Black Lab Beer & Asian food, Barceloneta

I found a quirky brewery – Black Lab Brewery – serving American Asian food recently. Well technically, they found me, when they followed my Instagram feed. I checked their feed and was surprised at how cute their place looked, then I google mapped it and was intrigued by their central location (next to Museu d’Història de Catalunya), lastly I checked their Facebook page which boasted 1,500 likes and 5 blue stars.

I packed the family in to the car and we were there when it opened at 12:30 for lunch on Saturday. The server was still mopping up the floor (see how shiny it looked) when we walked in.

It’s an enormous space in a great position, and the look of the place is impressive with great choices for chairs and tiles. The colourful bunting flag lends an air of festivity to the place.

Plus Asian / American? Instantly I conjure David Chang and the pork belly in steamed buns (which I have had the pleasure of eating at Ssäm bar on a couple of occasions).

There are a few things I like the sound of and want to eat on the menu but their positioning within the menu seems muddled. In appetizers there is an Oxtail Ramen soup (€10) which sounds (and when it is served to us definitley looks) like a main course. Then there are beer battered fries (€5) and Granny’s pickles (€5) which I would stick in the sides.

I am with the man and the kids so we order with abandon; Oxtail Ramen soup (€10), Granny’s pickles (€5), fries (€5), summer rolls (€6), pork belly buns (€7) and then two main courses of Straight Up Burgers with cheese (€9.50 + €1) and a Pale Ale Chicken sandwich (€8).

There is a lot of overlap – we’ve ordered fries but they come with the burgers and the sandwich. The cauliflower and cucumber pickles are present in the chicken sandwich and they are the most successful of Granny’s selection anyhow. The soup is gigantic and should be exported to main courses ASAP. Everything is nice enough, the pork belly buns and fries in particular. The burgers are a total miss, pale, unseasoned meat with a bland seeded bun that is doing nothing to enhance the experience. I want to send these guys over to Big Al’s in Sitges to witness a burger and accompanying bun of beauty.

I know next to nothing about craft beer but we try both house brewed options; the amber rye ale and the dry stout which we enjoy.

My verdict is; there are some glitches on the menu and with a few of the dishes. However they are present for the best of reasons because this is possibly a first venture for the group (a sister and brother from Galicia of Chinese origin and an American partner according to MiniGuide). I am confident that those few wrongs will quickly be set right, not least because Black Lab has only been open for a month and it takes a good 6 months for even a professional team to get into the groove.

See this and find more addresses on my Foodie in Barcelona Map

Black Lab Brewery
Palau de Mar
Placa Pau Villa, 1
08039 Barceloneta
www.blacklab.es
www.facebook.com/BlackLabBCN