Inopia is now called Lolita - Barcelona Edition

Jelly and I went to Barcelona on a dare and wanted to enjoy tapas like how the locals have it. We were warned by people of the inter web that the people in Barcelona were not very friendly, favored locals and dangerous. Boy, are people on the interweb wrong.

Barcelona is lovely. Men - charming. Women - hot. Food - Fantastic. La Sagrada Familia - Epic.

We did some research and decided that we head to Inopia after watching my man Mario Batali with pals Paltrow and Stipe eat their face off and boy did we do the same.

First off, we had the awesome olives stuffed with anchovies. They were the best Olives I have ever had and they came from a can. So good that we bought a can to try it ourselves and guess what, it was still as awesome.

We also ordered the Iberico Sandwich. Now this is a play on what is available around many of Barcelona's bakeries around town but this was the best Iberico sandwich of them all. The Iberico was smooth, fatty, and luscious. Not gamey, thick or difficult to chew like those served in Singapore at all. Olive oil drizzled on the freshly baked bread made this sandwich simply heavenly.

The Con Tomato was what we expected. Toasted bread with tomatoes smudged onto the bread. I don't know why anyone would serve it any way else but this simple and delectable dish made me love bread even more.

This is the signature dish. The Inopia. The dish that best signifies Inopia previously. Grilled fresh tuna with tomato and olive oil. The best tuna I have had in a tapas bar ever. The fish was smooth and the olive oil added a nice complement to the acidity of the tomatoes.

The white bait was a mystery order for us. Why? We ordered it and I expected pieces of fish and not the entire piece of fish. It was fantastic tasting though. It was salty, alittle briny but very smooth. Jelly was uncomfortable as to how I was just throwing the fish down my throat (and how it was staring at her) but I enjoyed it.

Truly. Let me just say it now. THE BEST CROQUETTES IN THE WORLD! Okay, that might have been an exaggeration but it was a mixture of drinking hot soup inside this crispy shell and it was magnificent. I also chose to drown my happiness with a nice glass of undersized Moritz beer.

The potato bravas were also the best I have had. If you were to say the red sauce is a barbecue sauce, I would be willing slap you because that would be a big insult. The cream used for the potatoes were lovely. The blend was terrific.

We hit a wall with this order. We didn't what else to order and thought that a sandwich with the best sardines would do the trick. Problem is Jelly didn't like the sardines but I loved the sandwich. It was slightly dry but the bread and fish were good together. Not my cup of tea necessarily. But still good.

I am not a vegetarian. But I tell you what, you serve me these ground beans with vinaigrette and quail eggs and I will bite your hand off. The mixture of sourness of the lemon vinaigrette as well as the eggs make this a vegetarian delight (depends on how you define your vegetarianism).

We were greedy and ordered more shoulder ham after seeing the group of Japanese men ordering it. It was some awesome smoked shoulder ham in my opinion.

The coup that stole the night was the dessert. The pineapple with molasses and lemon zest and the Lolita dessert alcohol beverage. The pineapple tasted like a mojito drink. The sweetness of the molasses and acidity of the pineapple was cut and matched very well by the sourness of lemon zest which made this a great dish to end all dishes. The drink was mildly sweet and addictive and summed up my experience at Lolita.



All in all, a wonderful experience. The server was non English speaking but lovely and polite. She gave us lots of ideas on what to order and was patient.

There are other things we ordered as well but we were so busy stuffing our own faces that we forgot to take some of them!

Best part of it all, this meal only cost 80 euros. A price worth paying for the best tapas in town.