The Xerta restaurant celebrates 10 years bringing the gastronomy of Baix Ebre to Barcelona

BarcelonaThe restaurant director, Joaquim López, welcomed the diners. It was a special dinner because Xerta, the restaurant that brings a piece of Terres de l'Ebre to Barcelona, is celebrating 10 years since its opening. López is the fourth generation of restaurateurs. In fact, his parents were also among the diners at the establishment located within the Ohla Eixample hotel. The family manages another hotel, Villa Retiro in Xerta, hence the name of the establishment in Barcelona, and there, Joaquim's brother, Fran López, leads the kitchen at the restaurant.

A decade ago, then, the López decided to partner with the hotelier Benet Ferrer to take charge of the gastronomy of Ohla Eixample, located on Còrsega street. Ferrer also has an Ohla on Via Laietana, an iconic hotel that hosts a very relevant restaurant in the county town, Caelis, led by chef Romain Fornell.

Currently, the chef at the Xerta restaurant is José Guadalupe, who offers three types of menus, all based on products from the Delta. Rice, mantis shrimp, market fish, or razor clams are essential. All ingredients take center stage in the various gastronomic offerings: from the a la carte menu to the three set menus they offer. One seasonal menu costs 55 euros, the regional one costs 80 euros, and the product-focused one costs 115 euros. These are gastronomic menus that aim to "bring the gastronomic culture of the Terres de l'Ebre through food," in the words of Joaquim López.

Encounter between the Delta and Champagne

The restaurant is described as a place where they serve "raw material without airs or spherifications" and where what they want is "for the product to speak". The celebratory meal, where the longest, most abundant menu of all was tasted, was paired with champagne from the maison Perrier-Jouët. The bottles decorated with flowers, in the Modernist style, are cult objects that we have seen in fiction. As in Quentin Tarantino's film "Inglourious Basterds", or at the parties attended by the protagonists of the series "Sex and the City".

The restaurant thus ties up the celebration of its first decade of life, which has also been accompanied by accolades, such as the Michelin star. The French guide gave them a star, a recognition they held from 2016 to 2024, when it was withdrawn.