La Sosenga

I very nearly ordered the safe thing, the dish you choose when a Gòtic address has trained you to expect little. Then I noticed the regulars were eating something else entirely, and changed course, which turned out to be the lesson of the place. Deciding what to order here is worth doing slowly. The menu is a plain read, and the best of it is seasonal Catalan cooking with a steady hand behind it, textures looked after, no plate shouting for attention. In a quarter where most menus come laminated in six languages, a kitchen cooking for the people who actually live nearby deserves guarding. The value surprised me too, in the right direction. Once a year is my true rhythm, and every visit has ended the same way: glad the exception exists, and slightly reluctant to say where it is.