Brabo

The room smells faintly of embers before you have seen the grill, and that first breath tells you what Brabo is about: fire, good ingredients, and the judgement to keep the two in proportion, so the smoke serves the food instead of smothering it. One service moment stayed with me. Midway through, our waiter noticed one plate had waited a minute too long at the pass and took it back unprompted, returning with a fresh one and no speech about it. That unshowy standard runs through the house. Gràcia suits it, and the sort of restaurant a neighbourhood is lucky to have deserves its custom: a relaxed room, prices that don't sting, a kitchen letting the coals and the calendar set the menu. It rests on Sunday and Monday; the rest of the week, I'll keep finding room for it in mine.