Ten's Tapas Restaurant - Barcelona, Spain

I count myself fortunate I stumbled onto Ten's Tapas Restaurant earlier tonight. Chef Jordi Cruz has an outstanding pedigree with his 4 Michelin stars. Now let's forget I know this less this shades my review.

Ten's menu caught my eye. It hung off the awning leaning into the pedestrian path's center. It highlighted the 15 tapas menu items in 3 languages including English. I quickly scanned looking for something interesting and eye fell upon several items, but would my friends want to try this restaurant? They did.

After checking with management, we sat ourselves outside. As our server was receiving our drink orders, he sung Chef Jordi's praises. For myself, I ordered the foie gras dish with sichuan pepper ice cream (intriguing) and the slow cooked egg dish. I also shared some bread, fried potatoes, and black rice (all not photographed).

Onto the dishes. First, we have the foie gras with figs, sweet and sour stir fried bread with sichuan pepper ice cream. Overall, this dish was quite sweet. The crunchy topping (perhaps the stir fried bread?) alleviated some of the sweetness. I was hoping the sichuan pepper ice cream might lend slight heat in balance, but even that was blatantly sweet with little peppery bite. What sat between each foie gras piece was lost in the shuffle.

The second presented dish was the slow cooked egg with Iberian ham and sobrassada paprika sausage, permantier potatoes, mature gouda and rocket salad  It sounded really good and again, presented well. With those components, this is a lustworthy dish. However, I was told that to properly eat it, one must swirl it around thoroughly and apply it atop the tomato toast. My gorgeous dish became a seething eggy mass. It tasted nice, but the egg overwhelmed everything else. The iberian ham, sobrassada paprika sausage, mature gouda - all lost.

Where does this leave Ten's? Merely satisfactory. I appreciate Chef Jordi Cruz's presentation skills and willingness to pair disparate items. However, I am underwhelmed when a dish doesn't elevate any one flavor or masks too many pieces. 

Also, the service was confusing at times. Our waiter was quite thorough, but sometimes too quick with his suggestions. Customer(s) and waiter must work harder to overcome both  a challenging menu and language difficulties (he spoke acceptable English, though quick and Catalan tinted).


Ten's
Carrer Rec, 79
08003 Barcelona