Barcelona Restaurant review -
A little known Japanese Restaurant

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Barcelona is on the shores of the mediterranean sea making sea food a specialty. This could explain why Barcelona has seen a fair number of new Japanese restaurants appearing around the city. The basic ingredients for Sushi is readily available here - freshly caught fish.

This month I went to the Nagano Japanese restaurant with some Catalan friends seen in the pictures to the right. The Nagano serves excellent sushi and because the tourists don't know about this place (yet) you'll get good service, fabulous food at competitive prices.

Ambiance

Perhaps one reason why the tourists haven't found this restaurant yet could be that it's on Av Paral.lel which has little in the way of tourist attractions apart from Plaça España at one end and Columbus Monument (Mirador de Colom) at the other. Av Paral.lel is a busy uninteresting road - but the good news is the Av Paral.lel metro stop is only 10 minutes from the heart of the city centre so you won't have far to go. And if all you are interested in is enjoying fine Japanese cuisine does it really matter what road it's on once you're in the restaurant?

The first thing I noticed about the interior of the Nagano is the attention to detail. You get a real feeling of entering the orient when you go through the doors. The lighting and surroundings are a perfect setting to enjoy sushi. If you book in advance you can even reserve the small part of the restaurant that has floor seating.

During the weekends and evenings for weekdays you pay the standard rates for dishes however if you go at lunch time during the weekdays the price for your meal will be roughly half price. This promotion is popular in Spain and is called Menu del Dia (Menu of the day). It is obligatory for restaurants in Spain to offer a menu del dia. As an e.g. the price of a standard course at the Nagano is around €13.00. However the same meal as menu del dia is only €7.80.

If, however you want to sample a restaurant's finest cuisine it's recommended to eat out in the evening. Most restaurants cannot afford to provide their finest cuisine at menu del dia prices.

I ordered a fixed menu that had miso soup as the starter - it was delicious. For the second dish we had a Japanese salad. The salad comes with a traditional Japanese salad dressing that is quite sweet. This was already on our salad when it was served. One of my friends found it a little too sweet for her tastes. I recommend that your request that the salad be served without the dressing so that you can add it separately.

The next courses were salmon for me and sushi dishes for my friends Eva and Loli.

For drinks we tried out the Japanese beer - which was particularly refreshing.

By the time we had finished our courses we were feeling quite satisfied and really didn't need a dessert.

All in all we had a good meal and the price was around €15.00 per person including the drinks which is excellent. A similar meal like this in London would cost around €60.00.

Summary If you want to try some fresh sea food, Japanese style and at an affordable price, I can highly recommend the Nagano.

Nagano

67 Av Paral.lel Barcelona, España
Metro: stop Paral.lel (Green Line, L3)
Restaurant is about 5 minutes walk from the metro.