Mog is a new restaurant on Muntaner. Its wine-coloured interior accents and the exposed red brick wall at the back nod to its serious love affair with natural wine.
The chalkboard menu is so succinct my lunch date assumes they are the specials—eleven mains and starters combined with two sides and one dessert. The edited menu makes sense when we bite into our crunchy beef curry croquetas (13€). Which by the way is a misnomer for this dish. Don’t get me wrong, I love croquetas but these crispy flattened orbs are more similar to falafel. Especially as they are served at Mog with a tangy salsa of sorts a confetti of coriander, shards of diced tomato and onion.
When the mussels (17€) come, served in a deep dish with pink flowers painted on the rim like my grandmother used to have we know the starter isn’t a fluke. The mussels sit half in a vibrant limey green curry. Next the Goan fish curry (17€) tender pieces of fish in red curry. At this point, we ask for a couple of deep bowls to get at all the curry.
Mog Ka Prao (17€) is a dish of spicy mince and mushrooms with a raw egg yolk on top which is mixed in to enrich the dish. It’s the least special of the lot so far.
All the while we are being attended by Raul whose restaurant this is and a young woman comes in from the kitchen intermittently. Rachel, Raul’s sister. These two handsome siblings combine their obvious talent to create a convivial atmosphere with food that tastes home-cooked. It lands that way too, bearing none of the restaurant food aftermath – realizing it was too salty or too greasy. At Mog, the flavours are complex and morish without the residual heaviness.
The one dessert, the coco creme brule, flavoured with pandan leaf is spectacular. We coral the charming Rachel who tells us that she prefers the kitchen to the front of the house. After chatting for a while she shyly offers us a scoop of Cardamom ice cream that she has planned as a topping to another dessert. It is cool and Michelin star smooth.
Delightful. I know that next time I will ask for the deep bowl from the beginning, to better enjoy every last drop of Rachel’s recipes.
Mog Restaurant
Muntaner 190
instagram.com/mogbarcelona
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