MAE Barcelona

A cook looked up from the pass and nodded hello before anyone had taken my coat, and the first ten minutes kept that tone: watchful, and completely without theater. MAE sits at the top of Sant Gervasi's price range and knows the burden of proof that carries, so the early moves are all reassurance — a seat without fuss and a glass in hand fast, the menu explained in two sentences rather than a sermon. Then the cooking starts making the argument. Plates hold two or three ideas, each one finished; the Mediterranean-and-Costa-Rican angle reads as a point of view, not a slogan. Seasoning is dialed in tight. I save it for occasions, a couple of visits a year, and I'd arrive early on purpose just for the pleasure of that soft landing.