Barcelona - 41 Degrees and Tickets in the same evening?
Hi. I've managed to reserve at 41 Degrees, followed by Tickets an hour later the same evening. Now I'm worried - is an hour enough to have a couple of drinks and snacks at 41 Degrees, and what is Tickets like for dinner? Photos on their website make it look very confusing inside, and our Spanish is next to nil. I'm wondering if we need to try to start at 41 Degrees earlier, or consider skipping one or the other, but I love the Adria boys' food and this may be my only chance to dine at these places. Has anyone been to both places the same night, and if so what is that like. Failing that, can anyone give me sense of what it's like to dine at Tickets (i.e. are you seated, or do you move around the different spaces, and how easy is it to figure out?). Thanks!!
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re: sockster
I was there on Friday night, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary - at 8:30 it was about 3/4 quarters full but you could not walk in. I am back at Tickets on Thursday. I was really suprised about the pricing for the food. I had 3 snacks, 6 tapas, and 2 desserts for 60 Euro. My 5 cocktails were about the same price - 12 Euros each.
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OK, so I stopped fretting and just went for it (my eventual go-to position on all travel matters). It was great. For anyone else wondering, an hour is plenty of time for a couple of cocktails each (12 or 14 Euros each - excellent drinks in all respects) and a few snacks at 41 Degrees before moving on to dinner at Tickets. We paid E81.70 for four cocktails and 8 snacks (some shareable, some orderd in double - our server as most helpful about this). Atmosphere was very chill, with cool music. At least three gentlemen were in shorts and trainers but please, the place deserves more effort than that.
The staff were not remotely surprised that we were doing both places the same night. Deepfry7 is right - Tickets is not to be missed. Although the menu proclaims "this is not a tapas bar", much of it still is tapas, just the finest tapas you can ever hope to eat. We lucked out on the seating assignment in both places - at 41 Degrees, at one of only two private tables with big comfy armchairs (the whole place seats approx. 36, mostly shared table and bar seating) and in Tickets, we were seated facing the kitchen, directly across from Albert Adria's station where he was expiditing the kitchen and inspecting every plate before it went out. He seemd to take a personal interest in our meal, suggesting the best implements with which to eat a particular dish (there are some rather surgical looking tongs that do a great job with some of the dishes), or deciding we needed bread with something and having someone fetch it for us, or finding someone to explain something to us in English in more detail than he was comfortable with. It was just a treat to watch him work. We went for the "let us suggest a menu for you" option and were glad we did - we enjoyed a great variety of dishes, some we mightn't have chosen on our own, everything wonderful. This included the classic El Bulli "olives" which we were most excited to experience again. Great value wine list with many choices under 30 Euros, most under 50. In all at Tickets we spent 181.55 Euros for two, including a good bottle of cava and one glass of a very good red wine to share with our final course of rabbit. It could have been more expensive but we eschewed the offer of a jamon iberico course, as we'd already consumed more pork on this trip than could be considered reasonable. We were also treated to a couple of glasses of a lovely house-made digestif, no charge. Dress code for Tickets would if anything be a little more casual than 41 Degrees. The music was delightfully uncool.
I really hope we get to go back to Tickets again - it is right up there on the "best meal ever" list, because of the combo of fine food quality and great fun factor - hard to find both in one place.
No question you must reserve for either place -- reservations open 3 months in advance, and I recomend spending a bit of time on the website checking out what time of day new reservations open etc., in your own time zone. I will mention that there were spaces open at 41 Degrees around 8:30 on a Friday night, but I don't know if you could walk in anyway -- for either place, you must make your way past a velvet rope and uniformed master of ceremonies (just decide it is fun and go with it). I don't know if they ever accept walk-ins even if there are seats empty.
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El Bulli
Spain , ES›14 Replies-
re: savagehenry
Fantastic report. Thanks, savagehenry. I'll be going there solo (both Tickets, then 41 degrees) in a couple of weeks.
Do you suggest asking for a seat facing the kitchen at Tickets? I do love chef's tables. Also, at 41 degrees, can I get away with just ordering drinks since I've just eaten a meal at Tickets? Or should I try some small snacks that aren't available/eaten at Tickets? Thanks.
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re: deepfry7
I think you could just have a couple cocktails no problem, when we were there lots of people seemed to be just drinking. That said there is not complete overlap between the snacks at 41 Grados and Tickets and our server was very helpful in pointing out which dishes were the same or similar and what was unique.
If you like chef's tables definitely see if they will seat you at the bar in front of the kitchen, it's not exactly a chef's rail, there is gap of about a meter between the bar and the kitchen where the servers work but you can see a lot of what's going on, especially if you are at the left end of the bar.
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re: savagehenry
Terrific review, and some nice pre-scouting got our visit in early October. Regrettably I only managed a reservation at 41. Being on the west coast of Canada was a distinct disadvatafe for trying to secure Ticket reservations. Good system but the time zones suck.
Anyone with any experience at getting something last minute at Ticket? We have a 10pm at 41 so maybe we get lucky? Maybe drop by earlier in the day?
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re: BadGonesYVR
Don't worry, there is plenty of good food on the menu at 41. We stuck with snacks as we needed to manage the total consumption for the evening, and our server suggested we avoid things that were also on the Tickets menu. Your server will be able to recommend a great meal at 41.
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re: nycreba
There must be a more scientific approach, but I would just check out the site at various times of day (and night) to see when a new date opens. For example, right now December 23 is that last date that had been opened for reservations (but looks like it's booked up already). I would just keep checking back to see when the 24th appears (well, maybe best to wait until January dates open up at this point, as they may just be closed over Christmas) ...... and so on, until you narrow down what time of day new dates seem to open up. It looks like 41 Degrees is comparatively much easier to get into (you could get in tomorrow night if you wanted), and that would be a worthwhile experience in its own right. But if you can find a time at Tickets, you really should.
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re: savagehenry
Thanks, and thanks @BadGonesYVR...it looks like tickets is closed the week after Xmas (at least according to their hours of operation tab...) but hopefully I'll be able to snag something, at exactly midnight Barcelona time, for the first week in January.
If not, drinks at 41 degrees shall suffice but yes - I'd like the "whole" experience...for obvious reasons. Will keep checking in...thanks for the response.
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re: nycreba
Apparently it's 90 days. So when it turns midnight in Barcelona, foodies from all over the world log onto the Tickets reservation system and snap up the 100 spots they make available. Seriously.
The only time I ever saw available was for 7:30 on a Tuesday ... which in all honesty had "tourist loser" written all over it. I'm sure it's an amazing place, but I have a real tough time with all the prestige associated with a reservation. I'm not in any way knocking anyone who wants to done here badly enough that they'd take such an early spot (despite my "loser" remark). It's just not for me.
Really looking forward to 41, and the rest of Barcelona. 5 more sleeps!
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re: nycreba
Just fyi...my reservation is in late November at Tickets. I was trying to change my ressie from Tickets to 41º as I will be going to Tickets on a different ressie now, joining others. I received the response in quotes below as the answer to my question.
"We cant change the reservation because 41º after the 20th of october change the concept of the restaurant.
You´ll see all the information in our website."
Nothing on their website yet and I see no reservations open for after October 20th either. I'm curious to what the concept change is!
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I'm in the same boat as well (visiting mid-Sept). You can check out what Tickets is like in the recent El Bulli episode of No Reservations. Tony Bourdain and company check out Tickets.
DO NOT skip Tickets. It's the hardest reservation to get in Barcelona (that I know of). I think the better option is to go to 41 Degrees after Tickets for a couple of post-dinner drinks. That's what I'm leaning towards doing (since I have an early Tickets reservation). But I'll wait for the other Chowhounders who know better to agree or disagree with that statement.
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Wow, heading to BCN tomorrow and when i read your thread title I assumed it was a weather report because I know it has been hot lately in this area! We did do 43 degrees C once in Oman so this was not too far off the map. Global warming and all that.
Glad to learn 41 degrees is the name of a restaurant and not the outside temperature. We will be looking for breakfast around the Hotel Pulitzer off Plaza Catalunya. Three days to do it right.
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