausted our order. We had seen others eat a plate of fillet mignon, and decided to conclude with that. As we were about to order, the waiter brought us a plate of sausage with kidney beans drizzled in a port wine reduction, and a bit of confusion ensued in which we almost refused the sausage to order the steak. Glad we didn't, the sausage with beans and sauce was both sweet at incredibly tender, arguably my favorite plate so far and I didn't even start eating sausage until Berlin.

As if that wasn't enough, the waiter replaced our sausage plate with the steak we thought we didn't order. Oh well, we thought, and dived in even though our stomachs were rapidly approaching rupture. It was cooked perfectly, and melted in our mouths as would a top steak from Capital Grille.

We paid the check (which was significantly, and quite deservingly, more than we had anticipated coming in), and as if we were still lacking in food or drink, the waiter brought us a chupito to wash down our food. It is typical in Catalunya to give a free shot of liqueur after a meal in a restaurant, and seeing as the restaurant was about to close, they weren't in a rush to turn our seats. While in the bathroom, the waiter replaced the first round with a second, at which point I nearly burst out of my belt. The ensuing physical devastation and hefty bill were more than overcome by how excellent each course had been, and we left convinced that we would never have a better meal. The variety, preparation, atmosphere, and Catalan tradition at Cal Pep is not to be beat.