Saturday, February 3, 2007

Restaurant Review: Chic from Barcelona

Chic And Run

By The Law Reviewers of The Law Reviewers

By the time you read this it will be 2007. Hover cars will have replaced your old-fashioned "auto-mo-biles." The Metroplex Cowstars will have won the Legend Air Jello Pudding Pop SuperCupSeries, led by Chan Ho Romo-bot 3000, whose smile was set on repeat after the game. The coach of the Cowstars, Chad Hutchison, will have taken a congratulatory call from President Federline. A good time will be had by all, as ordered by the Department of Homeland Spirits. Forgotten among all this excitement, however, will be the memory of our trip back in 2006 to Chic from Barcelona (at the northwest corner of Preston and Forest). You see, Chic from Barcelona was like a real trip to Barcelona; it was really pretty and had a nice vibe, but it was more expensive than you thought and after a few too many glasses of sangria your had a hard time converting the pesatas into Euros into dollars, your head started to hurt, the taxi driver dropped you off at the wrong hostel and… where were we? Oh yeah, reviewing a restaurant.

Chic is a great idea, no doubt the brainchild of genuine Spanish people with taste. The décor is definitely modern chic (hence the name, we guess), and the food concept is straightforward: let’s do only a few things, but do them well with some Spanish flair: Catalon rotisserie chicken, Magda style beef and some traditional tapas items. Well, they got the let’s do only a few things part right. The do it well part just needs a little more work. There are exactly three entrée items on Chic’s menu, the aforementioned chicken ($9.80), Magda style beef ($15.25), and turkey-stuffed canelons ($8.75). We tried the chicken and the canelons. The signature half-rotisserie chicken was pretty good. It’s served bathed in a generous amount of olive oil and rubbed with herbs. The accompanying baked apples are a nice touch, the chicken was tender and juicy and the herbs added a nice earthy quality to the meat. The turkey-stuffed canelons were smothered in bechamel sauce that tasted more like gravy and was fairly bland. If chicken off the bone isn’t your thing, shredded rotisserie chicken is available on a salad ($6.85). The shredded chicken, romaine lettuce and olive oil was, unfortunately, as they say over yonder in Catalonia, aburrido y sin inspiración (boring and uninspired – thanks Google translator!). The Madga style beef is described on the menu as “thin slices of beef tender marinated with white truffle oil. What a powerful taste!” Without trying it, we described it as “what a powerful way to spend $15 on thin slices of beef!” And don't forget to visit www.lawreviewers.com – what a powerful way to waste several hours!

chicbarcelona.com

Chic bar

Appetizers and the tapas dishes are the better way to go here. The potatos bravas ($4.50) were on par with the other more traditional tapas restaurants in town, and were smothered in a spicy red sauce. Red piquillo peppers ($4.50) swam in more olive oil, but had a nice tangy taste nonetheless. The best decision we made on our visit was to pair the peppers with the pan con tomate ($3.75), a sort-of Spanish version of bruschetta, and topped with optional manchego cheese ($7.75 extra). Without the manchego on top, the bread looks pretty ordinary, but the cheese adds a nice nutty element and smooth texture to make it a more interesting dish. The best of the three desserts ($5.95 each) we tried was the tart and sweet lemon sherbet, but the other two weren't especially noteworthy.

Service was demur, if not a little slow and quiet (the waiter practically whispered to us). The whole experience was a little disappointing compared to what we expected, especially given the final bill of $22 for each person. We give Chic points for being something new and different on the Dallas scene, but, much like our AAdvantage miles, those points are really hard to redeem and just end up going to waste because you have to book the flight at least five years in advance. On our famous, traveling around Europe after the bar exam five-gavel scale, with five gavels being a trip with a bunch of Australian co-eds on an overnight train that left Munich station at midnight after a day at the Oktoberfest fairgrounds, and one gavel being one of those French toilets that’s just a hole in the floor, we give Chic from Barcelona 3 gavels, or a pricey Spanish meal served in Dallas, Texas.

Pegasus News content partner - The Law Reviewers

Related stories

• Dining out in Dallas: Best restaurant reviews of 2007 (Dec. 28, 2007)

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• Food and Drink > Dining / Restaurants

Comments

Michael Anderson Verified

Thanks Italian Wine Guy! We pride ourselves on using only organically grown and humanely treated words in our reviews. We feel strongly that words like "demur", "texture" and "scrumdiddiliumptious" have been abused for far too long by reviewers like ourselves, and we're just trying to do our part to give these words the dignity and context that they deserve.

Sincerely,

The Law Reviewers

1 year, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )